Writing

Hi Guys.

I am hoping that someone will be able to steer me in the right direction. I am currently in the process of writing a variety of projects some of which are almost finished. I do intend to workshop some or maybe all of the pieces. My question is to do with copyright etc.. How do I copyright material, cost and so forth. Secondly where or who is the apropriate outlet to approach regarding making my work come to life and hopefully make a few bob along the way? Seeing that I monitor this site on a daily basis, I know that you guys collectively will have some answers for me.

Gratefully yours....

Hi Gary,

I'm a little surprised no one else has yet come up with any advice for you. I have no experience in copyright, but I do have a friend (left that one open for you, Dean) who wrote and produced an original script last year. On the bottom of EVERY PAGE he had typed: "copyright (c) Fred Bloggs" and the date. Apparently, you MUST use the official copyright symbol (the letter "c" in a circle). He printed a full copy of his script, put it in a sealed envelope, mailed it to himself and DID NOT OPEN IT. By doing so, he had a complete copy of his work in a sealed envelope, stamped and dated by a recognised government authority (the Post Office). I have no idea if this information is valid, but if you want to do everything yourself, without going through an agent or lawyer, then I suppose it sounds reasonable.

As for making a few bob, look for a theatre group willing to produce your work. Charge reasonable royalties, or a percentage of the profits. As for finding a willing theatre group, I suppose you'd need some sort of far-reaching communications technique to advertise your product...

JB

Gary,

After having just studied copyright law at uni I feel I have an obligation to share my newly found knowledge with you
In order to get copyright on your work you need to comply with 4 requirements
1) The subject matter has to be wriiten down (which presumably you have done)
2) It must be a "work" (legal term that doesnt really mean much but covers all kinds of mediums including scripts)
3) It must be original (ie you didnt copy it)
4) There needs to be an Australian connection to obtain an Australian copyright (eg if your a citizen, you wrote it in Aust. etc etc)

Contrary to popular opinion the little (c) thing is not needed (sorry to reign on your parade there Jarrod) although if it makes you feel better you can put it on.
By simply writing the peice you would have optained copyright but it might also help if you wrote the date and place it was written somewhere on the script just to cover your ass

Hope this helps

Adam

Thanks Adam,

I knew that if I typed some drivel, someone with an enormous ...err... intellect would come along and correct me.

JB

Jarrod
I was going to try and include that EP joke in there somewhere for you but I thought that if I left it open you'd probably find a way of bringing it up:)
Thanks for not disappointing
(it vibrates too)

People with vivid imaginations, avoid reading the next sentence.

Since Gary, Jarrod & Adam are leaving everything 'open' (so-to-speak), I'll give my sad, uninspired, g33k view :

www.copyright.com

: it's pretty self-explainatory I reckon.