Shayne-Michael.COMedy

Understanding The US Copyright Law - by Shayne Michael

A lot of people ask me, "What should I do if someone steals my material?" I have three answers to that. But the most important answer is understand the copyright law, what it can do for you and what it cannot.

Since I moved to Los Angeles one joke has been stolen from me and one joke was stolen long before I moved here. I won't tell you who the thief is, but I will tell you the joke: "There's an I can't believe it's not butter spray. Here's your first clue it's not butter. It's in a spray."

As a comic I believed the copyright protected the jokes I wrote, the titles they carried and the programs I placed on the web. One of these statements is true. One is "ify". And one is false. Most comics couldn't tell you which is which.

The only true way to protect your stand-up act is registering in with the US Copyright Office. The actual government website for registering US work is @: http://www.copyright.gov/. Registering a copyright in 2004 would cost an author $30.

What is a copyright? A copyright is a form of protection of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works. It gives the author the sole right to reproduce, create derivative works {for instance a spin off based on a character within your sitcom}, display your work {like a putting painting on display}, or perform your work publicly {like you would with a stand-up comedy act}. In simpler language it's simply a place where you record that you wrote something so that you can sue someone for stealing it from you from you later. Copyright law is broad but it does not cover titles, names, short phrases, and slogans. The exceptions are listed at the official site and too lengthy to list here.

Once you register your work, it becomes your responsibility to tell the public your work is protected. If you wrote a sitcom pitch and began casting actors you need to put the actors on notice by putting the © copyright notice, followed by your name and the year of publication on each page.

How long does a copyright last? Copyright protection lasts for the life of the author plus seventy years. In other words, Bob Hope's jokes aren't up for grabs because he's dead. Once copyrights expire they can be renewed. Work created prior to 1978 will experience an automatic copyright renewal because copyright didn't not protect author's work for the same length of time prior to 1978.

A lot of comedians will ask, "I didn't register my act, is the joke I wrote still mine." Yes, you own your act as soon is it's created. Each joke that comes out of your head that you put to paper is yours. In fact, the instant it simmers in your brain it's still yours. So what does registering that joke do? Registering it simply makes it possible to recover damages if somebody steals it. Simply put, if you don't register, you cannot sue.

Since I didn't register my "I can't believe it's not butter" joke I couldn't have filed a suit against the hack. If I had registered my act five years before the incident, I'd have been eligible to win statutory damages up to $150,000. These damages are unrelated to the amount of money loosing that joke might have cost me. They're tantamount to the court saying, "You bad hack. Give that man $150,000 for your evil ways. And, don't do that again"

If I registered my joke three months before the lawsuit I would still be able to recover my court costs and some statutory damages. If I registered any later than that I would be limited to my actual damages. How does that affect comedians? Go back to the case of my one stolen joke. Can I prove that stealing that single joke stalled my career? Probably not. Even if it made Mitzi label me a hack, it would be hard to prove loosing out on $15 a week and five paying audience members on a Tuesday did any serious damage to my career. In all likelihood the court would probably say, I was lucky to get redirected to Buzz Coffee.

Copyright law does not cover improvisational speeches that are not recorded or written down. This means there is a gray area when it comes to evolving jokes. I do a joke where I say, "I'm a teacher. And, I have a great way of dealing with discipline problems... Last week I saw two kids fighting on the playground. So I went up to them and said you kids wanna fight go ahead and fight... I'm fighting the winner." Originally I ended with, "She kicked my ass." On the advice of Barry Neal I changed the punchline to, "I kicked her ass." If I registered it five years ago, which version of my joke would be protected? Technically they both would since work is protected once it's created. However, if I wanted to sue for those lofty statutory damages, I would have to submit a new evolved set of jokes almost every time a joke changed to the US Copyright Office.

Should you register your stand-up act? That depends. There's a point where a serious stand-up comic should register his or her act. But that's only my opinion. The odds you would ever use the right to sue someone for stealing a single joke are slim. There is one sole good reasons for not registering a stand-up act. The truth is it's probably not worth the time to sue a hack who takes from you a single joke and it's unlikely any hack would take your entire persona. I would still register my act just in case, I became famous and someone tried. But don't stress about it because you're probably more likely to win the grand prize in the lottery than to experience total comic identity theft.

In fact, stealing single jokes won't happen as often as you expect. Why? I perform at the very least three times a week. Every time I go up I leave a trail of evidence behind me that I wrote that material. Is a thief more likely to steal a joke 100,000 people have seen me do? Or is he more likely to steal a one-man show I've only put out once in front 30 people? How likely is he to steal the novel Treason, nobody knows I'm writing? If you write a novel, screen play, one man/ or woman show or musical composition, you need to register your work. These types of works are much more likely to be stolen than a stand-up act. A good rule of thumb is any work that involves a final draft should unequivocally be registered.

As a comic you might also need to understand what it means to sell your work because parts of the copyright law tell you what you can and can't get away with. If you write an humorous essay called "50 Ways To Get Out Of Jury Duty", do you understand what a publisher means when they buy "All Rights"? Do you understand what they mean when they say they buy "Reprint Rights"? "All Rights" is exactly what it sounds like, the publisher is buying the copyright from you. After you sell All Rights, you cannot sell that essay to anyone else again. Do you know that the transfer of All Rights requires that the transfer is put in writing? Let's say you buy a joke from someone and you didn't put the transfer in writing. What happens if the author keeps doing the joke? You're probably screwed.

Is there any exception to this rule? Yes, let's say the person who bought the joke from you because asked you to write him an act for you. Better yet, let's say you clicked on HeyLady's write me a comedy act link and got 30 minutes of killer material. After the jokes are written can Rob Twohy say, "To bad.... You didn't sign a contract so I get to do those jokes too." No. That exchange is called work for hire. When you hire someone to write something for you and pay them for that script the jokes they wrote for you are yours. If Disney contracts you out to create cartoons characters for their upcoming movie Snow White and the Seven Signs of the Apocalypse, you don't own the new character you created named Spawn-Lite.

As a comic you are pinning your dreams on someone paying you for your original written work. In most cases, you want to be the sole person with permission to deliver your original thoughts. Whether you intend to write humor or get a rise out of having it read you need a basic understanding of the US copyright law. That law makes it illegal for anyone to use your creation to further their own artistic career. In order to use any law you need to understand it. You need to understand while work is your property the minute it is created. But, you cannot sue for infringement until that work is registered. And know the consequences of waiting to register your work. Additionally, you need to understand phrases like "Work For Hire" and "All Rights" when you begin to selling your work. This essay is a small glimpse into a very complicated law. I am neither a lawyer nor a legal advisor. But, if you want to conquer a career in comedy I simply suggest you know the law better than your competition in case you ever need to use it.