Advice — larry zerner esq

For many writers, working with a collaborator is great. Instead of sitting in a room, alone, staring at the wall, waiting for inspiration to strike, now there are two of you, together, sitting in a room, discussing last night's episode of The Daily Show waiting for inspiration to strike. However, as any writer who has worked with a partner knows, a collaboration is like a marriage, and like a marriage, issues of money, control, separation and custody should be discussed and agreed to in advance. In essence, the writers needs a prenup (a collaboration agreement) in order to ensure that...

A Reader Asks: I sold a five-year option to my screenplay three years ago, and it appears that we're going nowhere with the company that bought it. I recently "pitched" my story to a well-heeled friend in the film business, and he showed interest, which waned immediately when he heard about the option. Is there a cool way of having the first buyer releasing his rights without having to pay back any of the (very small) option price? Larry Zerner Esq. Responds: My question for you is, "What were you thinking when you gave someone a five-year option." This is...

A Reader Asks: I have the rights to do a screenplay on the life of a person, but how do you handle the rights to include other people in life, like an ex-wife and others who may be important to the story. Do you need get their rights also? Larry Zerner, Esq. Responds: This is a great question and one that comes up fairly often. Ideally, when you are writing a screenplay about a real person who is not a public figure, you want to obtain rights from as many of the people who will be portrayed in the screenplay...

Patrice from Los Angeles asks: I'm currently writing a screenplay that I'll be directing myself in about 10 months. I would like to use a Frank Sinatra look-alike to sing 3 ORIGINAL songs in the STYLE of Sinatra. Is that a copyright violation? Do I need to get approval from the family of Sinatra before I can use his likeness? Larry Zerner ESQ responds: This is an issue that comes up quite a lot, and you were correct to spot this as a potential problem. But I don't think this is something you have to worry about. Using a celebrity...

WGA REGISTRATION vs. COPYRIGHT REGISTRATION For screenwriters who use the latest version of Final Draft ® to help write their script, one nifty feature is the ability to register the screenplay with the WGA-West Intellectual Property Online Registry with the touch of a button. Many (if not most) screenwriters register all of their scripts with the WGA Registry, and, believing that they have done all that is necessary to protect their script, they neglect to register the script with the U.S. Copyright Office of the Library of Congress.Imagine their surprise when someone steals their screenplay and they learn for the...