Should I Register My Script With The Wga

28 Jun Should I register my script at the WGA or the Copyright Role? Why?

I am asked this question all the time. My reply is registration at the Copyright Office is much improve, and significantly more valuable. With apologies to my friends and colleagues who work at the WGA, I wouldn't bother registering at the WGA E or West, but I would have the fourth dimension to file a claim to copyright in the Copyright Office. Hither's why:

First, the script you seek to register is the culmination of hours and hours of enquiry, writing, revising, listening, and otherwise creating a valuable story. Bated from confirming that the story has a offset, a middle and an end, that the characters evolve, and the reader or viewer will care virtually the characters, the script needs to be protected from those who might take it from yous without permission. Given the investment made in creating the script itself, a proper final investment in protecting it, and providing the means to bring infringers to justice is important.

Registering at the WGAE, WGAW or Copyright Part will not foreclose someone stealing all or part of your work. Just as locking the doors and windows to your car when parking on the street does not guarantee the machine will non be stolen, information technology is the reasonable matter to exercise to protect your motorcar. Registering your work at the Copyright Office and including proper copyright notice on your work is the virtually you can do to protect your work if it is stolen.

The differences between the WGA registration and copyright registration are many.

Elapsing
- WGA. Registration at the WGA must be renewed every five years. If you don't renew your registration at the five-year mark, the copy held by the Guild will be destroyed, and and so the Guild will not be able to submit your piece of work as evidence in any Club-related or legal proceeding. https://www.wgawregistry.org/regfaqs.aspx#quest26
- CO. Copyright registration lasts for the life of the author(s) plus seventy years. If your script is unpublished, so the copyright office will retain the work for 120 years. If the script is published, the work will be retained for twenty years. For an actress fee, the Copyright Office will continue published works for the full term of copyright. https://world wide web.copyright.gov/circs/circ04.pdf
Fees
- WGA. The fee for a non-WGA fellow member to register a piece of work at the WGA is $25. A WGA member can register a work for $10. Renewals are required every five years. Only electronic filings are allowed, no paper filings are permitted.
- CO. In the Copyright Function, the fee to register a claim to copyright electronically is $45 if the work is by a single author, the copyright claimant is the same equally the author, the piece of work was not created as a work for hire, and the claim is for one piece of work. If any one of those qualifications are not satisfied, such as there are ii authors, the fee for registering electronically is $65. Newspaper filings are permitted, merely the fee is $125.

Legal Effect
- WGA. At the WGA, they state that registration would "potentially discourage others from using your work without your permission. … the Registry…can produce the registered material as well as ostend the date of registration . Registering your work creates legal evidence for the material that establishes a date for the fabric'south existence…." (Emphasis added.)
- CO. In the Copyright Office, the engagement a properly completed application is received by the Copyright Office, forth with the appropriate fee is the effective date of registration. Receipt of the certificate will happen in most four to six months. Certainly, the constructive date of registration volition establish the existence of the script on that date.
Filing a claim for infringement.
- WGA. If your piece of work is infringed, and y'all have a WGA registration, you must still file a merits to copyright before bringing a accommodate confronting the infringer. While for many years at that place was an open up question whether merely completing the awarding and filing suit after the awarding was completed, but before the certificate was issued would be sufficient, the United states Supreme Court cleared that up in 2019. The Supreme Courtroom held that the registration certificate must exist in hand before commencing the suit. Fourth Estate Public Do good Corporation five. Wall-Street.com, LLC, 586 US ___ (2019) (Docket No. 17-571).
- CO. If your piece of work is infringed, and y'all have a copyright registration document in hand, yous are holding the keys to the courthouse, and an infringement case may be brought. 17 USC 411(a). Still, if you elect not to file adjust in federal court, and instead elect to sue in the Copyright Claims Board ("CCB"), you lot demand not accept a registration certificate in mitt. Instead, the CCB will hear your case based upon a completed awarding. In either event, the CCB can award amercement of up to $30,000, for bodily or statutory damages, while a federal court tin can accolade an unlimited amount for bodily damages, and upwardly to $150,000 per infringement for willful statutory amercement. If you practise not annals your work inside 90 days of its authorized publication, the maximum damage award available under the CCB is limited to $seven,500. The CCB is expected to brainstorm working on December 27, 2021. https://world wide web.copyright.gov/about/small-scale-claims/faq.html
Event on Credit
- WGA. Nether the WGA Basic Agreement, if an employer engages a WGA member to write 1 of the drafts of a screenplay, all writers of all drafts of the screenplay are subject to the Credit Arbitration rules of the WGA, even if one or more such writers are non a WGA member. When the picture is completed, a notice of tentative writing credits must be circulated by the producer to all the writers. If there is an objection to the proposed credits, the Guild volition determine all the writing credits to exist issued on a movie. The WGA acknowledges that registration mostly does non help in determining writing credit. "All the same, if at that place is a dispute as to authorship or sequencing of textile by engagement, then registration may be relevant." https://www.wgawregistry.org/regfaqs.aspx#quest17
- CO. If the merely effect that WGA registration has on credit is clarifying the appointment a particular version existed, so copyright registration does the same thing. If a writer was engaged by a producer to create a screenplay, whether an original, revised, or polished screenplay, it would be very unusual for that screenplay to be annihilation other than a work made for hire, and the date of delivery of that version of the script would be clear.
Proper Notice.
- WGA. The WGA Bones Agreement, Article 37, provides for the content of a cover folio, with multiple writers, to include

Proper name of project

(Name of offset writer)

(Based on, if any)

Revisions by

(Names of subsequent writers, in society of work performed)

Electric current revisions by

(Current writer, appointment)

Proper name, address, and phone number of Visitor, if applicable.

CO. The Copyright Act does not require that a piece of work of original authorship include a copyright observe. Only including a proper copyright notice may deter an infringer from stealing the piece of work. Information technology is unlawful to remove a notice with intent to facilitate infringement. The presence of the notice volition also remove an infringer's defence of "innocent infringement" because the infringer was non aware of the owner's claim to copyright. 17 USC 401(b). An innocent infringer may not be subject field to statutory damages, if found to borrow.
- A proper copyright notice has three elements. Beginning, the C in a circle symbol ©, or the word Copyright or the abbreviation Copr. is one chemical element of the notice. The 2d chemical element is the yr of cosmos or publication, and third the name of the copyright owner. 17 USC 401 (b). The observe must be placed in a location on the piece of work to give "reasonable notice of the claim to copyright." 17 USC §401 (c). By simply adding a proper notice below the name accost and telephone number of the Company, significant protections are created for the owner. A sample discover appears at the end of this weblog post.

Surely, registration at the WGA is cheaper. Simply information technology is far less valuable, and just establishes the existence of the work on a particular date. The same thing will be established with a copyright registration certificate, and that certificate will be the keys to the courthouse in the unlikely and unfortunate outcome yous recollect your script is infringed.

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Marc Jacobson is an entertainment attorney in New York NY. He is admitted to do in NY, CA and FL, is the founding chairman of the NYS Bar Association Section on Amusement, Arts and Sports Law, and is listed in Best Lawyers in the United states of america, Chambers United states of america, and SuperLawyers. This blog outset appeared at the blog for the NYS Bar Association Section on Entertainment, Arts & Sports Constabulary. https://bit.ly/2STTekM