Writers’ Rights Protected

Any agreement with a wgc writer must be forwarded to the Guild, which ensures that it complies with the IPA.
Many producers prefer to deal with writers who do not belong to the WGC because of the increased cost and reduced flexibility of a Guild agreement. However, this is not always an option as the WGC has more than 1500 members including many of Canada’s most experienced writers.

If you can get through the labyrinth that is the IPA, you will find a number of provisions that protect the interests of writers. The single most important protection is the minimum fee structure established for writing services.
Except for preliminary work such as a concept for a treatment or a development proposal which are left to the parties to negotiate, minimum compensation is prescribed for all aspects of writing for television or feature films. The IPA also prohibits speculative writing—so if you ask a Guild member to prepare something, they must be paid for that work.

An area of the IPA that causes difficulty for producers is the optioning of completed work. Development is a time of low cash flow and it often takes years to find the financing for a pro-ject. Producers, therefore, want to tie up the rights to a screenplay for as long as possible for the least amount of money. Under the IPA, the option fee for each year must be no less than 10% of the fee payable on exercise of the option. As well, the term of an option cannot be for more than 3 years.

The IPA also requires that a production fee (based on a percentage of the budget) be paid to the writer on the first day of principal photography. Script fees previously paid to the writer can be deducted from the production fee. A distribution royalty (which provides back-end participation) is also payable from the distributor’s gross revenue after 130% of the budget has been recouped.

Another controversial feature of the IPA is that writers cannot assign copyright in their work. American producers are often surprised to find that the WGC agreement does not allow this as copyright can be transferred under the Writers Guild of America (WGA) Agreement. Despite this prohibition, it is possible for a producer to obtain virtually all of the rights in a work by licensing the right to produce not only a single production but also all prequels, sequels, and other spin-offs. And it is rare that a written work is actually used for more than the one production for which it is licensed.

Other important provisions of the IPA include:
- Minimum credits to be granted to a writer.
- Limitations on when a producer can bring in another writer.
- Requirement for contributions to a benefit plan including pension, disability, etc.

The Writers’ Guild also offers a script registration service that costs $20 for non-members and $10 for members. Any literary material from outlines to scripts can be registered by following the procedure set out at the WGC website: www.writersguildofcanada.com.