Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic U.S. Copyright question

My daughter has written a play that is going to be performed by her school next week. It has not been published anywhere yet, other than in the scripts she has handed out to the cast. But we think it has potential to be performed by other schools, and we'd like to protect the copyright. What is the best way to do this?

Anything put in a fixed form is automatically copyrighted. What registration gives you is that you can sue not just for actual damages (ie. all the money they've made off your work) but for statutory damages (ie. $X just for making copies even if they gave them away for free).

http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ01.pdf explains how to register. Registration costs $35 online.

C-mom, you should do a search on play publishers and find two or three which match the genre and age level of your daughter's play. (I suggest going to your local library and sitting down with the latest copy of the Writer's Guide.) Look for the company's submission guidelines (they're almost certainly on the Web somewhere) and follow them. If they choose to publish her play, the copyright will be reinforced by having the play published. They will also file the document (book, magazine, business catalog) containing the play with the copyright office in the course of doing business.

This way, if anyone buys her script from the publishing company, your daughter will get a percentage of the price. It wouldn't pay much, but it's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. And it might be a step for her in her career as a writer.

Mind you, the copyright is already in effect once the play is written, published or not. DCarson is right that filing gives you legal leverage in case someone tries to use it without your permission or claim it as their own work but doesn't actually establish copyright. (It used to work that way back in the day, but no longer.)

One thing you may want to do before releasing it to the public is to send a copy of the play to yourself by registered mail. Then don't open it. That way you have proof regarding the date the play was written in case someone else steals it and tries to claim they wrote it.