Attorney Paul S. Levine: Copyright & Work-for-Hire Workshop for Filmmakers, Screenwriters, Authors & Artists

In this important workshop leading entertainment industry attorney Paul S. Levine addresses copyright fundamentals writers, filmmakers, TV producers, and artists must know in order to protect their work. This workshop is also critical to anyone who buys or sells screenplays, books, stories, articles, artwork, interviews, graphic art, and other creative content, or hires people to work for them to create that content.

Paul S. Levine has been working with producers, writers, and studios to buy, sell, protect, and secure intellectual property for almost forty (40) years. He has specific experience in helping creative pros build and protect high-value creative content. As a seasoned litigation attorney who has represented authors, screenwriters, indie producers, and studios he has exceptional expertise in intellectual property contracts, negotiations, and protection. He has worked with producers to establish production companies, to license and sell their media to distributors, and served as advisor for those creating books, screenplays, films, and episodic media about real people and important events. To learn more about Paul, visit https://paulslevine.com/. You can reach him by email at paul@paulslevine.com and by phone at (310) 450-6711.

Questions answered in this workshop include:

• When is a work protected by copyright?
• Is registering work at the WGA as good as registering it with the Copyright Office at Copyright.gov?
• When should writers, screenwriters, filmmakers, photographers, and others register work at the Copyright Office? What should they register? Books, stories, treatments, screenplays, stage plays, films, pilots, podcasts, original artwork or photographs?
• If you have an illustrated book where words and pictures are combined (like Winnie the Pooh), do you register it twice?
• What if you record your own audiobook, or pay someone to record it for you, do you register that once as a literary work and once as an audio visual work?
• What happens if you make a mistake during copyright registration?
• If you are writing under a pen name, do you register the work under your name or the pen name? What if you have several pen names?
• How do you register interviews or news footage you create? If a writer interviews someone, who owns the words in the interview?
• If you film a riot, can you register your copyright for that footage? Can you register a photograph you took without the subject's permission (i.e. someone having a melt down in a store)
• What are specific benefits of copyright registration?
• Why is copyright necessary for those selling media?
• What is chain of title and why is it important to media producers?
• If a producer hires a writer or DP under the table, or as a contract employee, to write something for them, who owns the copyright for that by default?
• If a producer hires a writer or DP as an employee, who owns the work they produce while on the job?
• If a producer sees a script they like and "develops the script" by requesting changes the writer makes. Who owns the script and who owns the changed script?
• What constitutes work-for-hire? Does there have to be a work-for-hire agreement signed by both writer and buyer for the contract to be valid? If the buyer doesn’t pay the writer, who owns the content?
• Who owns a work I write with a friend if both of us are writing (handing the document back and for edits). (A quick overview of joint copyright helps people who are writing as part of a team and don't have an agreement between them.)
• When writers pitch ideas to agents, managers, producers, who owns the "idea". Is it a good idea to pitch something "in the room" that you haven't written or registered prior to the meeting?
• If writers leave something behind after a pitch meeting (copy of a treatment etc) is that a good idea?
• What should creatives do when they believe their rights have been violated?
• This is the perfect workshop to attend if you want to get expert insight into copyright and work-for-hire best practices.

If you have questions about this workshop, please email nancy@nancyfultonmeetups.com.