Submitting your work

When you submit we expect all rights to be cleared on your stuff. This means it's either your own, completely original, composition or that those that have helped you create it, appear in it or whose stuff you have used are fully credited and have agreed to it being published and used by us in connection with Comedy Soup.

The things you particularly need to think about are: still and moving images and artwork, the script and any other text, actors, presenters and interviewees, music and other sound, locations, brands.

It is your responsibility to make sure permission is obtained for all the uses set out in the bbc.co.uk Terms of Use and the House Rules. You should ask for the permission to be given in writing and keep it for your records.

Make clearances as you go along, as soon as you can, rather than trying to get permission retrospectively. You may find that you encounter unexpected problems getting clearances for things.

Some tips:

Music

Music especially can be a stumbling block. The best way forward is probably not to use commercial music at all. Save yourself some hassle and expense. Can you do it yourself, or do you have friends who can help you out? Does it actually need music? After all, it's your hilarious script that we're all interested in really.

If you really want to include music, you should always make sure you can clear a piece of music before you use it. This includes all identifiable background music (e.g. a jukebox in a pub).

Whatever music you use there are two licences that you need to obtain for each piece: A publishing licence (from the people who own the copyright to the piece of music i.e. lyrics and composition) and a recording licence (from the people who performed the version of music that you want to use). You may need to pay for these.

There is no hard and fast way to find out who owns the rights, it is usually a bit of a maze with each piece, but the first port of call should always be the MCPS (www.mcps.co.uk). This company looks after titles on behalf of many artists. If you fax/email them a list of the music that you would like to use, they will often be able to tell you who owns it.

Products and Logos

All products or logos that are featured prominently (you don't need to worry about background props) need to be cleared for use by the manufacturers or businesses concerned. To avoid any future hassle it's often worth creating fictional brands.

Protecting your work

If you've written a funny script, you might be looking to legally protect it. The quick answer is that you can't copyright an idea but you can protect a script or a film or piece of audio by copyright, if it's your own original work.

Copyright and other kinds of intellectual property rights are complicated but you can find out the basics about how to protect your work at: www.patent.gov.uk/copy

Hang on, that's mine!

If you see something which you believe has infringed copyright - for instance, if someone has used something of yours without permission in a piece of work they have posted on the site - please alert the moderators using the button on the page concerned. The content will be hidden while we investigate, and taken down if it's found to have infringed copyright.