World of Blue - Archived Forum 2007-2022

I can't see Lynch uploading full scripts on there if that's required. I think he's way too secretive.

The US copyright office is run by the Federal Government/ Library of Congress.

If he were to sue someone for stealing something or using his material without permission, I don't know if copyrighting decoy files would help him much in a court of law. He'd kinda look like a jackass if the material wasn't what he said it was, and he then said "but I'm too famous, so I'm secretive, so I sent a doctored , redacted, and self censored scripts to the copyright office" in his defense.

There's probably only a handful of people in Library of Congress who are able to open the files anyway, and in terms of the spectrum of
people copyrighting things, Stephen King and so forth, I don't know if they're likely to be star struck, and leaking the material is probably a federal crime.

JackwithOneEye wrote: ↑Sat May 01, 2021 2:25 pm The US copyright office is run by the Federal Government/ Library of Congress.

If he were to sue someone for stealing something or using his material without permission, I don't know if copyrighting decoy files would help him much in a court of law. He'd kinda look like a jackass if the material wasn't what he said it was, and he then said "but I'm too famous, so I'm secretive, so I sent a doctored , redacted, and self censored scripts to the copyright office" in his defense.

There's probably only a handful of people in Library of Congress who are able to open the files anyway, and in terms of the spectrum of
people copyrighting things, Stephen King and so forth, I don't know if they're likely to be star struck, and leaking the material is probably a federal crime.

But what if the script changes so much it's no longer recognizable/barely recognizable between first draft and last draft? Do they still need to register the script early on?

Jonah wrote: ↑Sun May 02, 2021 9:46 am

JackwithOneEye wrote: ↑Sat May 01, 2021 2:25 pm The US copyright office is run by the Federal Government/ Library of Congress.

If he were to sue someone for stealing something or using his material without permission, I don't know if copyrighting decoy files would help him much in a court of law. He'd kinda look like a jackass if the material wasn't what he said it was, and he then said "but I'm too famous, so I'm secretive, so I sent a doctored , redacted, and self censored scripts to the copyright office" in his defense.

There's probably only a handful of people in Library of Congress who are able to open the files anyway, and in terms of the spectrum of
people copyrighting things, Stephen King and so forth, I don't know if they're likely to be star struck, and leaking the material is probably a federal crime.

But what if the script changes so much it's no longer recognizable/barely recognizable between first draft and last draft? Do they still need to register the script early on?

You never “need” to file a work with the copyright office. Under US law, a work is copyrighted the moment you create it. However, the filing makes it much easier to prove WHEN you created it because there is an official record. And if Lynch ever wanted to sue someone for allegedly copying the concepts of these scripts in another later work, the filing allows him to do that. So if the contents changed substantially, it would provide him better protection to file the newer versions as well. But it would be entirely his call.

i know paranoid people who update drafts, send more stuff, depends how nervous you are I suppose. I think you can amend your claim content to a degree or start a fresh copyright for more material. if you search under some famous names, you can see it can be quite vast with some folks.

I think Harlan Ellison copyrighted various drafts, editions of the same work. there's 476 pages worth of copyrights he filed.

the few things i've sold to magazines and broadcasters, sometimes i've been asked to show either the copyright certificate or the form itself sometimes good enough, if certificate pending. it used to take 6 months before everything went entirely online, so it may be faster now.

people often register scripts with the writers guild also, tho they don't have publicly searchable database that i'm aware of.

I can definitely relate to being paranoid about your creative work. (Not saying that I think Lynch is paranoid; he seems just careful and rational to me.) As a writer myself, when publishing my first and so far only novel, I used an advice of a friend: before pitching it to publishers, I printed a copy, and together with a digital version on a CD, I sent it to myself via old school mail. I have never opened it, of course, because the point was to have it sealed, just in case of an unlikely scenario that someone steals the text, and I have to prove that I'm the author. This was, of course, in a completely different legal system, so maybe not too relevant here, but it did make me feel a lot better when sending my work to complete strangers - even though the caution was unwarranted, because the book was not that good, and nobody really cared anyway. But I will repeat the process with the next one nonetheless.

I looked around for unmade projects in copyright database, to see how protective he is with stuff that didn't get off the ground.

American Zoetrope appears to have a copyright on the Ronnie Rocket screenplay as of 1982, Lynch copyrighted some Ronnie Rocket drawings and designs, with the intent of putting them on t-shirts largely.

When I searched under Dream of the Bovine, Antelope don't run no more, One Saliva Bubble, I didn't see anything. Maybe those have WGA registrations though ( that only lasts like 7 years and you you have to constantly renew them), or maybe they under cover titles, I'm not sure. also, David Lynch, David K Lynch, is a common name, and there are things going to other people with a similar name.

He is very protective with all the shorts it appears, Poznan, Rabbits, Dumbland all have copyrights.

Where is the search function on the copyrights site to search for projects like Unrecorded Night? I tried a search and it didn't show up anything. (I also want to check if I ever copyrighted my own novel but don't think I did as I'm in Europe, but I had considered doing so when it was being sent to US publishers.)

Thank! I'll check it out.

I just realized that Lynch used "Type of Work: Dramatic Work and Music; or Choreography" for both The Return and Unrecorded Night. Interesting. Is there an option to select just "Dramatic Work", without music? I'm guessing there has to be.

Can't find my stuff on there. I did register I script I wrote somewhere but I must have decided not to bother with the novels. Lots of people with my surname, though, which surprised me as it's not very common, though a couple of other writers in my family are published (though these filings aren't theirs, they're much older stuff).

I didn't find Unrecorded Night on my first search for David Lynch, had to go by title or add the Keith part to his name. I wonder if he ever registered the Antelope and other scripts or if he only registers things once he know they're going to shoot? If that's the case then it would seem to make it pretty clear that this new project is going forward.

Form PA is what you use for film/tv/plays - PA being performing arts. Form TX is for text, usually what you fill out for articles, prose, that are not intended to be performed.

There is a question on the form I believe about music, you check off whether you own it, or check off there being other claimants. I've licensed a few things for TV, and I've had to deal with a whole other headache of paperwork over music stuff.

Some people fill out form TX for screenplay mistakenly, but I don't think it's an exact science, it should still hold up in court as your intellectual property regardless of the form.

I think I only registered the scripts with WGA/WGAW. Can't remember for sure. I adapted a novel into a script and someone advised I register it somewhere before sending it out. I don't think I even kept a record of it. I'll have to check or see if they still have a record of it.