why would you want the rights to something you didn't pay for, and allegedly have no intention of using? It is absolutely essential, for legal reasons, to get

why would you want the rights to something you didn't pay for, and allegedly have no intention of using? It is absolutely essential, for legal reasons, to get a signed waiver of copyright from any person that you accept spec work from. Otherwise, when Ferriss' book cover comes out, and it is red and blue with a muscular-looking guy on it, every single person who submitted a red-and-blue-muscle-guy cover will sue him for copyright infringement. There could be hundreds of them. This is why screenwriters are told to never, ever send unsolicited manuscripts to movie studios. The studios will send them back unopened, encased in slightly larger envelopes, because even opening the envelope will create legal risk: If your script for Transformers 3 has been opened, your lawyer will be able to claim that the studio has seen it, and that the giant metal Cuisinart that appears in the final movie was obviously inspired by the giant metal Kitchenaid that appears in your script, and that they owe you $1 million.