Frequently Asked Questions: Rights and Copyright

How do I get the rights to a script I found?

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We’re so glad that you’re interested in producing a script you found! We do not manage any of the rights or royalties for scripts hosted on our site. To inquire about rights, you need to contact the writer or the writer's representative. On most NPX profiles, you will find a Contact button you can use to reach out to a writer. On some of those profiles, you will also find contact information for the writer’s representative. Good luck!

I’m a student or professor at a college or university. Do I have the rights to produce any scripts I find?

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Your New Play Exchange subscription does NOT automatically grant you the rights to produce a script. Please contact the author of a script you are interested in producing, or their representative, to negotiate rights. Luckily, you can do that easily by visiting the profile of the writer whose work you are interested in.

How do you protect my script from copyright violations?

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The level of trust required to share your work on our platform is similar to the trust required when sending a perusal script to a theater, producer, or fellow artist. Ultimately, United States copyright law is what protects your script from violations. The work you share on the New Play Exchange is protected by that law, so any unauthorized distribution or production may be actionable. You can view our Terms of Use for more detail.

How do you protect my script from AI?

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Only logged-in New Play Exchange subscribers can view and download your work. No AI “bot” is able to crawl the site, automatically download scripts, and upload them to language learning models.