>OK, so forgive an ignorant question on my part. Who owns the script of, for
>instance, "Value Judgements" (which was never produced) or "Grey 17 is
>Missing," (which, AFAIK, has never been published), or "Day of the Dead"
>(which has been published on its own) or "The Coming of Shadows" (which has
>been published in multiple books)? Do JMS or Neil Gaiman or Fiona Avery own
>the scripts they wrote for the show or does Warners?
>

Under the WGA Separation of Rights provision, the studio owns the characters
and the concept, but the writer owns the physical script and can do with it
whatever he/she wishes, so long as in doing so no copyrighted images are used
on the cover of, for instance, books containing those scripts.

>> Granted it would be better if the rest of the folk who worked on the
>> picture got a *share* of the actual copyright, rather than a diminishing
>> residual, but this is not exactly the same situation as an author's
>> relationship with a publisher.
>
>And who gets residuals? Producers? Writers? Star actors? Guest stars? Any of
>the production staff?

Residuals are not a part of ownership or copyright; they are deferred
compensation, if the film or tv series does well, they benefit, if not, they
lose. Everyone on your list gets residuals except production staff.

jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
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