I think the cutoff is still hovering around 1922 -- it pretty much keeps getting moved back as soon as the Mickey Mouse copyright looks like it might go public domain. Depending on where you are (national laws vary) it's either all works written before 1922, or else where the author died before 1922.

it pretty much keeps getting moved back as soon as the Mickey Mouse copyright looks like it might go public domain

Cool conspiracy theory.

But again, not an issue. Long dead, children long dead, great-grandchildren long dead.

My main contribution so far is just having a brainwave in which the novel translated itself to a modern setting, so what I've really got is a pitch, like if you said "It's Othello, but with high-school basketball!".

Cool conspiracy theory.

Actually true, though, or I think publicly acknowledged, or something?

God I'm tired....

It's pretty well-known, I think.

What am I supposed to do with my name? It doesn't actually end in an s, just an s sound. But if the Buffistas are saying s's for everyone except Moses and Jesus, and I'm evidently not them, I suppose it's s's for me. Liese's.

The issue with Jesus and Moses is that they already have a double s, so Jesus's makes a triple s. Liese's does look a little weird, but I'm pretty sure it's correct.

The first, and smartest thing you can do is investigate whether somebody...the writer's estate, a company, the publisher...owns the rights to the material still. Then you may have to negotiate for the rights and pay some money. That's if you want to be able to write it, send it off to a studio and hamper their ability to say "Neat idea. Yoink!"

Another option, if you don't want to buy the rights but still want to write it and potentially sell it to a studio, is to write the treatment and immediately register it with the WGA. Registering is cheap (around $25) and you don't have to be a member of the Writer's Guild. This is not the same as copyright or anything, but if you were to ship it to a studio and they tried to "yoink" it, you would at least have established "Dude, I wrote this a year ago" or whatever.

The (potential) advantage to this route is that you can write the treatment or the screenplay, shop it to a studio and let them wrangle with purchasing the rights to the original material. Once they've done that, you can start talking money.

As I understand it, you're not necessarily in violation of copyright, or at least not to an extent that anyone would care about, until you get paid. So it's a timing thing; if you write it without owning the rights and sell it before the rights are acquired, you're in trouble. If you write it without acquiring the rights, talk to a studio, they acquire the rights and then you sell it, you're probably okay.

Again, though, this is not expertise talking here. You may want to contact an entertainment attorney.

You may want to contact an entertainment attorney.

MM's got Sage advice here. Hollywood's gota billion of 'em. You might want to check on something like wwww.scriptsales.com. Also, registering your script (you can do it on-line now) can protect what's unique to you. In anaycase, write and register the script before you shop it, alse heartbreak will ensure.

Copywrite is a weird thing. For the most part, you are correct about the "dead fifty years" rule. That's true unless the writing's publisher, screenplay rights holder or family are cagey. H.P. lovecraft's work should have gone into public domain a short while ago, but his estate has managed to circumvent it. (Helped, in part, by the fact that they're very generous with granting permission.)

H.P. lovecraft's work should have gone into public domain a short while ago, but his estate has managed to circumvent it. (Helped, in part, by the fact that they're very generous with granting permission.)

Too generous in my opinion. Anybody else see the movie Dagon? Feh, with a double helping of ptui.

Too generous in my opinion. Anybody else see the movie Dagon? Feh, with a double helping of ptui.

It's SG, of course they're gonna grant permission. I missed it at the Film Fest, though the masses liked it. But, we were only there for the one P. worked on.

Thanks a lot for that MM.

The writer in question has been dead for a long time, and everyone and his dog has made adaptations. I've just fixated on the Novel That Everyone Forgot. I saw Michael Douglas as the villain while reading it and the whole thing just fell into place. All I need now is some time to write it, and, er, well, talent? Never even thought about screenplays before. I know how to format them..?

What's the book I should now go out and buy? The no-nonsense, insider-knowledge, been-to-hell-and-back-and-here-to-tell-the-tale seminal book on how to write a movie screenplay? I've read all kinds of cool William Goldman gossipy stuff but I want practicalities.