Happy Saturday, everyone, I wanted to know what are the steps to protecting your idea or content before it goes out into the world. Is this this the same steps when trying copyright any other idea, maybe there's other steps I'm not aware of. Either way, I would like to know and see what resources are out there to getting this done.
Animation : Steps to protecting your animated content/idea by Tony Pham
Steps to protecting your animated content/idea
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You cannot copyright an idea. You can copyright a pitch deck, script etc. When pitching, if you are afraid someone might take your concept, then have them sign a NDA. Don't share an idea publicly.
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Bob Harper what about when a project hits distribution? Does a small studio or indie filmmaker look for some type of protection for their project before or after?
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If it is a completed work, then it is protected by copyright. Once it is distributed then it is in the public as your project/or whoever distributed it, so if anyone infringed on the actual product, you could sue. If a similar project pops up at the same time, then you would have to prove that the other project had access to yours prior to your release. Otherwise if the competing project comes out later and is too much like your, then they would have to show when they had it in development.
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Awesome thank you so much Bob Harper for the insight! Always appreciated your wisdom and expertise.
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Bob Harper Well said. But do people actually copyright pitch decks? Scripts of course but I wasn't aware that people spent the money to copyright a pitch deck. Granted I guess I'm building off the assumption that people wrote a pilot or spec before making a pitch deck so maybe that's the grey area.
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Terrence Sellers different people feel the comfort of having their material copyrighted. I usually don't bother with a pitch deck, but I partnered with a writer whose manager insisted we at least register it with the WGA
If you put something in written form (like a screenplay or pitch bible) pay a few bucks to copyright it with copyright.gov. It's not difficult, and it should put your anxieties to rest. I hear WGA registration is not recommended as much as it used to be.