If you have not written your own script and have found someone else to write your script for you there are several more steps that you will have to take before registering for the copyright. This also applies if you have found a script that has already been written and you would like to produce it as a feature film. The first step is to an assignment of rights between the writer and whoever is filing for the copyrights. This is a simple document that explains who has written the work and who now has the rights to the work. Any attorney can draw up a simple contract that will suffice for the copyright office. You can draw your own assignment of rights up if you choose to. It simply needs to state who wrote the work originally and if the work was made for hire or if it has been acquired after its creation.

A work made for hire is any work that was made for you by another person who was specifically contracted to create that work. So if you hire a writer to write a project that you had an idea for, that is a work made for hire. If the writer wrote the work completely independently and you then decided to make the work into a film, you will have to indicate in this contract that the writer is selling his writes to the script to you for a sum of money. The sum of money can be as small as on dollar, but in order for the exchange to be legal some amount of money must change hands. The transaction should take place in some form that allows a paper trail to occur. A money order or check is best and before handing it over you should make a photocopy and hand it over to the writer. Once the transaction of funds is complete you will need the writer to sign the acquisition of rights agreement to turn the rights over to you.

Continued in Part 3