Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-07-29

nNE of the most frequent as we'll as one
" of the most embarrassing situations
that the editorial departments Of the large
film manufacturers encounter comes from n
small minority Of scenario writer's who
are suspicious of every one in general and
scenario editors In particular, and who
believe that at the first opportunity one
of their brain children will be stolen. The
reputation Of some theatrical producers for
stealing ideas has been passed along to the
motion picture industry, and, were II not
for the fact that so many honest and
Intelligent people have dominated this new
art, the proportion of suspicious authors
would be infinitely larger than 1t Is. It
Is indeed a credit to the whole industry
that the scenario end has been kept on
such clean and high plane
When Il is taken into consideration that
where one person writes for the stage, ten
thousand write for the screen, II Is quite
remarkable that with the Increase In
volume of manuscripts more mistakes have
not been made and moro grounds given for
justihable complaint
Here and there, Il Is doubtless true,
scenario editors have not been worthy trus-
tees of the property of others submitted
for purchase. But these men are SO few
and the firms they represent 80 untrust
worthy, that the average writer has little
difficulty in discovering who they are and
whom to depend upon among the reliable
concerns for sales.
Writers who have had unfortunate ex.
periences seek to protect themselves under
the copyright law. At the present time,
however, they are unable to do SO. As
n mater of fact 1t Is really unneces-
sary for any writer to copyright his manu-
script, as he can always fall back upon his
rights under tho common law, the right
of proprietary ownership, and under this
right can recover damages.
The present copyright law does not pro-
tect the writer. AS the copyright law
stands the scenario must be printed in
book form and copyrighted before any in.
fringement of the authors rights allows
the writer redress for plagiarism of the
book.
Recently Senator Penrose, of Pennsyl-
, vania, has introduced a bill (S 2740) which
has been twice read and referred to the
Committee on the Library, which will en-
able the author to secure protection on his
work. Whether such n law will be of any
real benefit to the author is very doubtful
question.
Personally, we think It will initiate
against the author who chooses to copy
right his work, unless all of them do so. A
certain esprit de corps must exist between
the writer and the editor. There must be
bond or commence established, or the author
will make but few sales
II a manuscript comes in copyrighted
with notice to this effect printed boldly on
the front page, 1t may seem to some editors
to be a reflection upon their integrity and
honesty. For years they have been pur-
chasing scripts in routine manner with
never a question arising and they cannot
understand why the author should sud-
denly become suspicious of the editors
business methods.
II you deal with reliable concerns you
don't need to copyright your scripts, II you
deal with unreliable concerns and your idea
is stolen and you can prove 1t you have
the common law in back of you. OF course,
the copyright would simplify the recovery
as the law provides for damages resulting
from infringement of the copyright.
An idea may be unacceptable, crude and
virtually worthless. In the same mail
may come a story from a well-lSnown au-
thor that Is well developed along almost
identical lines. If the editor accepts the
story that is we'll turned and a picture is
made of 1t and It is shown at the cross
roads town where the writer Of the crude
effort lives, he sets up cry that his plot
was stolen.
1t Is very difficult. in fact almost impos-
sible, to convince an author that any one
else could write anything similar to what
he has written. AS matter OF fact, editors
are extremely careful to reject all manu-
script which have a striking similarity.
II somebody puts out story of a lost
identity. Immediately there is n howl set
up from coast to coast that their idea has
been stolen. If a convict escapes from
prison in some unique manner 10 to so
scripts may come in during the week using
the same Identical piece of business
One OF these writer's may have put to-
gether a good story, which the editor is
forced to turn down, because. IL he accepted
IL, there would be no chance to explain TO
the other writer's that their plot was not
taken.
The demand for new plots is the best
protection any writer can have, He needs
no copyright law or common law on which
to stand. A law which is fundamental
governs his case the law of supply and
demand. there being constant and great
demand for good original Stories with stars
and productions waiting for the author TO
supply a suitable vehicle.
An interesting experiment was recently
tried by a club of photoplay dramatists
A certain object in the room was taken
as the subject around which to construct
photoplay, and all the members of the |