How to Copyright a Screenplay: US Copyright Office vs WGA Registration

How to copyright a screenplay: the short answer

Under US law, and under the law of most countries, copyright exists automatically the moment an original work is fixed in a tangible form. Typing a screenplay into a file is fixing it. You own the copyright to your script from that moment, without a form, a fee or a symbol.

What registration adds is proof and enforceability. If you ever have to show that you wrote the script and when, you need a record made by someone other than you. Two services provide one:

1. US Copyright Office registration is the legal one. It creates a public record and, for US works, is a precondition for filing an infringement suit and for claiming statutory damages and legal fees.
2. WGA script registration is an industry one. It is a dated deposit that establishes when a script existed. It is not copyright and does not replace it.

The order most working writers follow: register the copyright when the draft is the one you will send out, add a WGA registration if you want a number on the title page, and do both before the script leaves your hands. The rest of this article explains each step. It is general guidance, not legal advice; if money or a dispute is involved, talk to an entertainment lawyer.

Copyright exists automatically, so why register?

Automatic copyright protects the expression, which for a screenplay means the actual scenes, dialogue and specific sequence of events. It does not protect the idea, the premise, the title or a genre. Two writers can independently write a heist film set on a cruise ship and neither infringes the other; the protection attaches to the pages, not the pitch.

That protection is real but hard to use without a record. In a dispute, the questions are always the same: did you write this, when, and did the other party have access to it? A registration answers the first two with a government timestamp. Without one you are relying on file metadata, emails and your own word, which is exactly what the other side will attack.

Registration in the United States also changes what you can recover. A registration made before an infringement begins, or within a short window after first publication, makes statutory damages and attorney's fees available. Registration made later generally limits you to actual damages, which for an unproduced script may be very difficult to prove. That difference is why lawyers say register early rather than register eventually.

Registering with the US Copyright Office (eco.copyright.gov)

Registration is done online through the Copyright Office's electronic system at eco.copyright.gov. You do not need a lawyer and the whole thing takes an evening.

1. Create an account on the eCO portal.
2. Start a new registration. Screenplays are registered as works of the performing arts. If the script is unpublished and you are the sole author and claimant, the simpler single-application route usually applies; a co-written script uses the standard application.
3. Fill in the details: title, year of completion, author names, whether it is a work made for hire (a spec script is not), and the claimant, which for a spec is you.
4. Pay the filing fee. There is a fee, and it varies by application type; check the current fee schedule on copyright.gov rather than relying on figures you find elsewhere.
5. Upload the deposit copy. A PDF of the full screenplay. Export it from your screenwriting software rather than printing to PDF from a word processor, so the deposit matches the draft you circulate.
6. Wait for the certificate. Processing takes months, but the effective date of registration is the date the office received a complete application, fee and deposit, so you are covered from the day you file.

Register the draft you are about to send out. Copyright protects each version as it exists, and later drafts are protected as derivative works of the registered one, so you do not need to re-register every polish. Re-register when the script has changed substantially, for instance after a page-one rewrite, or when it is optioned and the producer's lawyers ask for a fresh record.

The PDF you upload should look like a professional script: standard format and a title page carrying the title, your name and your contact details; the free title page generator lays one out if your software does not. Zen Writer exports a clean PDF with the title page attached, which makes the deposit copy and the query copy the same file. Register a finished draft of normal length, too: the Office does not care whether it is 90 or 120 pages, but the readers it goes to next will, and how long a screenplay is covers what they expect.

WGA registration: what it is and what it is not

The Writers Guild of America West and Writers Guild of America East each run a script registration service open to anyone; you do not have to be a member. You upload the script and pay a fee, and the Guild stores a copy with a dated receipt and issues a registration number. If a dispute arises, the Guild can produce the deposited script as evidence that it existed on that date.

A WGA registration number on the title page was once expected by agencies and contests, and some still ask for it. It signals that a dated copy exists somewhere neutral. It has no bearing on ownership, and a script with a WGA number and no copyright registration is in a weaker legal position than a script with a copyright registration and no WGA number.

If you use both, note the term difference. Copyright registration is permanent. A WGA registration lapses after its term unless renewed, so if you rely on it for a script that has been circulating for years, check the expiry.

Which to do, and when

• Just started the draft: nothing. Copyright already exists. Registering a first draft is money spent on pages that will change; put the time into writing the screenplay instead.
• Draft is finished and you are about to query, enter contests or send it to producers: register with the US Copyright Office. This is the one that matters legally. Add a WGA registration if a contest or a company asks for the number or you want a second dated record.
• Script is optioned or sold: the buyer's lawyers will usually require a copyright registration and will handle transfer or assignment. Make sure your own registration predates the deal.
• Page-one rewrite after registration: register again. Minor polishes do not need it.
• Co-written script: register with both names and settle the split in writing first. Joint authorship without an agreement is a dispute waiting for a sale.

Do the registration before the query letter goes out, not after the request for the full script arrives. A request can come in a day, and the effective date of the registration is the day the office receives the complete application. If you are drafting the letter now, how to write a query letter covers what goes in it, and the wider screenwriting guides cover everything upstream of it.

Keep dated drafts as well. Registration proves the script existed on one date; a chain of drafts helps show how it developed, which matters if independent creation is ever in question. Zen Writer Pro's version history keeps earlier versions of a script on the device and lets you restore any of them, and the app is free on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android from the download page. Whatever you use, back the drafts up somewhere you control.

The poor man's copyright myth

The folk method is to mail yourself a sealed copy of the script and keep the unopened envelope with its postmark as proof of date. It does not work. The US Copyright Office says plainly that it is no substitute for registration, courts have given it little or no weight, and a sealed envelope proves nothing about what was inside it on the day it was sealed, since an envelope can be posted empty and filled later. Emailing yourself the file is the same idea with the same problem.

Variations that are equally weak on their own: uploading the script to a cloud drive and pointing at the timestamp, posting it on a blog, or adding a copyright notice to the title page. A notice, © 2026 Your Name, is harmless and some writers include it, but it neither creates nor registers anything, and many readers find it slightly amateur on a spec. The WGA number line is the conventional signal if you want one.

Fear of theft is, in practice, out of proportion to the risk. Companies that read spec scripts have release forms, legal departments and far more scripts than they can produce; a stolen idea is rarer than a coincidence. Register properly, then send the script out, because a script nobody reads cannot be bought either.

Outside the United States

Copyright is automatic in every country that has signed the Berne Convention, which is nearly all of them, and a work created in one member country is protected in the others. A screenplay written in the UK, Canada, Australia or India is copyrighted on creation and that protection is recognised in the US without any US filing.

Registration systems vary. Some countries have no registry at all; some, like Canada and India, have voluntary ones; the UK has none and writers there use dated deposits with a solicitor, a writers' organisation or a commercial service. A US Copyright Office registration is available to foreign authors, and it is worth doing if the script will be sent to US companies, because the procedural advantages in a US court depend on it regardless of where the author lives. WGA registration is likewise open to non-members anywhere.

One more time: this article describes general practice, it is not legal advice, and the rules change. Check the current guidance on copyright.gov and the WGA registry sites, and speak to a lawyer if a real sum of money or a real dispute is involved.

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