by Fin Wheeler

Do studios ever steal from screenwriters?

Every week, on every screenwriting discussion board, there are conspiracies about emerging writers who’ve had their greatest script stolen by one of the mega studios. How? Most agencies and studios won’t even accept unsolicited scripts, and they sure don’t read them.

The truth is, every year studios pay millions to screenwriters through spec buys, options, and paid rewrites. Certainly, there are some unprofessional producers; there are bad seeds in any profession. But the vast majority of producers are professionals.

If a producer is asking to read your spec, check out their credits on IMDB, make sure it’s really them, not just someone pretending to be them. Also remember that different countries have different IP laws.

If you do genuinely feel there are distinct similarities between your script and someone else’s, you should talk to an entertainment lawyer. Usually, the minimum they require to take your case seriously is proof that the other party requested, received, and viewed your content (emails). And proof they haven’t bought your concept. (If you sold one of your specs for a very low price, and the producer sold it on for a very high price, you can’t lie and say you never agreed. You must disclose the contract.)

Do writers ever steal from other writers?

Quentin Tarantino is fond of pronouncing, “I steal from every movie ever made.” But I don’t think it means he condones plagiarism.

He’s from another era. When Tarantino was starting out, most screenwriters had a college education. He got a lot of flak for being the video store guy. I guess that “stealing” comment is his way of saying that sometimes a person can become a filmmaker just from watching films — it’s not necessary to attend classes at a university.

Plagiarism does happen.

There are people who hear about a million dollar spec sale, they think screenwriting will make them millions, so they look around the internet, or their social circle and they ask to read someone’s script.

The budding screenwriter is flattered, so they hand over a copy, and suddenly the one spec now has two titles and two people claiming to be the sole author.

If you exercise caution about who you give your scripts to, and you register a script before discussing it and/or distributing it, then you can be content that you’ve taken all reasonable steps to keep your IP safe.

Screenwriters and Piracy

Every year the screen industries lose multimillions from piracy. Most losses are linked to illegal downloads by Westerners. Few IP pirates consider the long-term impact on screen creatives, such as screenwriters.

What’s so wrong with piracy?

The issue is black and white. If you want to be a paid professional screenwriter, by definition, you must believe that intellectual property (IP) has a cash value. If you want the screenwriters and everyone else who works on a film to be paid, then you have to pay to view the finished work.

Also, it’s the law.

Those who illegally download and sell content suggest that piracy is factored into the profit margins of the large studios. If you think everyone should have free access to all screen content, the only thing you can legally do about it is lobby for change. (But first you’d need to come up with sustainable funding models because it takes an awful lot of money to develop, make, market, distribute, and merchandise a film.)

Plus, studios aren’t the only ones who have their commercial creative content stolen. People who illegally download are just as likely to download cult indie material.

Who gets hurt by piracy?

Certainly not the big studios. If they’re losing too much income from online piracy, they just divert more funds to privacy prevention, detection, and prosecution. All that money has to be cut from the budget of other departments. The more piracy, the more funds are diverted from development. It also results in less projects being greenlit.

How does it impact screenwriters?

The most obvious way this effects screenwriters is that there are less writing gigs available, and there’s less money to option, buy and develop spec projects.

The prevalence of piracy also means that producers are extremely reluctant to work with unknown screenwriters.

No studio, or independent producer, wants to sink money into a project with an unproven screenwriter who could potentially cost them millions in lost revenue. When most piracy is done anonymously, what assurances do they have that your conduct will be professional? Most producers would rather not risk it. They prefer to work with writers who have already successfully completed (trouble-free) projects.

What can an early-career screenwriter do to combat this?

1. Never illegally download content.
2. Don’t watch illegally downloaded content. And don’t hang out with those who do. (When a producer is considering buying a script of yours, they’ll take a look at your social media presence. If your friends all boast about the movies they illegally download, that reflects on you.)
3. Do an internship for a production company. You won’t get paid, but you’ll gather a valuable understanding of how the industry works and, when the time comes that a producer is considering developing original work of your own, you’ll be able to show that you have a history of being responsible around commercial creative content (you didn’t leak content, or plot lines, etc.).
4. Work on projects that will make you eligible for Writers’ Guild membership. Some emerging screenwriters are reluctant to focus on anything except writing for screen, but having one of your plays produced at a respected independent theatre can get you Writers’ Guild membership, and get you noticed by the studios. (It worked for Aaron Sorkin.)

And don’t illegally download screen content. Screenwriters need to support the system that pays us, invests in film-world infrastructure, and allows our scripts to be made.

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Fin Wheeler is a member of the Australian Writers’ Guild and has a feature in development.