Script rights conflicts! help!
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Topic: Script rights conflicts! help!
Posted By: Guests
Subject: Script rights conflicts! help!
Date Posted: 1/21/03 at 1:55pm
Needing to either be set straight or have the ammunition to set my board straight, please help!
Several people on our board want to do Monty Pythons Holy Grail as a play. We cannot seem to get an answer from "the Python People" and have to make a decision. I do not believe it is ethical, nor do I feel it is safe, to use somebody elses intellectual property without having permission. One person believes that if we dont charge admission we are safe, one believes that we are too small and a big company doesnt really care, one believes that they will never know anyhow. I believe that situational ethics suck and that stealing is stealing. I believe that we are risking being closed down and sued if we do not go about getting the rights. Does anyone know for sure? What are your feelings? Please answer soon, we have to make these decisions!
Angel
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Replies:
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 1/29/03 at 6:21pm
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You are right in your opinion on this matter. My suggestion is not to even think about messing around with copyrighted material. You would be very surprised how word can get out to the most unlikely of places. There is no play version of "Holy Grail" in existence and I wouldn't try an adaptation without the express permission of the Monty Python troupe.
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 3/08/03 at 10:31am
You are right, both legally and morally. No show can be done before an audience (paying or not) without permission of (and royalties to) the owners of the property. Here's how many contracts would say this:
Royalty must be paid whether the play is presented for charity or profit and whether admission is charged or not. A play is performed any time it is acted before an audience.
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Posted By: Chris Polo
Date Posted: 3/15/03 at 10:58am
What you're describing is a "derivative work," or a new intellectual property based on a pre-existing property. A movie based on a play or a play based on a movie are both examples of "derivative works.". Copyright law is very clear about who may produce a derivative work: only someone who has explicit permission from the owner of the original piece may create a derivative work. Doing so without that permission is a clear violation of US copyright law.
OK, so now you know it's a clear violation, and you can tell your board that. The problem you're facing is not whether you can or can't put on the play -- you can't -- but whether you can break this law and get away with it. In THAT debate, consider the fact that you will publicize your play somehow in your community, where presumably none of the Python troop have summer homes. Do you have a web site where you publicize your shows? Will information be published in the local newspaper? Does the paper have an online component? Is it possible that an actor may now, or at some point in the future, place his or her resume on the web and include the fact that they appeared in the production at your theater? Will somebody send an e-mail to someone who doesn't live in your community raving about this wonderful production they saw at your theater? My point is that we don't produce plays in a vacuum, and people are going to know that you're doing this, not just in your community, but possibly world-wide. And if someone among the many thousands or millions of people working in the movie industry learns about it, your group could be in deep kimshee.
Don't do it.
For more information about derivative works, straight from the US Copyright Office, check out http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ14.html
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 3/15/03 at 1:25pm
I really apreciate everyones help, luckily I was able to get the board to see thier obligation to be honest and do things the right way. I totally agree with you, one never knows how far the ripples in the pond will go. Besides that its just not ethical. I am astounded by how people who would never consider any other form of stealing just dont get how taking intellectual property is wrong. Thank you again for your time and help.
Angel
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 5/07/03 at 12:41am
I know this story has a happy and legal ending but I have to share a quick story about how fast word travels. Our theater (in the Pacific Northwest) mentioned in passing that "The Vagina Monologues" would be a good play to produce. Nothing was done about it, it was a passing idea and the local University had already performed. A few months later, the author contacted our President and told him that she had heard about us producing it and that we were to cease immediately. We had never even seriously considered producing it, but word still got around.
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 5/29/03 at 2:25pm
Angel;
You are correct in your thinking...copyrighted and published materials are not "free for the taking".
a. "Don't charge admission"...nope..contracts provide that a royalty is due ANYTIME a play is performed.
b. "We are too small"...nope..break the law and they will make you even smaller.
c."They won't know" ...all it takes is for some disenchanted person to report you. Also, some publishing houses send out "stringers" to see their products. Rare, of course...but can you take that risk?
(My experience is based on 20 years of reading and writing contracts for a Fortune 500 company).
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