Creative Commons Licensing, or Why I Gave Away Copyright on my Short Film Screenplays

Writing is only the first part of the process of screenwriting. If you write it, producers and directors will not necessarily beat a path to your door. Truth be told, no one is likely to care that your script exists. What you need to do is let people know what the product is and how they can use it.

In other words, you need to market your product.

To get the word out about my screenplays, here’s one of the things I’m doing that breaks the traditional business model for screenwriting.

Creative Commons Licensing, or Why I Gave Away Copyright on my Short Film Screenplays

Filmmakers, especially independent filmmakers, are not a well-heeled lot. Most people don’t get into this business to make lots of money in exchange for little or no work; they come to this business because they love it. They may not know how to go about making their first short film. They may be looking for ideas to stretch themselves out of their usual voice or genre. They may be looking for portfolio pieces to get professional attention on their acting, editing, directing, or whatever. That’s who my scripts are written for.

Generally speaking, those who have money are looking to (1) make their own creative projects based on their own ideas, (2) or make gobs money by investing in film projects as a business. Such people don’t really need this book, so I’m not trying to get it into their hands.

I wanted to harness the power of this love to overcome one of the largest expenses with any creative endeavor – the advertising budget.

Entertainment products are always vying for attention. I had to do something that would set my book apart from all the books that end with the phrase “… for Dummies.”  I decided to do something radical – I waived the copyright on my scripts.

In the world of screenwriters, where ideas are gold and plagiarism is an evil to be guarded against, this is the equivalent of encouraging strangers to harvest your organs. No one does it. Keep in mind, though, that I didn’t have very much, if any, money for advertising.

In the introduction of my book, I tell the filmmakers that, by buying the book, they have paid any licensing fees. Any money they make from film inspired by my book, whether it be from festivals, contests, or video races, is theirs to keep. They can alter the scripts in any way they want and they can even copyright their films as their own derivative work. The catch is that they have to put my name and the name of the website in their credits.

This way, any film made from the book also advertises the book.

Every happy filmmaking customer automatically tells their friends and family about the book.

Also, people I don’t know have also posted about my book on Vimeo and elsewhere (for which I’m very grateful!) as an example of Creative Commons licensed screenplays.

In part one of this series, I discussed how I came to write the book ’26 Short Screenplays for Independent Filmmakers.’

Next time, I’ll explain why I give away the book for free to teachers.