“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 100% 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 can damn well steal your idea and modify it just enough to get away with it … if they 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 possible 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 fully believes he was the original writer of the Chrismas movie Jingle All the Way and that his idea was stolen.  (And it seems that way to me too.) 

When I interviewed him about it, he told me 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. Not just a few… but ALL of them. 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. But it was appealed and, sadly, years later, the case was overturned and he got nothing.

This legitimate fear of having your work stolen is a common fear that holds newbie screenwriters back. So let’s dig into this and find out if this fear of having your work stolen is founded or not — and really what the likelihood is? 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.  That’s why they often have very strict “no unsolicited submissions are accepted” policies — because they get sued to often even when they ARE innocent.  Not to mention the fact they would gets tens of thousands of scripts from writers if they took them directly, ao agents and managers serve as a vetting process also… as they begin matching it up with a possible star or name director.

Consider the example of a very newbie writer — maybe psycho — writer thinks their idea has been stolen and how much turmoil that can have when it’s not even remotely true… It’s so crazy how far it goes, that a writer who was a bit cray-cray when I wrote a script that had the word Psychic” in it and he had written a how to pamphlet on becoming psychic — I don’t even know that I ever read it, but he threatened to sue me because the word “Psychic” was in the title — and I don’t even produce movies.

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.

Take this wild example: years ago, I was hired by a producer to write a script called Psychic Seduction. Totally legit job. When I mentioned this on some marketing promo I was doing, some guy I had spoken to at one point—who had previously sent me an unsolicited pamphlet (not a script, a pamphlet) on how to become psychic—lost his mind. He theatened to sue me if he found out I had stolen his idea. Why? Because both our titles had the word “psychic” in them. Never mind that his was a DIY manual and mine was a romantic thriller. For him, it was very serious — because we used the same word in the title. And I don’t even produce movies. I was hired to write.

Now, if a small business like Smart Girls—who isn’t even producing films—is getting legal threats over a shared word in a title, just imagine what the big studios deal with. Nonstop. And that, right there, is one of the main reasons studios won’t even glance at an unsolicited script. They’re not interested in fending off ten crackpot lawsuits a day. They will let agents deal with that and vet them first… and even agents don’t want to deal with it so they go by referrals of people they know… so you see why it is tough to GET YOUR SOMEONE IN HOLLYWOOD to READ YOUR SCRIPT. (It’s not impossible, mind you, but it is tough!)

One final point before I address the viability of the 5 ways people say you can protect your script. Writers need to understand: 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.

Think of it like you telling a friend that someone should come up with a way for cars to run on air, and then someone creates that invention next week. Then you say “that was my idea.” You have no recourse. You had the idea, but they executed it.

An idea alone 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 let’s look at some of the ways people think they can protect their story and whether it actually does protect it or not.

1. Am I protected if I register my script with the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA)?

When you complete a strong treatment or at the end of your first draft, go ahead and register your script with the Writer’s Guild. It is fairly cheap so you can also register it again when you have a major revision if you like. The WGA keeps it on file for around five years.  This is good to serve as a legitimate record of the script being at a certain place of development at a certain period 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 as it may change from time to time.)

Does this protect you?  Again, think of it as another piece of evidence to try to make your case that someone stole your movie should it come to that.  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, just like when you rewrite.

If your script was stolen and was the basis of that movie, proving it was stolen becomes increasingly difficult as they make more and more changes in the natural flow of development.  

So filing a copyright is not enough to prove your case on it’s own, but if you have this record at a certain time, then it’s better to have the record to support your case than not.  It’s one more bit of evidence to support your case. In Brian Webster’s case with Jingle All the Way, they asked him in court how he came up with the idea. He told exactly how he came up with the idea… and I would think that having a copyright to show the script would be valuable.

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 documentation you have, the better, if a case ever comes up. You could even keep your tickets stubs to the event, anything that shows you spoke to that person and so on. 

When you do a query letter mailing through Smart Girls, part of your package includes a report listing the people you’re sending to, the company, address, email, 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 adds 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 signing off on giving them the right to steal your script! You’re not but gee, it does sound like it! But the bottom-line is you either sign it or they won’t read it.

The release is designed to protect them against crazy frivolous lawsuits. But 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.

So there you have it.  While none of these ways to try to protect your work are absolute, hopefully you have a better idea of what you’re dealing with.

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 will probably be stolen if you become a professional writer… at least it sure will seem like it.  It’s a fact of Hollywood and the screenwriter’s life…. So just keep writing your screenplays, do what you can to protect your work, and then get it out there!

For the record, 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 a targeted list of production companies for you to send your awesome screenplay to!