Security Question

User45701

Sry if this is the wrong forum please move if you want.
This is one of those **** mood question/rambles btw

Say one writes a film script ok, and before one goes to try and make it you show the script and such.

What security do you have?
In my old job there was a relay sound guy who used to write movie scripts they where very good ideas and well written as well. He showed them to one or 2 of us at work and we read them whenever we had free time.

My question is this what security do you have if you write a script/idea for a movie and then you show it to someone involved in movies and they steal the idea on you.... What way could you prove it was yours besides walking around with a video camera when you first go to show the script as proof that its your idea?

I don't know relay i just have trust issues and would not feel like i can trust someone if i send or show them my idia/script.

I used to do a good bit of game modding but u see i don't like working with others especially over the net i have fears of them betraying me and steeling some of the work and claiming it as there own. What if that where to happen with your script?

BlitzKrieg

My question is this what security do you have if you write a script/idea for a movie and then you show it to someone involved in movies and they steal the idea on you.... What way could you prove it was yours besides walking around with a video camera when you first go to show the script as proof that its your idea?

The most simple way to ensure security is to put a copy of your work into a envelope and mail it to yourself.

the post office will date the envelope etc. When it arrives DO NOT open it.

Voila. Keep that and if ever the issue of rights come up over your work present that envelope to the authorities as proof the script was yours because it is unopened and dated with your name on it. When it is opened in court it will prove that you wrote the script first.


course thats only if they have lifted entire scenes from you. If all they stole was the *idea* (i.e a film about chipmunks.) and very little else is common between your script and theirs...then it gets a bit more difficult (though still having a copy of the original in an envelope unopened still helps if it goes to court.)

Goodshape

I'm pretty sure I remember hearing that the old 'mail it to yourself' routine doesn't stand up in court.

If you think about it, it would be fairly easy to mail a load of unsealed envelopes to yourself, get them stamped, and then put the script in and seal it up at a later date.


Maybe you could go to a Garda station and get an official wittiness when you're sealing the envelope.

Mr Marenghi

Yeah the mailing thing doesn't work. In college they said this was the way to ensure copyright.

About a yr after I finished I was working on something and got talking to a well known feature producer who was on set.

He was asking me what i'm interested in etc, and the first thing he brought up in termns of advice was to not rely on the mailing thing, it doesn't stand up in court.

He also said there's no definitive rule on what to do, just that that one definitley doesn't work.

User45701

thanks for the responses people.
I suppose you could go into a shop with a digital camera and then record yourself picking up and buying a copy of todays news paper, then record you putting the news paper with the script into a large envelope and then sending it to yourself though registered post, that way there is proof that it is yours because of the recording.

Would this work?

Diogenes

Yeah and what if you have a friendly newsagent, who slips an old newspaper from several years or months ago, at the top of the pile, and viola.

Sorry that doesn't work either.

Surefire way? Give a sealed copy to your solicitor, get it notorised that he took possesion of it on that day.

BlitzKrieg

Could you pop over to the garda station and have a Garda at the desk sign and stamp the actual script then put it in a sealed envelope etc?

Surefire way? Give a sealed copy to your solicitor, get it notorised that he took possesion of it on that day.

That is the best way, but if your like me (and without a solicitor at the moment) there could be other ways?

Sorry about earlier, like someone pointed out, its what people are told in college to do (the envelope trick) but it seems it doesnt apply to the real world. I must note that.