If you created your movie or TV show independently, you have a copyright in it. If you accepted funding from someone else or allowed someone else to produce your work, your production contract should state who owns the copyright in the work.
Having a registered copyright is a strong deterrent for those who would copy your work without permission. You can find an application at the U. S. Copyright Office’s website. You can either fill it out online or print and mail it. [4] X Trustworthy Source United States Copyright Office Part of the Library of Congress, responsible for maintaining copyright records Go to source If you register online, you’ll pay a lower registration fee and can check the status of your application at any time. [5] X Trustworthy Source United States Copyright Office Part of the Library of Congress, responsible for maintaining copyright records Go to source
If you register copyright in a single work online and you are the sole claimant, you’ll pay just $35. If you’re registering copyright in a television show, however, you may need to use serial registration for each episode of the show. Your registration fee would be $55. [6] X Trustworthy Source United States Copyright Office Part of the Library of Congress, responsible for maintaining copyright records Go to source You can use a credit or debit card to pay registration fees online. [7] X Trustworthy Source United States Copyright Office Part of the Library of Congress, responsible for maintaining copyright records Go to source If you send a paper application by mail, you’ll need to include a check or money order for $85. [8] X Trustworthy Source United States Copyright Office Part of the Library of Congress, responsible for maintaining copyright records Go to source
If you’re filing online, you can submit a copy of your video using any of the accepted file types: . avi, . mov, . mpg, and . wmv. [10] X Trustworthy Source United States Copyright Office Part of the Library of Congress, responsible for maintaining copyright records Go to source If you’re mailing a printed copy of your application, you can submit with it a digital copy of your movie or television show on disk, or you can submit a tape or film. In addition to the single complete copy of your video, you must include a separate written description of its contents such as a press release or a synopsis. [11] X Trustworthy Source United States Copyright Office Part of the Library of Congress, responsible for maintaining copyright records Go to source
Because things can be copied and distributed on the Internet with relative ease, you must keep a close eye on how your content is being used by others on the Internet – especially if you’ve posted it on a video-streaming site or have made it available for digital download.
Notice is no longer required to maintain copyright protection[13] X Trustworthy Source United States Copyright Office Part of the Library of Congress, responsible for maintaining copyright records Go to source , but a strongly worded notice may have a deterrent effect. If you have your own website, download a badge or icon from a duplicate-content-checking site to warn visitors about stealing from you. [14] X Research source Install code that disables right-clicks on your blog or corrupts the content if it is copied so that it can no longer be played.
Run a search for your movie or TV show on all major search engines, and set an alert so you’ll get an email when new work appears online that matches those searches. This can save you a lot of time and effort. [15] X Research source Add a free service such as Copygator to scan for content on the Internet that duplicates content on your blog. [16] X Research source Be forewarned, however, that this service might turn up a lot of false positives and not be worth the effort if you have a blog on a platform, such as Tumblr or WordPress, that allows other users to reblog your work with full attribution attached.
For example, if the user turns out to be a child, it may not be worth the time or effort to engage them. Check the website’s Whois information to find out who has registered the domain. Then find out the infringer’s Internet service provider and who is hosting the infringer’s website. [17] X Research source
Be courteous and professional. Don’t even mention copyright infringement. Simply say that you noted they’d posted your work online, that you were flattered they enjoyed it, and state what you would like in exchange. Perhaps you’re only interested in being attributed as the author, or you’d like for them to link to your site. Another popular, non-licensing-permission option is to have them provide a retail link so the site’s visitors can legitimately purchase your work. If the website gets a lot of traffic, this could result in sales for you that outweigh any money you would have gotten from a license. If you do want to offer a strict license for the work, explain your rates and the options available, and give them the opportunity to get back to you. Give them a deadline to respond, but don’t threaten them.
Check their site again before you send the letter. Sometimes a website owner becomes frightened or embarrassed by a letter such as the first one you sent, even if you wrote it in a polite and friendly tone. In such a case s/he may simply remove your content from the site without saying anything. Check the site thoroughly. The owner may have moved it to a new address, or s/he may have back-dated it in an attempt to placate you. Consider having an intellectual-property attorney draft your cease-and-desist letter. Since you are accusing them of violating your rights, and you’re threatening legal action if the matter is not resolved, you want to make sure you have the wording correct.
If the website is a blog or other page hosted by a blogging service such as WordPress or Tumblr, you may find on it a form to fill out notifying the agent that someone is violating your rights. On the infringer’s website, there should be links for “legal” or “copyright” at the top or bottom of the page. You can use this option only if you posted the work online before the infringer did. Otherwise you can’t prove that they copied it from you and not the other way around. Include a copy of your letters to the infringer, or offer to provide them on request, as some blogging services want you to attempt to contact the blog owner on your own at least once before you resort to filing a DMCA takedown request. Once you submit the form, the host will review your claim and remove the post if they find in your favor, usually within 24 hours. [19] X Research source
Copyright law is tremendously complex, and federal court procedures can be difficult to navigate. If you file an infringement lawsuit on your own, you’ll be expected to know the applicable law and court rules just as well as an attorney does.
Intellectual-property attorneys don’t usually take a contingency-fee arrangement, and your attorney alone will cost you several hundred dollars an hour, not including filing fees. Keep in mind that litigating a copyright-infringement suit can take years. If you don’t stand to win very much in monetary damages, you may not want to have the matter hanging over your head and causing you stress for that long.
A mediator is a professional, neutral third party who brings you and the infringer together and facilitates communication so you can come to an agreeable resolution. Mediation can be valuable in copyright cases, because the law may be relatively ambiguous, and the odds of any significant recovery may be low. [20] X Research source
Some courts require you to file a form with the U. S. Copyright Office to provide notice of the filing of an infringement suit. In others the clerk of courts will fill out this form and file it for you. If nothing else, the infringer may be more willing to settle when s/he is served with a federal complaint.
