Rights and Copyright

What’s the proper protocol in terms of writing a joke into
your script? I frequently hear jokes in movies that I’ve heard from friends
before the movie
came out. Is it public domain and it needs no clearance or should it still
be researched just in case it has roots from a standup comic’s copyrighted
routine?

–Anup

Stand-up comics write their material, and written material is subject to copyright.
But at a certain point, some jokes circulate out in the popular culture enough
that I would argue they’re essentially public domain. But then again, I’m not
a jury, so don’t take my advice as gospel.

If you can’t find a source for a joke, and you’ve heard it enough times and
enough different ways that you feel it’s graduated to cultural meme status,
you can probably get away with putting it in your script. Then the only question
becomes, if you’ve heard it so many times, is it still original enough to be
worthy of your script? Nothing is less funny than a joke that’s been played
out.

I’m a screenwriting student at The University of Texas. Several
classmates of mine have obtained representation, and gone on to sell scripts,
by writing
shorts that other classmates made and showed at festivals and special alumni
screenings. I’ve written and made one of my own, but it includes a total of
twenty seconds of copyrighted footage taken from three major motion pictures.
I don’t have permission to use any of the footage, but I don’t want to cut
it unless I have absolutely no other choice. If I have no intention to sell
my short, or win money at festivals, and only intend it to get someone to look
at my other work, do I have to cut the 20 seconds?

–Scott

First off, I’m a big believer in copyright, without which the American film
industry could never exist. Copyright law allows companies to feel secure investing
millions of dollars in movies, knowing that if someone tries to steal the finished
product, the U.S. and other governments will step in.

That said, just do it. Especially with a short film, the consequences for
trampling someone else’s copyright are not that dire. Since you’re a student,
and probably broke, it’s not like 20th Century Fox is going to sue you for
your life’s savings.

A friend of mine wrote the short film ERNEST
AND BERTRAM, which was a very
funny version of THE CHILDREN’S HOUR, featuring Ernie and Bert from Sesame
Street. Children’s Television Workshop (CTW), the makers of Sesame Street,
went ballistic, largely because it portrayed Ernie and Bert as closeted gay
lovers.

Long story short, the film played at a bunch of film festivals, and got good
notice for the filmmakers, who eventually had to sign something with CTW that
promised the movie would never be publicly exhibited again. Which is a shame,
because it’s very good. But everyone knew going in that there was a risk, and
it was definitely worth it.

Copyright-wise, that’s pretty much the worst-case scenario for a short film.
So I say try it. Just make the best short you can.

To what extent can a character quote, sing the lyrics, or
hum the tune of a song without rights or permission being attained?

–Trevor

Ultimately, that issue would have to be addressed by whoever’s handling the
legal affairs for the movie. Believe me, it will come up when it needs to.

For your purposes in writing a screenplay, don’t worry about it. Don’t footnote,
don’t asterisk, don’t put a special note in the script. You can leave it as
simple as:

• Max is WHISTLING the "Bewitched" theme when a pitbull suddenly
  attacks his car.

If it’s especially important to show the lyrics of a song, put them in a character’s dialogue block. Remember that sung words are generally italicized.

As a budding screenwriter,
I’ve sent something away to be copywritten. Since it’s been sent out, I’ve
made a few minor changes to it, including changing a character’s name and deleting
a scene. Is it possible to make changes to the registered screenplay, and still
have it protected without having to send in the new draft?

–Matt

"Copywritten" seems like it should be a word, but it isn’t. The
problem is the "written" part. Copyright actually has nothing to
do with the process of writing. It’s a legal protection on a piece of intellectual
property that can be transferred, sold or bartered. Columbia Pictures owns
the copyright to GO, even though they didn’t write it.

The word you’re looking for is "copyrighted." Based on the lawsuits
we all read about, in which rap stars get sued for copyright violations after
sampling three seconds of a song, it’s understandable that you want to be hyper-vigilant
about copyright.

Vigilant is not the same thing as paranoid, however, which is what you’re
being.

Copyright is actually a fairly broad protection of intellectual property;
that is, an idea and its execution. Changing a character’s name or deleting
a scene doesn’t fundamentally alter your work, and wouldn’t fundamentally alter
your ability to protect it.

How much needs to change to make re-registering your script worthwhile? That’s
obviously going to depend on the project. If you rewrote the last act so that
the big action climax takes place on the space shuttle rather than a yacht,
then sure, maybe that’s worth re-registering. But if your rewrite just changes
some dialogue and fixes typos, then forget about it. While such tweaking hopefully
makes your script better, it doesn’t change anything in the grand scheme of
things.