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THE SCREEN WRITER
bias that is utterly disastrous to their professional interest. For when they become merely human, and want their money, and perhaps accuse a colleague of becoming all-too human, and committing a little piracy, he seems to fall victim to an acute, irritated disillusionment, and begins inventing fine-spun and far-fetched law for the benefit of the defendant. He has never, as a matter of actual record, given a verdict for the plain¬ tiff. Members of the Los Angeles bar now advise clients NOT to sue in plagiarism cases. They believe, as they often put it, that a case cannot be won before Judge Yankwich “without 149 pages of carbon copy with typographical errors.” For all practical purposes there is no federal copyright in the City of Los Angeles. Literary works may be stolen with perfect impunity, and in fact are stolen oftener than is commonly realized, for the picture companies make it a practice not to sue each other.
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Stalking through the foregoing, casting his shadow over the whole dismal tale, is a villain, and it’s the same villain whether the question be magazines, publishers, theaters, movies, radio, bureaucrats or courts. The writer has but one formidable enemy, and that is himself; like Jurgen, he lives in a hell of his own creation. It would put a much better face on the matter if it could be said that practices have grown up around him so malignantly that he is the victim of circumstances beyond his control. But, allowing for the conspiracies he faces, and the extraordinary attitude the Government takes toward him, this would not really be true. It would be hard to imagine a profession where practice carries so little weight as it does in writing. The grim, sorry fact which the writer must face, if he hopes to improve his situation, is that the practice is born with each deal as he makes it. The contract governs the case. Unless fraud is present, it determines all issues that arise.
As in the old law of prize, where evidence came solely from the capture itself, every pertinent fact in a writer’s case will be found in his contract. It will do him no good to cite Jack London’s contract, or point out that Winchell Smith had the benefit of certain practices that permitted him to get rich, which he is denied the benefit of. This would be so much chatter, if a court would listen to it at all. If Jack
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