Hello everyone. We're here at the Full Frame Theater at Duke to talk about film for the next couple of lectures. Films are like other copyrightable works in that the rights holder has exactly the same bundle of rights as every other rights holder in other mediums. That is, they have a right over reproduction, the making of copies. They have the right to make derivative works, which with films is very, very important. They have a right over distribution. They get to control public performance and public display. And they have that odd right that we talked about in our music module about digital, audio transmission. But copyright in film is much more complicated than that because films are often multi-layer works that involve lots of different creators who own lots of different rights. There may be a script. There may be a soundtrack. There's probably a copyrightable set design, or other visual elements, visual effects and such. Each may involve a separate copyright and separate creator or creators. These parts of the film also may have been licensed or even assigned separately. That is, there may be transfers of copyright. Films are often also adaptations from a play or a novel, or from another film from another country. We also see a lot of sequels, which are derivative works of an earlier version, or even just remakes. Films may be part of a series as well. And then you'll have a chain of derivative works. And then as we already said about soundtracks, there may be music that's written for the film, or they may use music that was written separately, or both. So there may be lots of different copyrights there. And finally, in some cases, characters may be protected by copyright, when they're sufficiently well defined and distinctive. So, for example, if we think about the James Bond films, you have this kind of complex relationship of rights. It's based on an Ian Fleming book, or they are based on Ian Fleming books, so they're derivative works from the book. The script is written for each individual film, so there's a script that's separate from both the film itself and the book that it's based on. There is probably copyright in the James Bond character because he is so distinctive and well known. And then there are also very distinctive theme songs that are often hits in themselves that are used as part of the movie. So there's a lot going on in those movies. >> There's always a lot going on with film. [LAUGH] >> There is. >> And public domain in film is no exception. So a film might be based on a work that's in the public domain, and at that point, the new elements are copyrightable. But in other cases, the underlying work on which the film is based, is in copyright, but the film, the derivative work, may have passed out of copyright into the public domain. And that usually happened in the 20th century when the right's holder failed to register or renew the copyright. There are a couple of fairly famous examples of this. One is the movie Rear Window. >> Mm-hm. >> Which went into the public domain, but the short story on which it was based, had had the copyright registered and renewed and this case went to the Supreme Court. The makers of the movie had to pay royalties to the rights holder of this story. Another example is, It's a Wonderful Life. Again, the copyright registration in the file wasn't renewed but the registration and the underlying story was. And in addition, the soundtrack was independently copyrighted and renewed. So consequently the elements of the story in the movie that are still in copyright make it impossible to show the movie without them. >> Mm-hm. >> So for example, you wouldn't want to watch It's a Wonderful Life with no soundtrack. So in effect, it functions as if the movie were still in copyright, even though it's really not. >> You'd have to treat the whole as a copyrighted work. >> Right. >> Because there are parts that are inseparable that are protected. >> Yeah, it's just impossible to unravel it. >> Sure. >> It's interesting how often we say tangle when we talk about the- >> [LAUGH] Yes, it is. >> [LAUGH] Movie copyrights, but it is important to try to untangle these questions because of the complicated relationship with the rights and the rights holders. So thank you for watching and listening.
