Using co-written script without co-writer's approval

Question

Just got some advice I want to run past you. I moved out here knowing how to write plays and sketch comedy but with almost no screenwriting experience. I didn't write a lot the first few years because I had three jobs at a time, then when I buckled down I ended up writing with an old friend from New York. Pretty much everything I wrote for three and a half years was with him and it was good. We came out with a couple treatments and two usable screenplays. Then we had a giant falling out when I figured out he was stealing cash and checks from me. I convinced him to go back to NYC & get help, but we haven't talked since then.
Anyhoo, it's been about a year and a half and I haven't finished a script since he left. A writer & DP I ran into asked all about this story, then told me I should just use the scripts I wrote with my ex- writing partner if they're so good. He said that I can send him half the money if it actually sells (he actually said I wouldn't have to, I insisted that my conscience dictated it), but most likely they're spec scripts and they're just going to be calling cards and nobody's going to have a big problem if I say my partner quit the business and I write alone now.
Does this sound plausible? Can I actually shop these scripts around?

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]Just got some advice I want to run past you. I moved out here knowing how to write plays and ... partner quit the business and I write alone now. Does this sound plausible? Can I actually shop these scripts around?[/nq]
It sounds plausible in the land of "I'm kidding myself."

Let's say you're partners with somebody. You own a business together. Could you sell the business on your own, without telling your partner and just "split the money?"
Think about it this way. You're on one side of the country, selling Script A without bothering to tell your partner about it. At the same exact moment, he's on the other side of the country, selling the same script (which, presumably, he'd have exactly the same right as you, to do) to somebody else, without bothering to tell you.

And at exactly the same moment, pens touch paper and agreements are made.
Whose sold the script to whom?
If you both own the scripts together, you can't possibly both have the right to sell the scripts independent of the other. And I'm betting that he didn't convey to you the sole right to sell the scripts.

Since you are both co-copyright holders, you have to both agree.

In fact, one of things that you swear to when you sign an option agreement is that you are the sole rights holder and have the right to convey the rights, in total to whomever you're selling the script to which you are not, and which you do not.
So you either have to go back to your ex-collaborator, like it or not, and get some kind of release from him that says that you can sell the scripts and he'll split the proceeds, or else you have to just shrug and say too bad they can't be sold.
NMS

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Does this sound plausible? Can I actually shop these scripts around?[/nq]
And by "shop around" I pretty much mean "use them to get representation." I know that specs don't sell too often.

Usenet · Answer

See, that's what I thought. But the guy who gave me the advice knows more people than me and doesn't drive a ******* tour van for a living so I thoght he might know more than me.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Just got some advice I want to run past you. I moved out here knowing how to write plays and ... partner quit the business and I write alone now. Does this sound plausible? Can I actually shop these scripts around?[/nq]
I'm sure it happens all the time. But that's not a reason to do it.

Did you have any sort of contract or letter of agreement with him (Marybones and I spent three months coming up with a partnership agreement before we committed one word to paper).
I dunno. My first incination is to say Don't Do It. But then... given all the circumstances you describe it's a Maybe.
Would you circulate it with his name credited or not? I'd say you have to include him in the credits if you do circulate it.

"If you can, tell me something happy."
- Marybones

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Just got some advice I want to run past you. ... this sound plausible? Can I actually shop these scripts around?[/nq]
[nq:1]I'm sure it happens all the time. But that's not a reason to do it. Did you have any sort ... his name credited or not? I'd say you have to include him in the credits if you do circulate it.[/nq]
But even then, it's a bit of risk, because if somebody wants to buy it he's going to have to get on the phone and call this guy because they're both going to have to sign off on the deal. They're co- copyright holders.
And if the other guy doesn't co-operate, or even if he just can't find him, he's up the creek. It means he's going to have to call whoever wanted to buy the script and tell him sorry. I can't sell it to you. I can't find my writing partner.
I think he's got to bite the buillet and call the guy first.

NMS

Using co-written script without co-writer's approval

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