Protecting Your Work
It is very hard to prove in a court of law that someone has stolen your idea for a script. Theft does happen, but usually it's just a case of two people thinking of the same idea at the same time. But there are ways to help protect your ideas, and you should take advantage of them.
Is it true that mailing myself a copy of a script is all I need to protect my copyright?
The “poor man's” copyright, a sealed and postmarked envelope containing a script, is not that reliable. It does prove that the script was written by a certain date, but it's not the same as making a public claim to the material.
To protect your work, contact the Writer's Guild of America, West at

