Several years ago I got involved with someone I knew before - and my mind prefers to forget - in a TV series project. I would have liked to have a system like enotar.io to have the peace of mind that what I was generating was safe and sound in a timely manner without the need to leave home.

He was one of those characters that emerge during the troubled waters of industries in the making, so he had the idea that filmmaking could be done with sheer will and a desire to make a name for itself. After a while I was no longer willing to continue in a game that was not producing any economic or expository benefit for me.

So when I decided to leave, he was at my house trying to convince me to continue until “money show up” and, the most incredible thing, trying to impose me the idea that everything I wrote was property of his company. I replied that he didn’t even pay what my work deserved, how could he even dream of keeping my production, stripping me of all rights to it? I said it right: everything. According to him, I even must lost the moral right to my work. What was really unfortunate was that at this stage of the game, a script of mine had already been produced under his company’s brand. This really made me uneasy.

Of course, he never knew of such resentments. So, I firmly and politely kicked him out of my house.

This situation displeased me to such a degree that for lack of a more forceful option the next day I posted on my networks a note about intellectual property law:

“There are two types of rights associated with the authorship of an audiovisual script: moral and patrimonial. Moral rights are inalienable, so it is illegal for a production company to leave out a screenwriter in credits or public recognition. As for the patrimonial right, it is up to the writer to decide whether or not to cede it to the production company or to whomever he/she finds convenient”.

(Moral and economic rights)

The truth is that the person who registers a work is, for legal purposes, the one who has the moral right to it. Although only producing it generates such right, the legal registration will represent a real headache (and pocket) for an author who needs to prove that a work is of his authorship after it has been appropriated by someone else.

The Moral Right is inalienable: an author will never cease to be credited even if the economic rights have been obtained. Well, except in the United States where it is legal to waive it. Unlike the rest of the world there they have their own term: copyright. A basic knowledge of what rights a creator has can never hurt:

Moral Rights

• Right to disclose or not my work.
• Right to recognition of intellectual paternity (for example, use of pseudonym).
• Right to respect and dignity of the work.
• Right of withdrawal (withdrawal from commerce).
• Right of modification (make changes before or after publication).
• Constitutional status.
• In the USA it is legal to waive moral rights: Buyout (the author disappears).

Patrimonial Rights

• Set of prerogatives that allow the author or derivative holder to control the exploitation of the work.
• Must be mediated by a contract.
• Co-authorship: there must be a private document establishing the economic aspect that these authors will have.
• Right of reproduction.
• Right of public communication (digital availability).
• Right of transformation (Example: from film to TV).
• Distribution.
• Right of follow-up or droid de suite (participation of the successive sales of the work).
• Co-authorship: there must be a private document establishing the economic aspect that these authors will have.
• Right of reproduction.
• Right of public communication (digital availability).

A month before writing this post, in the middle of an event on Executive Film Production, the character of my story and I met again. He made me that kind of offer that it would be difficult for anyone to refuse. However, my distrust of him has almost glorified over time instead of diminishing. I made him a peremptory request for a contract. Fortunately these types of people are terrified of legal commitments. They are easy to keep away.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels

Author Said Orlando