When should I copyright my screenplay?

B

Boxing Fanatix

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I'm currently writing the first draft and only have about 20 pages done.

Should I wait until I'm done with the first draft and then immediately copyright it or wait until everything is done into the final draft?

My former film teacher told I should copyright everytime I write, but I would like to get your opinions on it.

Thanks.
 
First off, you automatically own the copyright to your work. Registering a copyright and copyrighting are different things. That's probably what you meant, but a lot of people don't know that. Anyway, the actual answer depends on how much you expect to change between first and final, and if you have any reason to be concerned. If no one but you and maybe one trusted person (who you can prove read it if you need to) see it, there's not a huge amount of reason to let the government know you wrote something. If you're sending it out to people you don't know too well for proofreading, then you should register the first draft.
 
Wait until you have a completed draft. It does not necessarily have to be final-final but it should be there in every major element of story and characters. Although you can register treatments, if you want to. That's register, not copyright, is what I want to suggest.

Generally speaking if you want to create a potentially useful record of your date-of-creation of a screenplay, the thing to consider is registering it with the Writers' Guild of America. For a fee they will file a copy of your work and authenticate its authorship (well, who registered it with them), record a summary and date of registration.

In truth I don't know how much protection the Guild will extend to you if you are not a member. I'm not a member of the WGA myself, and am not familiar with their rules and procedures, but it is frequently lamented that unless you are a member the Guild itself will not involve itself in a claim of infringement over something that you registered, with them.

Hit the WGA web site; I'm sure they'll have information on registration and you can decide if it's useful, to you.
 
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Solid advice. Another angle is this: register your copyright before showing the work to anyone who might possibly, in any way, be less than 100% trustworthy with it. Before you send it to screenplay contests and out to agents and production companies to read it, register your copyright with the library of congress.
 
Do anyone knows how this work on the international market? As some suspect I dont live in the US. But how can I protect my work on the international market?
 
Depends on the country. The copyright standards used in the US are agreed to by treaty with most countries, but not all. And some don't enforce it. However, the people in those countries are unlikely to want to take your script, since they couldn't do much with it in their homelands anyway.
 
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