Resources for copyright and licensing information


Books

The first two books I�ve listed are particularly valuable. The Kohn On Music Licensing text is in the $150-$200 range, so you might want to check it out in the library to see if you want to make the investment.

Producing Theatre : A Comprehensive Legal and Business Guide, by Donald C. Farber (2nd edition), Limelight Editions, New York 1997. The first chapter has a good overview of public domain and �small� and �grand� performing rights questions. But note that the book predates the passage of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 (often referred to by legal professionals as the CTEA), so Mr. Farber�s references to durations of copyright terms are 20 years less than the terms as defined by current law. (See Chart.)




Kohn On Music Licensing, by Al Kohn & Bob Kohn, (second edition), Aspen Law & Business, New York 1996; one volume and forms on computer disk; updated by supplement periodically. The part of most interest to theatre educators would most likely be Chapter 18, �The Grand Rights Controversy�, though Chapter 14, �Synchronization Licenses,� is of more interest and application than most realize.







The Performing Arts Business Encyclopedia: For Individuals and Organizations as well as the Attorneys and Advisors Who Assist Them, by Leonard D. Duboff, Allworth Press, New York, 1996

Media Law for Producers, by Phillip Miller, (third edition), Focal Press, Woburn, Massachusetts, 1998

Show Business Law: Motion Pictures, Television, Video, by Peter Muller, Quorum Books, Westport, Connecticut 1990


Articles from journals and magazines

Copyright for Sound Designers�, by Tom Mardikes, published in TD&T, Vol. 37 No. 2 (Spring 2001) (Theatre Design & Technology, the journal for design and production professionals in the performing arts and entertainment industry, published by United States Institute for Theatre Technology). At the time of publication, Mr. Mardikes headed the graduate sound design program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, was resident sound designer for Missouri Repertory Theatre and had served as commissioner of the USITT Sound Commission.

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 inital publication, and does not necessarily reflect the state of the law at the time a later reader peruses the article.
All of the articles printed in National Forensic Journal (the scholarly journal of the National Forensic Association), since the journal began publishing research in intercollegiate speech and debate in 1983, are being posted in PDF form as links from http://cas.bethel.edu/dept/comm/nfa/nfj.html

Sequencing and Copyright�, an excerpt from �The Digital Orchestra: New technology is changing the way we make music� by Rick Compton, published in Dramatics, Volume 72, Number 3, November 2000, pp. 28-35. Includes quotes from representatives of the �Big Four� musicals licensing houses (Tams-Witmark, MTI, R&H, Samuel French), defining their companies� various stands on the use of synthesized scores in licensed performances.


Play publishers/Licensing agencies

Baker’s Plays, P.O. Box 699222, Quincy, Massachusetts 02269
Call (617) 745-0805; fax (617) 745-9891
E-mail Baker’s Plays
http://www.bakersplays.com

Broadway Play Publishing, Inc., 56 East 81st Street, New York, New York 10028
Call (212) 772-8334, or fax (212) 772-8358
E-mail [email protected]
[email protected]
Email questions to Christopher W D Gould, Publisher at:
[email protected]
http://www.broadwayplaypubl.com

Dramatic Publishing Co., 311 Washington St, Woodstock, Illinois 60098-3308
Call (800) 448-7469, or fax (800) 334-5302
Customer Service Contacts for Dramatic Publishing Co.
(including Web Services and E-mail listings):
http://www.dramaticpublishing.com/customer_service.php

http://www.dramaticpublishing.co m

Dramatists Play Service, Inc., 440 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10016
Call (212) 683-8960, or fax (212) 213-1539
E-mail [email protected]
http://www.dramatists.com

Music Theatre International, 421 West 54th Street, New York, New York 10019
Call (212) 541-4684, or fax (212) 397-4684
E-mail [email protected]
http://www.mtishows.com

