Update: Copyright and idea theft

In a post the other day about how easy it is to copyright original written material, David wrote this in comments?

How to copyright your script? Write it.

Any original work is your copyright the moment it’s done. Literally, as soon as your finger hits the key on your computer, your writing is copyrighted.

Registration systems (including the government ones) are simply a verifiable date-stamp, nothing more.

To clarify this point, here is a column by Jane Friedman which digs into the whole issue of idea theft:

Your work is protected under U.S. copyright law as soon as you put it in tangible form, whether it is kept on your computer, posted on your blog, or distributed wide and far (electronically or otherwise).

Your work doesn’t need to be formally published to be protected, and you do not have to display the copyright symbol on your manuscript to have it protected. (One of the reasons there is so much confusion surrounding this issue is that the law changed in the 1970s.)

Since your work is copyrighted from the moment you create it, the existence or validity of your copyright will not be affected if you don’t register the work with the U.S. Copyright Office. In fact, you can register the work after you find infringement and still be afforded all the protections as if you had registered it earlier.

But the larger issue — and one I’ve made before — is that the chances of someone successfully stealing, writing and selling your idea are extremely slim. More from Jane:

While I don’t advocate advertising your idea far and yon, or putting flashing lights around it on your blog, the chances that an agent, editor, critique partner, or stranger will:

(a) steal your idea (b) execute your idea better than you © AND be able to sell it

… are next to zero. It is not worth worrying about. Share your work with trusted advisers, send it to agents/editors for consideration, and talk about aspects of it on your blog. No problem.

The risks are minimal. That said, again as I have noted, if you have a story idea, the least you should do is write it up as a treatment before discussing it with anyone in Hollywood or outside your closest group of trusted contacts. Story ideas and high-concepts are the lifeblood of the film and TV industry. Best to have them tethered to something you wrote rather than floating around unattached.

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