Script Registration
With more than 10,000 scripts given additional protection, it’s no surprise script registration is one of the most popular services we offer to writers at all career stages.
To access AWG’s Script Registration service, please ensure your AWG membership is financial and email admin@awg.com.au.
Purpose
The Australian Writers’ Guild’s Registration Service has been set up (in line with script registration services offered by Writers’ Guilds in the UK, USA and Canada) to assist AWG members in establishing the completion date and the identity of their literary property. It should be remembered that the aim of the registration is to prove priority of ownership, and that the priority of ownership cannot necessarily be proved if the material is sent to a reader or producer before it is received and registered by the Guild.
Australian Writers’ Guild staff do not access or read material submitted for script registration. Registered works are not compared or assessed by the Australian Writers’ Guild.
Value
Registration does not confer any protection that you are not already entitled to under Australian law. It merely provides evidence of the author’s prior claim to authorship of the literary material and the date of its completion. Registration does not confer copyright. In Australia, copyright is owned by the author of an original work as soon as it is in material form (i.e. in writing). There is no need for an author to do anything further to protect their work, provided the author is an Australian resident and their work is “original” (in the sense of being the author(s) own composition).
Material
The Australian Writers’ Guild will accept full scripts for registration, as well as material which is not in full script form, e.g. synopses, outlines, treatments and scenarios. Each property must be registered separately.
Joint Authors
In the case of joint authorship, all parties must be members (Full or Associate) of the Guild, and all names must appear on the registration form.
Procedure
- Ensure your AWG membership is up to date
- Email admin@awg.com.au and request a Script Registration. We will process your registration and organise payment.
- Once your payment is finalised, the Guild office will confirm your registration and assign you a registration number. This may take up to 2 business days.
- After a registration number has been allocated, you may then note on the title page of your work that it is registered with the Australian Writers’ Guild. The correct makings for the title page are shown below.
- Your registered script will be digitally stored by the Guild for ten years. To extend the registration period, please see below.
Withdrawals
If necessary, an author may have the registered copy of their script returned at any time. To organise for the withdrawal of a registered work, please contact the Guild at admin@awg.com.au.
Members must provide the original registration confirmation, identification and may have to pay a withdrawal fee before the registered script is returned. Where there are joint authors, written consent of all parties must be provided.
Registered documents, or information relating to script registrations, shall be made available to no person other than the author(s) unless a court order has been obtained.
It should be noted that once a script has been withdrawn, the original registration is no longer valid and the material, or subsequent drafts of the materials, must be registered again under a new registration number.
Duration
Registration is valid for ten years. A registration may be renewed before the end of the ten year period by application to the Guild and payment of the then current renewal fee. In registering a property you authorise the Guild, unless the registration is renewed at the end of the ten year period, to destroy any unclaimed property without notice
Pseudonyms
Scripts may only be registered in the name of the author(s) and under no other name(s). Pseudonyms are not acceptable.
Fees
| Registration fee | $27.50 including GST per property |
| Renewal fee | $27.50 including GST per property |
Title Page
Australia is a member of both international copyright conventions: the Berne Union and the Universal Copyright Convention. No formalities are required by the former, but under the latter it is necessary to display on your work the copyright symbol “©” your name and the year. Once the script is registered, the title page of all subsequent copies of that script should carry the registration number (see below). This is in effect a warning that you will not tolerate any infringement of your copyright.
The correct style of marking for the title page of your script is:
Copyright or “©” Jane Smith, 1994
Registered with the Australian Writers’ Guild
No: _________
Please note: Registration is available to current financial members of the Guild only.
If you are not a member join here.
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