Pioneer Drama Service, P.O. Box 4267, Englewood, Colorado 80155
Call (800) 333-7262, or fax (303) 779-4315
Contact information, including e-mail links to various departments, at
http://www.pioneerdrama.com//contactlist.asp
http://www.pioneerdrama.com

Playscripts, Inc., P.O. Box 237060, New York, NY 10023
Call 1-866-NEW-PLAY (639-7529), or fax 1-866-NEW-PLAY (639-7529)
E-mail [email protected]
http://www.playscripts.com

Popular Play Service, PO Box 3365, Bluffton, South Carolina  29910
Call (843) 705-7981
E-mail [email protected] (or [email protected]?)
http://www.popplays.com

R&H Theatricals
(formerly The Rodgers & Hammerstein Theatre Library)
,
229 West 28th Street, 11th Floor, New York, New York  10001
Call (212) 564-4000 or 800-400-8160 or fax (212) 268-1245
E-mail [email protected]
http://www.rnhtheatricals.com

Samuel French, 45 West 25th Street, New York, New York 10010
Call (212) 206-8990, or fax (212) 206-1429
E-mail [email protected]
http://www.samuelfrench.com

Tams-Witmark Music Library, 560 Lexington Avenue, New York, New York 10022
Call (212) 688-9191, 1-800-221-7196,
or fax (212) 688-5656
Contact information page with links to both online and printable Request Forms for reading copies and royalty and rental information at http://www.tams-witmark.com/contact.html
http://www.tams-witmark.com

Theatre Maximus, 1650 Broadway # 601, New York, New York 10019
Call (212) 765-5913.
(Licensor of
Godspell, which beginning 1/1/2000 has been co-licensed by Music Theatre International)

Theatrical Rights Worldwide, 1359 Broadway, Suite 914, New York, New York 10018
Call (866) 378-9758, (646) 736-3232, or fax (212) 643-1322
E-mail [email protected]
http://theatricalrights.com
(Founded in 2006: offers video licenses for many properties in its cutting edge catalog of musical theatre pieces)


Websites of interest

With the advent of the internet, there are innumerable sites that can help you better understand copyright and licensing. I�ve listed some of the ones I�ve found most useful. No doubt there are others. The Web, like the law, keeps changing.

Brown, Pinnisi & Michaels, PC
http://www.bpmlegal.com
This law firm in Ithaca, New York, has a good set of copyright Q�s and A�s on their site.

CETUS: �Fair Use of Copyrighted Works: A Crucial Element in Educating America�
http://www.cetus.org
This is the electronic version of a pamphlet published by the Consortium for Educational Technology in University Systems (“CETUS”). While the Consortium�s focus is on issues facing university faculty, teachers at all levels are facing many of the same issues, and will face them with increasing frequency, as new electronic aids to the education process collide with traditional interpretations of the copyright laws,
and the laws are amended to try to keep pace with the developing technology.

�Copyright For Video Producers�
by Douglas Spotted Eagle
http://www.sundancemediagroup.com/articles/copyright.htm
As both a Grammy award-winning musician /composer /recording artist (a specialist on the Native American flute) and an Emmy award-winning videographer (a digital video pioneer, a working professional and an instructor with Sundance Media Group/VASST), Douglas Spotted Eagle is very familiar with both sides of the use of copyright-protected music in video production: the annoyance copyright can cause the producer, and the protection it offers the musical artist. In this article, posted with author�s permission on numerous sites on the Web, Mr. Spotted Eagle offers a series of hypotheticals and provides copyright analysis to assist the untrained and the unwary.


