Hollywood's Passion For Movie Remakes May Run Into Copyright Problems... Created By Hollywood
from the good-for-the-goose... dept
The MPAA and Hollywood in general have been very, very strong supporters of stricter and more restrictive copyright laws pretty much as far as they can go. Jack Valenti, for many years the head of the MPAA, has famously declared both that, if it were up to him, copyright would last "forever minus a day" and that fair use was not part of the law. But, of course, time and time again, we see that strongest defenders of copyright law often find that they get a bit upset when it constrains them as well. Eriq Gardner has the story of the rise in lawsuits over Hollywood remakes from the estates (or others who purchased the copyrights later) of authors claiming infringement over movies. The main case that resulted in the article is really quite impressive in the number of layers deep that the whole thing goes.Basically, Viacom (of course, a very strong defender of copyright) is being sued by an outfit called the American Rights Management Company, which claims to hold the copyright on a Damon Runyon story, Madame La Gimp, that was written in 1929. That story was later made into the movie Lady for a Day directed by Frank Capra. A few years later, Capra made yet another movie, also based on the same Runyon story, but this time, the movie was Pocketful of Miracles. About a decade ago, Jackie Chan made a remake, which was just called Miracles, which resulted in a lawsuit and a settlement. The issue now is another movie, which does appear to be either "loosely based on" or "inspired" by one or more of those predecessors, but made for an Indian audience in Bollywood, called Sing is Kinng. Follow all that? Here's the lawsuit:
While I do feel that Viacom should absolutely be free to make this movie (and others should be free to make their remakes as well), I do have to admit it's rather amusing to see Viacom and its strong pro-copyright stance potentially come back to bite the company.
Oh, and separately, it should be noted how ridiculous it is that the original Runyon work is still under copyright. When the copyright was registered -- as was required in 1929 -- the maximum the copyright could have lasted would have been 56 years. That was the "deal" that the US government made in exchange for the monopoly right, the work would go into the public domain by 1986, at the latest. By any measure, the work should be in the public domain. Of course, as we know, in 1976 we got ourselves a new copyright law and in 1998 copyright was extended again -- ridiculously applied retroactively. This is a breach of the agreement originally made, which had the deal extended without any benefit to the other side (the public). Oh yeah, and while copyright law today says copyright law is "life plus 70 years," you might think that this means Runyon's work should be in the public domain. After all, the man died in 1946 -- some 74 years ago. But, you'd be wrong. Because his works were published between 1923 and 1963 (and the copyright was renewed), it gets 95 years of protection from the publication date... meaning it doesn't go into the public domain until 2025 (assuming -- and it's probably a big assumption -- that there are no more copyright extensions).
Hmm. So if the MPAA hadn't fought so damn hard for copyright law changes and copyright extension, this particular work would have been in the public domain decades ago. But, thanks to the MPAA's efforts -- and Viacom is a major player in the MPAA -- it's covered by copyright for at least another 15 years. Oops.
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Filed Under: copyright, movies, remakes
Companies: american rights management, viacom
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Re:
And you think a system that encourages this type of behavior is a good thing? Wouldn't it be better if an artist could create a new work without having to worry about the lawsuits that "happen all the time"? I think we would be promoting the progress of the arts a lot more if we did not require all artists to maintain legal representation.
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No protections at all would mean that people could freely reuse the culture that they grew up in. How the hell would that be concentrated power?
Sure, Hollywood would have an initial advantage, but they've sucked so badly at wielding it that it wouldn't take long for a serious creative from Des Moines to out-class them.
People should not be forbidden from reusing their own culture. To do otherwise is what concentrates power.
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Lack of these types of protections may produce a lot of duplication of ideas and lots of 'garbage' content, but every man's garbage is someone else's gold - who's idea of a 'cesspool' are we supposed to rely on? Lots of what Hollywood currently produces falls into this category for me.
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Copyright lasts way too long.
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Some people, perhaps even you, need a TAM. This in itself is sad.
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What's good for the goose ...
Absolutely.
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Like I've said before, copyright is not about protecting the works, it's about protecting and enlarging the monopolies and propping up the status quo.
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Sucks for them...
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Check your math
You might want to check your math when you're typing your screeds. 1946 was only some 64 years ago. Sorry.
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Re: Check your math
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Remakes
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Re: Remakes
Exactly what movies are you talking about? Avatar? The Dark Knight? Iron Man 2? The Hurt Locker? The Spy Next Door? Where the Wild Things Are? The Fantastic Mr. Fox? Star Trek? (500) Days of Summer? Invictus? Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince? Paranormal Activity?
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Re: Re: Remakes
Umm...I think Hollywood produces a lot of movies that attract lots of viewers - and some good films too.
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But not Avatar. Avatar was a huge, expensive remake of an awful story released about 10 years ago to the pre-pubescent market under the title "Ferngully". Look it up. Its the same horrible premise about bad humans f'ing the little world of the fairies. Only in this case the fairies are huge and blue. Real big difference there. Cameron should go back to period pieces like Titanic. That was at least watchable.
"Unobtanium"? I mean, come on...
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http://autotelic.com/avatar_-_the_metacontextual_edition
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Might have well have been.
@Ima: "The ideas were the same, but that's true of nearly all movie."
English please.
@Ima: "If you can think of one completely original successful movie please name it."
Your not really going to make me do this, are you?
Citizen Cane. I can name a bout 100 others.
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I think that was Cameron's cry for help. Sort of like when the serial murderer leaves his driver's license at the scene hoping he'll get caught.
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Re: Remakes
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Oops...
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I love it.
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Re: I love it.
the little guys can't afford to sue, which is why the system is set up this way.
the big corporations can do whatever they want, regardless of the law. it was set up that way on purpose.
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As for this comment: "no, i think that the alternative (no protections at all) would lead to an endless cesspool of duplication of ideas, rip offs, and in the end, the power being concentrated on an even smaller pool of writers and producers stealing from everyone else. try to picture the alternatives, and realize that they aren't that good at all."
So nothing of interest was created before copyright laws were introduced? Yes, Plato, Aristotle, Virgil, Ovid, Horace, Homer, Lucian, DaVinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, the Maya, the Olmec, the Aztec, the Egyptians....nobody produced anything of interest before we came up with draconian copyright laws.
You know, I think none of Shakespeare's works would have been possible with copyright laws as restrictive as today.
Moreover, copying isn't the same as stealing. All creative work is derivative (haven't you seen that amazing video by Nina Paley?) and I don't think it should be considered a bad thing.
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Lawyers should take more art classes. They might learn, for example, about how collage has been around for a very long time.
Then again:
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!"
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Copyright length =
Unfortunately, Life+95 years is only the current make believe equation for calculating length of copyright. The true formula that they use is actually: Age of Mickey Mouse + 20 years. Once Life+95 starts getting close to the age of Mickey, we will see the a new formula to prevent Mickey from entering public domain.
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nothing new under the sun.....
If Copyrights were to last forever, and if stories that were even vaguely familiar could be sued.... Hollywood would be out of business.
If a company like Disney creates a character like Mickey Mouse and they continue to use him in some way, then they should be able to protect him forever. But if that character is abandoned for a period of time, then I think others should be able to use them.
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