« Misuse of Dictionaries in Patent (and Other) Decisions |
Main
| Pandora and the Ongoing Search for Profits »
June 15, 2011
Only Amateurs Care About Copyright Registration (in Hollywood)
Posted by Alan Wexelblat
Television writer Chad Gervich has some pretty strong opinions on people who are concerned about protecting their ideas in the world of television script-writing.
In a piece for Scriptmag online earlier this month he responds to readers' questions about the need for registering their works with the Copyright Office or the Writer's Guild (WGA).
He reminds would-be screenwriters that ideas can't be protected in the first place, only tangible forms in which the idea is fixed. In addition, he notes that:
[T]here is no bigger sign of an amateur than someone who’s worried about their stuff being stolen
In Hollywood, as elsewhere, creativity is a collaborative process. Ideas have been done a hundred times before and been seen by the producers at least ten times before. Real people who really work in this industry share, critique, feed off each other's stuff, pay homage, make suggestions, and in general participate in a free flow of ideas that feed the creative process.
Gervich's advice to aspiring screenwriters is much the same advice as is given to authors in other fields: make your stuff unique. Make your voice stand out. Make a contribution that is wholly yours and that cannot be replaced. The idea is not unique - the writer is. Separating the two, and focusing on protecting and nurturing the latter is the whole point.
Comments (0)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Counterpoint
POST A COMMENT
- RELATED ENTRIES
- › Oh and by the Way
- › Tor Sees No Increase In Illegal Copies After One Year DRM-Free
- › Free Publication on "Seismic Shift" in CA Copyright Law
- › EFF Challenges Bad Patent Filings - But There's a Bigger Issue
- › Video Game Development Game Ironic Piracy
- › British Photo Copyright Orphans' Concern
- › Mike Masnick Curb-Stomps Jaron Lanier
- › Microsoft Appears Ready to Relent on Xbox DRM
