The status of the film script under US Copyright regulations : a historical note

In 1912 the US Copyright Act (1909) was amended to recognise motion pictures under their own category. With this decision the unusual situation of the scenario — its complex authorship and relation to the motion picture — became an object of deliberation. As part of the struggle of creative rights, screenwriters have sought not only moral rights in their work, but also copyright protection for scenarios. This research note compares the history behind the recognition of the film script under Australian and US copyright law, but focuses primarily on the shifting status of the scenario under US copyright law, specifically the procedures of the Copyright Office. A motion picture is usually based upon and adapted from a screenplay, which is often derived from another underlying work, such as a novel or a short story. A motion picture is a ‘derivative work’ of some pre-existing literary material, but its legal relationship to the screenplay, the most important pre-existing literary material, is surprisingly uncertain.