John August

Rights and Copyright

Spoofs in your script

QandA, Rights and Copyright

I have a question about copyright. I just finished writing
a comedy script which I would like to get made, but in the script I have involved
some slight spoofs
of other films and a few references. What I would like to know is does this
infringe on the copyright? The references and spoofs are indirect and only
take up parts of the film, but I don’t want to make a film then find out I’m
being sued
by everyone. Please help.

–Bunmi

Usually, I’d write up a lengthy explanation of copyright law as I understand
it, which although hopefully entertaining would probably be grossly inaccurate.

So I’ll just give my opinion instead.
You can’t go through life afraid of being sued. If your script is funny, and
part of the reason is because of references and spoofs of other movies, then
you obviously don’t want to remove them. So don’t. I guarantee, no one is going
to sue you just for typing them in your script.

If someone buys your script and makes it, maybe the copyright owners of the
original movies will sue, but I seriously doubt it. There’s a long tradition
of movies parodying each other, and it would be hard to prove any actual damage
or wrongdoing.

Besides, at that point, it’s not your problem. Any lawsuit is going to be
directed at the big rich studio, not the measly underpaid writer. There would
probably even be language in your contract with the studio protecting you just
in case.

So while I can’t say that you’re absolutely, 100 percent safe, I can assure
you that your time is better spent writing funny scenes than worrying about
lawsuits.

More copyrights and changes

Dead Projects, QandA, Rights and Copyright

How important is it to have your screenplay registered through the US copyright
office? And if you do get it registered, what happens if you add more scenes
later on?

–Ben Goldblatt

Officially, yes, you should copyright your screenplay (with the little "c" symbol,
name and date) on the title page, and then send it in to the U.S. office, a
procedure you can probably find on-line. And if you make major revisions, you
should probably re-register the whole thing.
Unofficially, nobody does this. Sometimes you’ll see the copyright symbol
on a script, but most of the time you won’t. And none of my writer friends
regularly send in their work to be "officially" copyrighted.

Although it’s not really the same thing, most writers I know do register their
scripts with the Writer’s Guild in Los Angeles, a painless procedure
that can occasionally help if your idea is blatantly stolen. But the truth
is that "someone might steal my idea" is more often the fear of an
aspiring writer who’s never put pen to paper than of a working screenwriter.

I’m ragging on it, but sometimes copyright becomes very important. For instance,
when a script is sold, what the studio is really buying is the copyright. (Or
the right to copyright.) I’m currently adapting BARBARELLA, a project to which
four different studios were claiming copyright. It’s taken the legal teams
more than a year to sort out who really owns what, since two of the original
French comic books were already made into a movie.

The process of determining copyright is called "clearing the chain of
title," and it’s often used as the answer to "Why haven’t they paid
me my money yet?"

Bob Marley

QandA, Rights and Copyright

Why has no one ever considered making a movie of Bob Marley ?

–J. Quin

They have. Back when I was a terrified assistant at Oliver Stone’s production
company, one of the executives was negotiating for the rights to "Catch
a Fire," Timothy White’s biography of Marley. I know there were several
Bob Marley projects in development at some time-I’m sure at least one had Denzel
Washington attached-but none of them have made it to the screen yet.

Making a bio-pic of a musical icon can be tough for a few reasons. First,
you have to get the artist’s music rights, because without the recognizable
songs, what’s the point? Second, you need to find an actor who can pull off
the role, which for Marley could be tricky.

Finally and most importantly, you have to figure out what the cinematic story
is. Sadly, people’s actual lives don’t break down into three convenient acts with rising action and a winning combination of humor and pathos. (For that,
see "Behind the Music," which shoehorns everything into the same "…and
then drugs came into the picture" template.)

Real life is messy and tangled, with false starts and contradictory motivations.
Assuming you died today (a safe bet, since most rock stars die young), how
would your ghost write the story of your life? I suspect it would be hard to
pull out any overall themes or structure, and you know yourself better than
you know Bob Marley.

Despite these obstacles, I’m certain someone will figure out how to make a
Bob Marley movie. Maybe it will be you.

Optioning your book

QandA, Rights and Copyright

I have submitted a book to a producer. This is my first book,
but they are wanting to make it. What can I expect as far as monetary compensation
for the
rights to the story being that I am an unknown author?

–Alma

The short answer is, not a lot. The long answer is more complicated.

When a producer buys the rights to a short story or book, usually what is
being purchased is the option on the rights. What this means is that the producer
is buying the right to buy the rights at a later time. He’s saying, "I’m
gonna pay you $1000 today. In exchange for that $1000, you promise you won’t
sell anyone else the rights during the next twelve months. Also, any time during
these twelve months, I can pay you $25,000 and you’ll sell me all the film
rights to the book."

In this example, $1000 is the option price, and $25,000 is the full purchase
(or buyout) price. But those are completely arbitrary numbers. Often the option
price is just $1. Sometimes the full purchase price is $1 milllion. And the
length of the option can vary as well, from six months up to two years or more,
perhaps with a clause allowing the producer to renew the option at fixed price.

In short, the dollars and dates can be anything, but the basic structure of
the deal is the same.

By why does a producer bother with an option? Why not just put down the full
purchase price at the start?

Because it’s a risk. Lots of things can and will go wrong in the process of
trying to make a movie, and the less a producer has to put down up front, the
safer it is. And in many ways, an option protects the original writer as well.
If the producer isn’t able to get the project made, the option expires and
the writer gets all claim back to her work. She even gets to keep the money.
She can set up the book with a different producer and do the whole thing all
over again.

So how much can you, Alma, hope to make from the book this producer wants
to buy? Unless there are a lot of other buyers interested in it, nothing is
going to drive the price up. And since you don’t have any track record of being
paid a certain amount for your work – what’s called a quote – there’s really
no minimum to expect.

At this level, you should expect a low option price, with the possibility
of a bigger full purchase price. I can’t see any advantage to selling out all
rights to the book at this point, because you’d then be giving this producer
the rights forever, and for not a lot of money.

In this situation, you’re mostly just dealing with how much faith you put
in this producer to get the movie made.