| From: | ROBERSON@***.EDU |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Copyright |
| Date: | Mon, 5 Apr 93 01:07:52 CET |
Mr. Hayden brought up the subject of copyright, or Who Owns What And What They
Can Do With It. As an aspiring filmmaker myself (and damnit I'M going to make
the Shadowrun movie) I can sympathize with him in wondering how to give credit
and share the wealth with all the creative types who helped generate the
original source material.
A while back when I was working on a script, I looked at all the
copyright details I could. One of the most important parts was that an
_idea_ cannot be copyrighted. If you're sitting ina bar with George Lucas
and he tells you his entire storyline (off the top of his head) for the next
Star Wars flick and you go home home a write the script, the script is yours.
Now, things swing back and forth depending on how much work George had done,
but assuming he was just spinning drunken tales of Jedi and Wookies and
didn't have any documentation at home to prove he'd been working on the idea,
you get credit for the screenplay. Maybe not the story, but the script itself
is yours.
The thing about Shadowtalk is that it is interactive fiction. That meansthat it
was coleectively generated by all of us, but without much coodination
(except when a half-dozen would privately arrange an event). The 'product' as
a whole is sort of like Chaos Theory applied to the creative process. At any
rate, the procduct we collectively made is Shadowtalk@*****.Bitnet, a computer
log of transactions that collectively make a story.
Now, if you take that story and word-for-word transcribe it into a
script, then I believe there is some precedent for copyright infringement-you
are taking an already existing work (Shadowtalk) and making money off of it.
If, however, you simply take the idea-Computer Hackers from hell assist a
young AI in freeing himself from the evil corporation that sends MONICA out to
kill them all-and write an original work that bears little resemblance to the
logs, then you're in the clear. The tricky part is that line where the script
bears a marked resemblance to the story: that's what the courts decide.
At any rate, good luck on the script. If you're considering offering
it as a movie, this whole issue may not become relevevant (see quote below).
Then again, there are tons of movies made each year that no one hears about-
just read Variety for ads on such classics as "Shootfighter" and
"Shootfighter
II" (from the producers of 'Shoofighter', could you guess).
J Roberson
"My job is to listen to about 120 pitches for movies each day. If that slips
below 100 then I'm not doing my job. . . Collectively, this studio hears about
50,000 ideas for films each year. The problem is, we can only produce about
12."
--Griffin Mill, "The Player"
