Dead Authors' Estates Preventing Even The Slightest Revisions To Works
from the creativity-not-allowed dept
Justin Levine points us to the news that a revival of Ira Levin's famous play Deathtrap has been canceled because Levin's estate doesn't approve of very slight modifications in the play -- including one character disrobing and showing his naked rear for about 30 seconds, as well as this version of the play making it clear that a relationship between two males was a gay relationship (something not explicitly stated in the original, though many other interpretations have assumed the same thing). Either way, after the estate demanded changes to the staging, the LA Gay & Lesbian Center who was putting it on decided to cancel the show altogether, rather than having the estate give them creative notes.Now, this may be entirely legal, but does that make it reasonable? One of the great things about plays is seeing how different companies interpret them -- sometimes in very different and creative ways. It seems overly controlling and silly to seek to block certain showings because they don't conform to the way the estate wants the play performed.
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Filed Under: adaptations, culture, deathtrap, ira levin, publicity rights
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We know *that* money is what funds this site, so in the spirit of transparency -which you claim to be a proponent of- please just go ahead and be forthcoming about that.
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"We know *that* money is what funds this site"
*citation needed*
Who pays you?
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Me too...and I am as big of a Google fanboi as most Apple iPhone users are of Apple. Android Rulez!
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That seems like a sensible plan to me...
/s
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Can someone please get this man/woman some help?
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Hey AC- what was your declarable income from MPAA/RIAA-related entities last year?"
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ad homs and violence are the refuge of the incompetent.
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Thomas Babington Macauley already warned us in his 1841 speech
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Copyright_Law_%28Macaulay%29
(Still, his best prediction is this: And you will find that, in attempting to impose unreasonable restraints on the reprinting of the works of the dead, you have, to a great extent, annulled those restraints which now prevent men from pillaging and defrauding the living.)
Still some fucking morons thought extending the duration of copyright to after the death of the artist was a good idea.
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Re: Thomas Babington Macauley already warned us in his 1841 speech
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Re: Re: Thomas Babington Macauley already warned us in his 1841 speech
Fixed that for you
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Man, you must have lived a sheltered life!
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Obviously you're an idiot.
Ever watch Lord of the Rings?
It's different from the book.
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I think making the relationship in "Deathtrap" explicitly gay is ham-handed, especially since it's covert in the context of the story, but the Levin estate is being puritanical. It serves them right -- and the rest of us us poorly -- if the play fades further into obscurity.
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Modifications are the norm. I've watched Hamlet 5 times in the past few years and each time it was presented in it's own original ways.
Honestly to me, you might as well be asking "Why make these 'modifications' to fries? What need is there to add ketchup, cheese, spices, garlic..." I hope you get the point.
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Re: Why make these "modifications"?
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Now, in this sense it opens up an interesting dilemma with this kind of issue. If Levin had intended that the characters were actually gay but was unable to make it explicit due to the social and political climate of the time he wrote it, it's likely that he'd have approved of the changes. If so, the estate is actually being allowed to *block* the author's intent rather than actually protect him in any way...
Of course, I might be completely wrong, but we will never know (unless Levin has some comment on this type of situation made before his death I'm not aware of). But, if I'm correct, this could be one of the more objectionable consequences of post-mortem copyright. Since corporations and the like will be often driven to profit as much from a work as possible rather than consider artistic merits, they could block uses that the author would have applauded in case they reduce the bottom line somewhere. Another defeat for the artstic argument for copyright being required.
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Perhaps it is different now.
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It's about time we put the copyrights of the dead artists where they belong to: the public domain.
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I don't know about making my body public domain, but if there is anything that I have created over the many years I've been here that isn't already under public domain (a majority of it is either public domain or open source,) I am on record now in saying that everything I have created that isn't public domain should be released to the public domain.
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and this is by supposed adults? pathetic!
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We can debate the morality of this, and it has been debated by people more knowledgeable and profound than anyone on this blog, but to the thinking of a large part of religion you have provided sufficient proof that what is really being discussed is moral degradation.
If you do not understand the implications of that then you have to go no further than today's world news headlines to see what happens in other parts of the world when such perversions occur.
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I absolutely agree; religious bigotry keeps whole societies stuck in the bronze age, foments violence and condones murder all over the "holy land", blights the lives of countless--
Wait... those are the perversions you're talking about, right?
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It's immoral to imply that society or morals are being degraded because people don't fall in step with your personal cultural definitions.
Society as a whole suffers when you force your cultural standards on another person for no other reason than "I don't like you, that's why"
If you can give me a reason beyond religion as to why you have a problem with this gay and lesbian center then have at it.
I find ugly, stupid and retarded people having sex offensive and they probably negatively effect society by producing more ugly, stupid and retarded people in this world.
Can you come up with a reason how gays and lesbians negatively effect society and develop an argument without using religion as your crutch?
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Correct me if I am wrong, but don't most religions include "tolerance" as a part of their teachings?
And as a side note, based on my personal interactions with people who describe themselves as "religious", the words "thinking" and "sufficient proof" have much less importance then the word "faith" does to them.
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Re: tolerance
The short answer: "No!" Maybe Christianity, but no others. (Consider yourself "corrected")
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You mean "moral degradation" like the Islamic extremists who think that you should be killed, raped and pillaged for not being of their brand of Islamic faith?
You mean "moral degradation" like the extremist Jews in Israel who think it's acceptable to say that you can rape Arabs because they're not Jews?
Come back to me when you have a valid point that isn't, "I'm more orally superior to you because I have a faith and you disagree with me."
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Christians give better blowjobs?
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Maybe reasonable
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Re: Maybe reasonable
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Re: Maybe reasonable
Just because you can do something, doesn't mean that you should.
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"It seems overly controlling..."
Like, it seems we could use some stronger language to tell such estates what we think about them?
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He's dead.
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In the theatre world everyone is taught that the playwright is god, and everyone must bend to the playwright's will.
As playwright, I think it's a big joke. It basically says nobody else is allowed to be creative or contribute to the piece, which goes against the whole process of producing a play. Who's to say the changes won't improve the production? One presumes the director and theatre companies knows their audience well enough to justify the changes, which seems to be the case here.
It's really just the playwright trying to maintain their stature in a collaborative medium. It's all ego, and it's especially perverted when it's the estate and not the playwright themselves that are making demands.
Another reason why we need copyright reform so more works can return to the public domain.
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Your forthright clarity earns you blogspot number one!
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But honestly, a playwright is nothing without a director and actors. Calling their input invalid is just pompous. But they don't get to stand on stage and get applauded, so maybe they're just jealous.
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Think about it.
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Not minor changes
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Re: Not minor changes
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Re: Not minor changes
Do you have a citation for that? Unless Levin specifically said that, or he left explicit instructions to that aim, you don't know that at all. It could be just as likely that he wanted to go further in his original production but couldn't because the audiences of the time wouldn't have accepted it.
"The Center can do its production when the play goes into the public domain 70 or so years from now."
...so, Levin's wishes are OK to ignore after 70 years? What would change about them between now and the time copyright expires? Why is it moral to change them then but not now, other than an arbitrary limit that allows someone else to temporarily make his decisions for him?
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Re: Re: Not minor changes
He'd be more dead.
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What?
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Re: What?
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why plays aren't changed
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