Who owns the rights?
Copyright, the law and licensing the show
An amateur producer once wrote to the playwright Moss Hart, pleading that the theatre he represented be allowed a waiver of royalties on one of Hart�s plays. It was absolutely perfect for the company�s needs, the man explained, except that the royalty fees exceeded the ensemble�s budget. Hart replied that, if it were up to him alone, he would be happy to say yes. �But the problem is my agent,� the playwright added. �I have to pay him ten percent of something!�
It�s a funny story, but with a grain of truth: the �something� Hart was referring to was the money, or royalties, he (and his agent) received for licensing performance rights under a contract that is based on United States copyright law. Almost every play, song, or musical (or excerpt) that is performed in public is subject to the payment of royalties. The only exceptions are works that are no longer in copyright either because the period of protection has expired, or because the author has deliberately, or negligently, released the work to the public domain (see the sidebar �Going public� for more on �public domain�).
Whether you�re a theatre teacher who produces one or ten shows a year�or an individual who produces shows in your community in any sort of public venue, for that matter�copyright is an issue you have to deal with. I�ve been involved with theatre as an actor, director, and, briefly, as an educator, for nearly thirty years. I also attended law school for a time, and worked as a paralegal involved in corporate litigation. Until recently, I thought I had a good grasp of how copyright laws work. From your years of theatre work, you might think you do as well. In the mid-1990s, in Oregon, I watched as a high school drama teacher got into serious trouble when he attempted an �innovative� production of the musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. He signed a contract, which he apparently did not read, that specifically prohibited most of the kinds of changes he made.
When a press release touting the production made its way to the legal department of the licensing agency, the teacher and his principal were rudely awakened with a very nasty letter. The incident prompted me to investigate more fully how play and musical publishers interpret U.S. copyright law.
My research showed me just how much of what I thought I knew was either not quite right or totally, even dangerously, wrong. I�m going to share with you what I found out. What I�m not doing is giving legal advice. I am not an attorney. My goal here is to prompt some questions that you perhaps never thought of asking and suggest some resources that can offer information that will answer those queries intelligently.
If you do have access to a good copyright attorney, you should certainly contact him or her every time you�re uncertain about what you can and can�t do. On the other hand, given how difficult it is to just raise funds to maintain a quality educational theatre program, unless the advice is free, it�s not likely your school can afford to pay for the kind of counsel that�s available to a producer working on Broadway or in the West End of London. Unfortunately, the potential penalties for copyright violations are the same for everybody�school theatre director and professional producer alike. As a teacher you should be strongly motivated by both financial and ethical concerns to take every opportunity offered for self-education in the business and legal matters of production. Having and using accurate information about copyright will not only provide some protection from unnecessary financial risk for you and your school, it will also model honorable behavior for your students.
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This page last updated on Sunday, May 4, 2008