Legal Screenwriting question

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  • Legal Screenwriting question

    Anyone have any legal expertise here? may i ask a few questions?

    Thanks... here goes.

    rights:

    SAy i want to write a screenplay BASED on an actual event (i.e. True Crime drama, Serial Killer who actually existed, etc.). Do i need to get the rights to the story first?

    ok, another question...

    Say I want to write a screenplay BASED on another story (written by a well known author). "Based on", meaning that the base story is the same but the characters (names, origins, driving force, speech patterns, everything else) are original ideas.

    EXAMPLE:
    Original story --
    The Last Starfighter: 1985
    A boy is a video game wiz. The game he plays turns out to be a training course. He is recruited into space to save the universe. he does.

    my story --
    The Hero of Id: 2002
    An *updated* version starring a girl. Same base story but all the names, places, and characters are different.


    Do i need the rights to 'The Last Starfighter' to make 'The Hero of Id'?

    Or, say something like "Campfire Tales", where there is a base story and a bunch of short stories told within the base story?

    EXAMPLE:
    (though i've never seen Campfire Tales) I assume it's something like:

    Original --
    Campfire Tales: 1990
    A bunch of campers on a riverbank. They try to scare each other with spoooooky tales. Tale 1: dog fight; Tale 2: cat fight; Tale 3: dogs and cats... living together... it's chaos! between each tale, the campers dialog and hear spooky noises in the woods. they all die in the end.

    My story --
    Campers Delight: 2002
    Same story about the campers EXCEPT they are my original characters with original dialog. The 3 tales, though, are all completely different spooky tales.

    would i need rights to "campfire tales" to make "campers delight"?

    I'd like to have a credit saying "Based on the original story 'Last starfighter' by Johhny Comelately" or "Inspired by the original film 'Campfire Tales".

    What would be the difference between "based on" and "inspired by"?

    I am not trying to "rip-off" someone else's story. that's not why i ask the question. What i want to do is "re-write and Re-tell" the story for today. I adore the original films. i believe that they are classics but i want to adapt them for today. Is that possible without getting the rights to the originals?

    I am not worried about paying for the rights. My main concern is that *my* stories are not mainstream-style films. There are things that the original writers may/would object to (i.e. In campers delight, i may make the campers necropheliacs. They die, in the end, by the hand of a current cadaver/plaything's angry husband)... or something just as strange. THIS IDEA IS JUST FOR ARGUMENT's SAKE.

    Oh, oh oh! ...or a great (tame) example would be 'Oceans 11' (which is a film I dreamed of remaking about 10 years ago). did they have to get rights to make the new version?

    What if they didn't call it Oceans 11, but told the same story they did in the new version? would they have needed the rights?

    Thanks for any help/information.

    Kyle

    again, I am not looking to steal someone else's work, i just LOVE a couple of older films and want to retell the stories with a bit more "hot chilli pepper flavor" to them.

  • #2
    I'm not a legal expert but...

    Look at all the movies that rip off other movies. And since you can't copyright ideas, you should be fine.

    Also you see some movies have a disclaimer in the beginning, stating that the work is fiction and any resemblance to actual events are coincidental.

    Now you definately cannot remake Ocean's 11 with permission. But can you have robbers break into casino vaults...sure.

    But this is just conjecture, since I have no legal experience.

    D

    Comment


    • #3
      Ideas and general plot lines cannot be copyrighted. The only thing you cannot copy from a protected work are the words themselves. If a court would recognize the words of the protected work in your words, you have infringed on the copyright.

      You cannot describe your work as "based on" a protected work: not because of copyright, but due to misrepresentation problems: if the work is close enough to be based on a protected work, it is close enough to be infringement. If it is not close enough, then it would be misrepresentation (to the public) to call it "based on."

      Comment


      • #4
        <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> The only thing you cannot copy from a protected work are the words themselves. If a court would recognize the words of the protected work in your words, you have infringed on the copyright.
        <!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->

        There is so much more to copyright infringement than just using the exact words of an original work. And a court could find copyright infringement even if elements of the original text have not been used but it is not acceptable to use the premise of another work and populate it with your own characters speaking your dialogue.

        Sure basic ideas and general plot lines are not protected under copyright law but the words of emphasis there are <!--EZCODE BOLD START--> basic<!--EZCODE BOLD END--> and <!--EZCODE BOLD START--> general<!--EZCODE BOLD END-->. Even startling similarities between works are allowed if they result from simultaneous, independent inspiration.

        You cannot use the premise and mythos of THE LAST STARFIGHTER even if you change the names and settings. You are basing your work on another and must obtain the rights or permission to do so. Unless you drastically change your story and make it unique enough, you are on dangerous legal ground (not to mention the ethics involved).

        When writers question whether or not they need to obtain rights to another work, it is usually enough of a red flag to indicate they probably should or risk stepping over the line.

        In such circumstances, you should spend the money and speak with an attorney versed in copyright law.

        Comment


        • #5
          RE: Legal screenwriting question...

          KYLL,

          You don't have to ask if you may ask a question and it's okay to ask an illegal screenwriting question.

          Welcome to DD!

          Comment


          • #6
            Just to weigh in with a different spin...

            Why try to launch a writing career with an idea that smacks (strongly) of some other film? Forget getting rights...forget inquiring about rights...your project will likely never get that far. Some studio reader is going to look at it and say "He ripped off Last Starfighter. PASS!"

            Instead of announcing to Hollywood the arrival of a major talent, following too closely in some other film's footsteps is a sure way of trumpeting the arrival of yet another derivitive wannabe who lacks original ideas.

            Establish yourself...make a name for yourself in the business...and then you can toy around with new takes on other people's movies. Which is not to say that you can't do some sort of genre piece (rom com, thriller, teen com, horror, sci-fi), just make it your own.

            JEFF SCHECHTER
            www.totallywrite.com

            Comment


            • #7
              Thank you all for your input. I appreciate it greatly. it is exactly what i wanted to know. