“I’m afraid someone will steal my script. I’ve worked so hard on it and it’s really unique. I would be devastated if it got stolen. ”
First, let me say this. I originally wrote this article some years ago about the ways that screenwriters try to protect their screenplays. A handful of writers got angry about what I wrote because the things I mentioned are not “full protection,” so I’m updating this article to make the punchline clearer.
In fact, let me start with the summary first since it seems that it was missed previously:
There’s basically no way to protect your screenplay from the thieves in Hollywood who want to steal it.
Was I trying to not be quite so direct about it? Yes, because I know that saying the truth so directly can be discouraging to aspiring writers. But several writers sent me messages yelling at me because there is no way to protect your work 100%. I’m updating this article to address that as clearly as I possibly can.
In case it wasn’t clear before… let me try to be extra clear now, repeat, and elaborate on what I wrote above:
The big business of Hollywood will damn well steal your idea and modify it just enough to get away with it … if they damn well choose to do so. And there won’t be a damn thing you can do about it.
If you speak to almost any professional screenwriter, they will tell you that their ideas or their scripts have been stolen and they have been cut out of the picture. AND… they accept this as a way of life and just try to get others made.
THIS… ladies and gentlemen…. is the sad, sad truth.
But don’t despair for long… there’s hope.
Although many ideas get stolen or borrowed from, many other screenplays do get optioned, sold, and produced. If you want a chance to sell your screenplay, you just have to do what you can to protect it, keep a paper trail of conversations you’ve had and where you sent it. Keep records as detailed as feasible so you could make your best case if it should come to pass that your idea was, in fact, stolen.
And the number on thing to do is to copyright your script with the U.S. Copyright office.
Now let’s take a look at how it really works.
Let’s look at the case of my client Brian Webster. He was the original writer of “Jingle All the Way.” His idea was stolen. He was sitting in the movie theatre with his kids, watching Jingle All the Way, when he realized they were saying his lines in the movie. That was the beginning of the lawsuit.
I’m not going into detail on that case here, but Google it and you can read a variety of articles on what happened… and then didn’t happen. Bottom line is that he won the case for millions of dollars in the lower courts. Then the case was overturned a few years later and he got nothing.
This legitimate fear of having your work stolen is a fairly common fear that holds newbie screenwriters back. Again, we ask, “Is this fear of having your work stolen founded?” But this time my answer is both “yes” and “no.”
“Yes” because many stories are in fact ripped off, as I described above.
But “No” because many writers think their story has been stolen when another story has just a few similar elements.
The reason so many production companies and studios require scripts to be submitted by an agent or manager is because there are a lot of crazy “writers” out there who want to sue them over stealing their idea because of some small similarity that has ZERO legitimate grounds. Even if the studio knows a case is ridiculous, they have to deal with it whenever a case is filed against them. Hence… “no unsolicited submissions are accepted.” Not to mention the fact they would gets tens of thousands of scripts from writers if they took them directly, and they would never get to read them. So agents and managers and such serve the purpose of vetting the scripts also.
Looking at the example I described above where a very naive — maybe psycho — writer thinks their idea has been stolen. Here’s how far out it goes… My company Smart Girls Productions does not produce movies. We help writers with their marketing and I critique screenplays.
However, years ago, I was hired by a producer to write a screenplay titled “Psychic Seduction.” When I announced this to my clients, an aspiring writer who had sent me an unsolicited pamphlet (not a script, mind you, but an instruction pamphlet on how to become psychic) threatened to sue me for stealing his idea. Yes, he thought I was stealing his idea because we both had the word “psychic” in our titles. Do you see how crazy people can be?
If a small office like Smart Girls who is not even producing movies gets threats of lawsuits, then it’s hard telling how many threats a studio deals with on a weekly basis – 99.9% of which are unfounded. That is another key reason they do not take unsolicited scripts.
One final point before I address the viability of the 5 ways people tout as ways to protect your script.
You cannot protect an idea, you can only protect the execution of it.
In other words, if you have a great idea for a story and you tell that idea to someone, you have no claim to that story whatsoever. Even if you write your version and they write their version — you still have no protection of the idea itself. It’s all about the execution of it.
It would be like you saying that someone should come up with a way for cars to run on air, and then someone creates that invention and you say “that was my idea.”
An idea is worth nothing – the value lies in the execution of the idea, the story itself — so it comes down to protecting the execution of your story, meaning the screenplay itself. The more of it you have expressed, the better.
Now I will address some of the ways people think they can protect their story and whether it actually does protect it or not and I will address these as questions.
1. Am I protected if I register my script with the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA)?
Go on and register your script with the Writer’s Guild when you complete a very strong treatment or at the end of your first draft. Then register it again when you have a major revision. The WGA keeps it on file for around five years. This is intended to be a legitimate record of the script being at a certain place of development at a certain time.
This registration is to protect you more in the realm of who gets the credit for writing, less so about who has the rights to it.
2. Am I protected if I register my script with the U.S. Copyright office?
When you register with the U.S. Copyright office, your script is protected under copyright law for 50 years or more. (See current copyright law.)
Does this protect you? Again, think of it as another piece of evidence to try to make your case with. As with every movie, when the film is done, there are naturally changes that occur on the set and in the editing room. With each change, it gets further and further away from the original script.
If your script was stolen and it was the basis of that movie, proving it was stolen becomes increasingly difficult. While getting a copyright is not enough to prove your case, then it’s better to have the record. It’s one more bit of evidence to support your case.
3. Am I protected if I mail my script to myself and keep the envelope sealed?
This is one of those ideas that’s been floated around for decades, but it’s an adamant no-go on the legal level. If you’re at the point where you are suing another company for potentially hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars, this does nothing for you.
4. Am I protected if I keep a paper trail tracking each and every company and person I interact with about my script?
A best practice is to keep detailed notes and track where your idea is traveling — noting the names and companies of everyone who reads it.
If you attend pitchfests or networking events, keep a log of who you pitch to, the name of the person, their position if you have it, their company, and the date.
The more information you have, the better, if a case ever comes up.
When you do a query letter mailing through Smart Girls, we give you a printed list of the people you’re sending to, the company, address, phone number and the individual’s name. We also put the DATE on the list. This alone would not be enough to prove that someone stole your idea, but it would add to the circumstantial evidence.
Unlike blind postings online, this is a paper trail on who sees your story. While it is not direct evidence, the more information you have to make your case, the better.
5. Am I protected if I sign their release which basically sounds like I’m signing over my rights?
If you’ve ever seen a release from a production company who wants to read your script, you know it seems like you’re giving them the right to steal your script. But the bottom-line is that you either sign it or they won’t read it.
Although the release is designed to protect them, it also adds protection for you as it’s an acknowledgement from them that they’re reading it — more documentation for your paper trail log.
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So there you have it. While none of these ways to try to protect your work are absolute, these are five ways to add evidence to your case should you need it.
But more importantly, don’t let the fear of having your work stolen keep you from marketing it or you’ll never have any chance of selling it.
Protect yourself the best you can. Keep a paper trail of where your story travels. Also, know that some of your ideas or some version of them or your screenplay will probably be stolen if you become a professional writer… or it will at least seem like it. It’s a fact of Hollywood and the screenwriter’s life…. Just keep writing your screenplays.
By the way, I am not a lawyer. The things I’ve written here are not legal advice. These are my opinions based on more than 20 years of working in Hollywood and speaking with hundreds of agents, producers, lawyers, and everyone else in the business.
If you’re ready to get your script out to Hollywood – even though you might be afraid of it being stolen — check out our Query Letter Service where we find 75 of the best production company targets for you to send your awesome screenplay to!
