Who owns the rights?
Copyright, the law and licensing the show
Thank you for visiting this site, which began its checkered
career as a way of organizing material for an article which was
published in the Summer 1999 issue of
Teaching Theatre quarterly, (Volume 10, Number 4).
The article, as published, is available
online at http://www.edta.org/ pdf_archive/ copyright2252001155629.pdf --
I wish to thank editor James Palmarini for his patience and assistance.
Please also note that a not-exhaustive listing of discovered errors and updates to the published article is posted here.
I hope the information in both the print and Web versions proves helpful in dispelling a number of myths that have attached themselves to the general understanding of this subject. I would like to point out that, by my comments here, I am not trying to repudiate the philosophy of the director as an original, creative artist in the theatre. I am just pointing out how important it is to remember that artistic freedom must coexist with respect for the rights of others. Even famed theatre auteurs like Peter Sellars and Jonathan Miller reserve complete abandon for works in the public domain, and collaborate closely with living authors (or the representatives of those whose rights have survived them). (Conversely, in 1984 Samuel Beckett nearly closed down JoAnne Akalaitis�s American Repertory Theater production of his Endgame because she chose to set it in an abandoned railway station, rather than follow his stage directions. Though Beckett finally allowed the production, in 1994 his estate legally blocked the the European tour of an acclaimed British production of Beckett�s Footfalls because it departed from his stage directions.)
Like all Web sites, this one is a work in progress, which will be updated as new material becomes available (and old links disappear), so repeat visits and constructive criticism are both invited.
An article that may be of particular interest and importance to
those who teach both drama and forensics is
�Performance and Copyright: Avoiding the
Pitfalls�, by J.G. Harrington, originally published in the
National Forensic
Journal, Volume VII, Number 2 (Fall, 1989), at pp.
127-132. There are some confusing differences among the
various exceptions which may be available for the performance
of certain materials protected by copyright without first
obtaining the permission of the copyright owner, and the
author distinguishes the educational exception,
available under very specific conditions for all materials,
and the free and non-profit performance exception,
which is not so restrictive in its conditions, but which is available
only for �non-dramatic� works.
When I approached Mr. Harrington about permission to
post this article on this Website, he was quite concerned that
it be understood that
any refererence to �current copyright law� in the article was
to the state of the law at the term the article was being
researched and prepared for initial publication, and does not
necessarily reflect the state of the law at the time of a later
reading.
Another excellent copyright Website of particular interest and importance to those who are involved in theatre at any level is � Copyright Laws for Theatre People� by Dr. Louis E. Catron, Professor of Theatre at the College of William and Mary. The site features a discussion of copyright issues related to producing playscripts (and a wealth of links to other Websites on related topics).
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The article (pretty much as it appeared)
- Introduction
- Copyright: what is it?
- Licensing a show
- The myths of copyright
- What you can and cannot do
1. Dramatic works (plays and musicals)
2. Unstaged concerts of excerpts from musicals and other music
3. Staged concerts and revues
4. Dramatic rendition of music
5. Charity or free performances
6. Photocopying, arrangements and adaptations
7. Audio or video recording - Getting caught
Sidebars
- A brief history of copyright
and play licensing
The rise of theatrical publishers
Changing players - Going public: When work is protected by copyright and when it's not
- “Fair use” --a sidebar by Donald A Corathers, EdTA director of publications and communications, and editor of Dramatics magazine
And finally
- Resources for copyright and licensing information
Books
Articles from journals and magazines
Play publishers/Licensing agencies
Websites of interest
Breaking News
The original material on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
To request permission for commercial reproduction, please contact me at:
E-mail address: [email protected]
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Permission to reproduce work by other authors included in this site must be obtained from the owners of the copyrights on those works.
This page last updated on Friday, March 27, 2009