�Copyrights�
by Eugene R. Quinn, Jr.
at IP (Intellectual Property) Watchdog dotCom
http://www.ipwatchdog.com/copyright
This link replaces one that formerly took the reader to a page with the title �Copyright Law For Academics�, also prepared by Mr. Quinn, and apparently since removed, which started with this language:
�This page is dedicated to providing information for academics interested in learning more about Copyright Law in general, but particularly those issues that related to fair use. It is important to remember that not-for-profit academic uses are entitled to far more leeway than most other alleged fair uses. Having said this, it is important to remember that academic uses can and do sometimes constitute infringement of copyrights.�

�Copyright Laws for Theatre People�
by Dr. Louis E. Catron, Professor of Theatre
College of William and Mary
http://faculty.wm.edu/lecatr /copy.htm
A discussion of copyright issues related to producing playscripts (and a wealth of links to other Websites on related topics, including a dead link to the former site of this one).


Dramatic Publishing Co.
http://www.dramatic publishing.com
A page linked to from the Licensing page is entitled �A few words about �Cutting� �Adapting� and performing �Scenes From Plays��


Dramatists Play Service
http://www.dramatists.com
The Rights and Restrictions page: includes three articles by Craig Pospisil, DPS director of non-professional rights: �Changing the Script� (copyright), �Obtaining Permission� (restrictions), and �Copy Cat� (photocopying and video taping)
Note: This page seems to have disappeared in the redesign of the DPS website -- more information to come.

The Groton, Connecticut, School District
http://groton.k12.ct.us [DEAD LINK]
This Connecticut school district features a well-organized online copyright manual on its Media Technology Services/Policies & Procedures page. Since this article first appeared in print, the Specific Applications: Performances and Displays section (http://groton.k12.ct.us/mts/eg8.htm) has been revised to discuss the fair and licensed uses of recorded music, dramatic performances, and other media in greater detail. In addition, the Copyright Office's new Distance Education Study -- which recommends changing the performances and displays section of the Copyright Act [110(2)] to address the needs of digital distance education -- will receive additional attention there. If new guidelines and/or new legislation follow up the recommendations of the Copyright Office, theater teachers who teach in distance learning environments will benefit.

Kohn On Music Licensing
http://www.kohnmusic.com
Maintained by the authors of the book of the same name, this site calls itself �a free resource for anyone who has questions about copyright law and licensing music.� Features include Q&A conferences on related matters, and links to most relevant music licensing sites, such as ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and the National Music Publishers Association/Harry Fox Agency.

Lawgirl.Com
http://www.lawgirl.com
Attorney Jodi Sax works in LA in music/entertainment law. Her copyright basics is geared more toward artists seeking copyright protection, but it clarifies the fundamental things everyone needs to know.

Music Theatre International
http://www.mtishows.com
The Customer Support FAQ page addresses several topics including how to obtain a performance license, why you can�t change details of a show, why some shows are restricted and why videotaping is prohibited.
Note: This page seems to have disappeared in the redesign of the MTI website -- more information to come.

National Music Publishers Association
http://www.nmpa.org
The NMPA page links to the Harry Fox Agency, which acts as the licensing intermediary for most NMPA member publishers. The site includes a searchable database of all copyrighted songs (including copyrighted arrangements of public domain materials) published by members and downloadable licensing forms.

Playscripts, Inc. Rights page
http://www.playscripts.com/rights

Rodgers & Hammerstein Theatricals
http://www.rnh.com
Unfortunately, the April 2008 revamping of the R&H Website appears to have caused the (at least temporary) disappearance of once-active links to information regarding royalties and to a Q&A area that answered the following questions: �May we videotape our production?�, FAQs page that includes the following questions: �May we videotape our production?� (the answer to which is not the same as it was when the article was first published in Teaching Theatre, but the links to information about licensing of �keepsake� videos for certain properties, and the application form for such licenses, are also now missing), �Can we cut scenes, songs, lines of dialogue in the scripts you have provided?,� and �How do we go about getting permission [to perform an excerpt at our local theatre festival or participate in competitions]?�

"10 Big Myths About Copyright Explained"
http://www.templeton s.com
Brad Templeton, the publisher of several online newspapers, addresses the most common misconceptions about copyright. Craig Pospisil of Dramatists Play Service says, �He sets the record straight in a clear concise manner.� It�s true.

Title 17 of the United States Code
http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/title17
For the last word: a complete online text of U.S. copyright law, with links to the U.S. Copyright Office and Library of Congress home pages.
(A once available Hypertext Annotated Title 17 appears to have disappeared from the Web -- and that seems a shame, since as its authors very truly stated: �Statutory construction is rarely linear in form, and Title 17 certainly is not. Rather, it is self-referential in the extreme. Its interpretation is nearly impossible without reference to the acts which came before it, the legislative history concerning its creation, and the context of case law in which it is embedded. Thus, the copyright statute is a prime candidate for publication as a hypertext document. We have attempted to present Title 17 as faithfully as possible while at the same time making it more navigable than ever before.�


Breaking news

�Theater's Alive With the Sound of Laptops�
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/theater/25green.html?ei=5087%0A&em=&en=4fcc40e1c4cf168f&ex=1174881600&pagewanted=print
Article by Jesse Green of the NYTimes staff, dated March 25, 2007: Newer developments in the growing use of synthesized accompaniment

The Neil Simon File:
1) Brighton Beach Memoirs: Risqu� scene kills school play
Posted to this site 8/19/02
Article by Rodney Tanaka of the Glendale News-Press staff, dated March 25, 1999: �Director wanted to leave out sex-related part of Neil Simon play. Playwright wouldn�t allow it.�
(Really good statements on all sides: the student players suffered not being allowed to go on, but learned a lesson along with their teacher, who characterized it as a teaching opportunity for �honorable� behavior, and the district at least gave lip service to the need to examine that play review process.)

2) Rumors: Swear words spur dilemma and a lesson
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20030810/ai_n11408638/print
Article by Lee Benson of the Salt Lake City Deseret News staff, dated August 10, 2003: Pleasant Grove dinner theatre wrote to Simon�s attorney requesting permission to change language offensive to community standards. �The attorney wrote back, �Do the play as written . . . or not at all.��

Students� stage roles set off drama debate
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/99/02/st021112.html
No longer active link
Article by Kate Taylor of The [Portland] Oregonian staff, dated Thursday, February 11, 1999: �Presentations at the State Competition of Oregon Thespians highlight a perennial battle in school districts over artistic freedom�
(But there is no mention in this or the following article of the copyright issues raised by the presentation of one or more possibly unlicensed excerpts-Rent had not yet even been released to a licensing agency for amateur production.)

Schools must navigate minefield in choosing plays
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/99/02/st021409.html
No longer active link
Follow-up article by Mark O�Keefe and Kate Taylor of The Oregonian staff, dated Sunday February 14, 1999: �St. Helens� response to a performance of a scene from �Rent� by visiting Lake Oswego High School students reflects the often differing values of communities�
(Again no mention of possible copyright implications, including those of the now-retired LOHS drama director�s past history of �comb[ing] plays for offensive material� and �strik[ing] lines that contained profanity.� (There were links to no longer active related articles.)

The Web yanks a U.S. agency into legal limelight
http://www.msnbc.com/news/420 375.asp
As reported in this article by Anna Wilde Mathews of The Wall Street Journal, dated June 14, 2000, �The U.S. Copyright Office, once an obscure niche of the Library of Congress, is finding itself in the middle of a legal controversy as the Internet raises knotty questions about how people use, borrow, steal and protect intellectual property�
Warning: if you click on this link, your back button may not return you to this page.
NOTE: This link was apparently expired by 2/2/01 -- it may be available through the WSJ.



Click on your browser�s back button to return to where you came from,
or here to return to Index

All original material Copyright � 1999-2008 Kevin N. Scott
Creative Commons License
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]
(edit out the "_NOSPAM" before sending)

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 Wednesday, January 21, 2009
 
This page found at http://www.geocities.com/k_n_scott/Copyright4Producers/resources.html
Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1