Copyrights and Educational use
- October 21, 2006 @ 2:11pmmusicman88 says:Hello,
I'm the director of a student run theatre group at my High School. We want to use a movie script to produce a play. We have contacted several company's and it seems that because the movie is so old no one really owns that copyright. Would our group be able to use the script as an educational use and not charge admission? Would this be legal? - October 23, 2006 @ 9:42amMKardick says:Assuming that you contacted the correct companies that would be the case. HOWEVER - I would want to be absolutely sure I exhausted all avenues so there are no issues later. While charging admission is one aspect of copyright responsibility, it is also a matter of giving a public performance. On the home page of this forum are two things you will want to examine. One is the public domain chart and the other is the resouces section. The reason for the first one is obvious. The second item is where you will find information on how to get permission. Look these over to make sure you did a thorough job. Remember this forum is not intended to replace legal counsel. If you still have questions I would contact your school district's legal advisors for advice.
- October 24, 2006 @ 6:07amGClement says:I agree with MKardick on the need for you to *thoroughly* investigate whether the movie script you hope to use is still protected by copyright. Determining who owns or owned the copyright for a movie script may be difficult and time consuming and may mean you run into some dead ends along the way.
Your posting mentions that the "movie is so old no one really owns that copyright". Technically it is possible that a movie script written in the late 1920's or 1930's is still protected by copyright.
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