Some of my real-life friend know that the first time that something I wrote went on the radio I was a kid.
After that, except for school, all my writings, until recently 
were written and destroyed.
Few years ago, I had to reconsider.
While living in London, I went in a theatre to watch a monologue (once in a while I was looking for scripts that my father and few others could stage), and this one was perfect.
The main actor and writer was staging a monologue of the father of Jesus, talking right after Easter (as you discover at the end).
It was brilliant. The author, a Jewish, did not mourn- it had a completely different way to relate the story than the one that you would have read from a Catholic.
So, later I went to the ticket office, and asked for the contacts of the author.
They suggested to call the stage manager, at a time when they were preparing the stage.
I called, and after some “hoops” I was able to reach the agent.
She gave me a copy of the script, and told me that the author was negotiating for rights in Hollywood (for a monologue- tough call).
My plan? Translate and adapt it in Italian, register it with the Italian copyright agency (SIAE), and make a birthday gift for my father, giving him something worth staging.
My agreement? I would get nothing, just rights if it was staged by others in Italy, and in exchange my father would be the first staging it.
Well, try translating English jokes into Italian jokes when:
1) it is about Jesus and his father and his mother
2) the author is Jewish and you are (born) Catholic but atheist
3) as soon as I told about the concept, there were contacts with the Curia and plans to stage it in the period leading to the following Easter.
For the first time since I was a kid, here I was, re-reading the first five books of the Bible (Torah/Pentateuco, if I am not wrong), and a shortened XIX century Italian version of the Talmud.
Why? To understand the difference in approach, and catch the proper cultural and linguistic references.
In the end, it took about two-three months of my travel time and part of my spare time, but my parents told me that it was really funny and still respectful.
And on the staging side everything was ready.
But.
But I did not consider that sometimes UK is an island.
When I told them that I would register with the Italian authorities the Italian version, under the name of the author, and that they would give them the royalties, I did not expect that, once ready, the agent would ask for… few thousand pounds in advance royalties, plus a full paid “tour” for the author in at least a 4 star hotel in Italy.
For a 30 to 45 minute monologue to be staged for about one month, with a really low ticket entrance and about 40% of the ticket price taken off by the Italian copyright authorities?
Well, that was a little bit over negotiating 
So, it ended up in a drawer 
Recently, after I started writing online under my own name for the first time, I had an issue: how to protect a concept without:
a) registering with a national authority (too cumbersome)
b) getting an agent (for what? if they all negotiate that way…)
But I wanted a protection more to be able to use it myself in the future, than really to have copyright protection.
So, I wanted a public but reliable registry that could give me proof of the date I entered into the registry my scripts/concepts/stories, etc, and maybe cover the American rights.
Well, I went back online, and re-visited the Writers Guild Association website in the US.
If you do not know about it, it is a guild that covers a nice chunk of the scriptwriters, and I already used once as a reference their contracts to negotiate with collaborators a contract that was fair with them, without costing me too much.
A similar guild is the Screen Actors Guild, that everybody knows about when you see on TV famous multimillion dollar actors on the picket line
Seriously: both are a counterbalance to the the companies they negotiate with, and have nice information online for actors and scriptwriters, or their employers (also for Internet and videogames).
In US, there is a protection scheme called “DMCA”- Digital Millennium Copyright Act, that is the one basically used by movie companies and the like.
While WGA states that they do not replace the copyright, anyway their system is one of the oldest, established by and for writers, and easy to use it online.
It costs 20 USD to cover for 5 years your concept, script, story, etc.
The address? www.wga.org, follow the link “register your script” (currently, at the botttom on the right).
I had in the past contacts, through an American friend, with a lawyer in the entertainment industry- but, unless you have something really serious coming through, a minimal step is to register, to have a proof of having previously deposited (you get also a reference number).
Anyway, why do I protect my scribblings?
No, not because I do expect royalties.
But because I got “burned” in the past: both online and offline, I published or distributed something, and then not only saw somebody else presenting it as if it were their original work, but also hinting or threatening legal action if I used my own material that they had copied…
And while we are at it…
If you are thinking about doing your own small movie for friends, or to start a new career doing movies for birthday parties, or in your company for special events, instead of spending hundreds of dollars in software, try www.celtx.com, an open source (and free software).
I already wrote about it before.
But: it is available in multiple languages, and has also a nice community online, where you can discuss and test your ideas, or contribute to the ideas of others.
Have a nice creative day
[this post was published both here and on draugiem.lv]
Tags: actor, celtx, community, copy, copyright, creative, digital, dmca, free, ipr, mind, radio, right, script, software, wga, writing