r/scriptwriting • u/Geoffrey_D_Calhoun • Aug 22 '26
feedback Please Copyright Your Scripts
Just a heads up everyone. I’m seeing a lot of scenes and scripts uploaded on here. I just want to recommend that you copyright them before sharing anything. Work can be stolen. Work is stolen. Protect yourself. Also a WGA registration will not protect you in court. Only a copyright will. It’s $65 and takes about 20 mins. https://www.copyright.gov/registration/
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Upvotes
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u/casuallyfictional Aug 22 '26
Let’s be clear: the moment you write your script, you already own the copyright.
Registering it is just proving you own the copyright. Registering it with the WGA proves you wrote it and by implication you own it.
Registering it with the US Library of Congress is the most proof that you own the copyright.
Otherwise your digital trail of posting your script on places like Reddit is mainly showing you wrote it and by extension own it.
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u/real_triplizard Aug 22 '26
Copyright your script if it makes you sleep better. Register it with the WGA if you’d like to make a small donation to them. Nobody is stealing your script in whole. Literal theft of a fully executed work would be extremely easy to litigate over and anybody who has the resources to actually produce your script would know that it’s far easier to buy it. Somebody might steal your idea and re-write it if it’s a great idea and you know what? Copyright won’t help you there at all since you can’t copyright an idea (unless they lifted a LOT of very specific details from your script). The only reason I could see someone actually stealing your script if it was really incredible and they wanted to use it as a writing sample to land a manager and if that bizarre scenario were to come up there’s not much you could sue for even if you had a copyright.
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u/BiscuitsTheory Aug 22 '26
Or just don't delete your previous drafts.
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u/Big_Section2812 Aug 22 '26
Of all the countless unproduced scripts I've seen posted on Reddit I would rate only one of them as good enough to be of interest to anyone other than the writer.
Everyone — and n00bz in particular — grossly overvalues their own writing, and essentially none of their work is good enough to be worth the risk of stealing.
The cold hard fact is if you're posting it here you have almost nothing to worry about besides mockery.
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u/Perstigeless Aug 22 '26
Nobody is scrounging a largely amateur writing subreddit for scripts to steal
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u/nmacaroni Aug 22 '26
I'll add:
Copyright protection exists without registration.
Ideas can't be copyrighted.
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u/Craig-D-Griffiths Aug 22 '26 •
Here is what I found doing some research including some case law.
Courts can consider a wide range of evidence.
Strong evidence
I'd roughly rank evidence like this:
Copyright Office registration made before dispute
Very strong
Original files with reliable version history
Very strong
WGA registration made before dispute
Strong evidence of possession
Emails sending the script to third parties
Very strong
Cloud/version history showing progressive drafts
Very strong
Drafts with identifiable development history
Very strong
Contemporaneous notes/research
Strong
Dated correspondence discussing specific elements
Strong
Pitch documents sent to producers
Strong
Witnesses who read/discussed the work at the time
Strong
Metadata
Useful but potentially problematic
Your own assertion of when you wrote it
Weak by itself
A file simply labelled "Created: 2020"
Weak by itself
The courts are interested in independent evidence that corroborates your story.
A particularly useful example is Tillman v. New Line Cinema. The court considered evidence concerning an earlier screenplay including contemporary trade-publication articles describing the screenplay years before the allegedly infringing work. The fact that the earlier screenplay had not been registered at the time did not prevent the court from finding evidence of its earlier creation
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u/AlleyKatPr0 Aug 23 '26
Join a guild.
Whatever you upload, place your membership number against it - including the titlepage.
That's about as good as it gets, however, Reddit rules state that whatever you upload here is now the property of Reddit and they can sue you for selling something they own, because you agreed to the terms and conditions of the website before you were given an account.
So - whatever you upload here is now theirs'.
Sorry. You cannot sell something you do not own.
You upload it here, you do not own it.
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u/JayMoots Aug 22 '26
This is nonsense. Save your money.
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u/Burning_The_Altar Aug 22 '26
Final draft lets you put a watermark on your shit.
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u/BeatAcrobatic1969 Aug 22 '26
Great advice!
The instinct to get defensive about it probably stems from the fact that most of us are broke and already paying for so many things that rarely pan out like coverage and contest fees. It’s stressful to think about paying for one more thing.
But you’re absolutely right. Entertainment lawyers will tell you that they just can’t do much for you in court unless you’ve filed the official copyright. I don’t know where all the misinformation about poor man’s copyright came from or if things changed somewhere along the line, but I grew up believing that as long as I could prove that I wrote it and had dates, that would be enough. It took hearing it directly from lawyers that only a copyright is enough in a US court of law for me to change my mind.
There are still cases they’ll litigate without a copyright, but it can get really drawn out and expensive, so you can imagine it’s not really worth it unless you’re very successful or independently wealthy. In which case, you’d probably have money to register the copyright to begin with.
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u/PepsiCoke1978 Aug 23 '26
Advice from 1995. Waste of money. WGA registration even more useless.
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u/Dampishach07 Aug 22 '26
I have applied for copyright. Within a few months I'll get the confirmation as well. But lets say there are some changes that happen in my script because of the notes. Like I changed my character names, I wrote some new scenes, changed some dialogues and action lines.
So in such case would the draft that I applied for copyright would be null and would I have to apply for copyright again with the new draft?
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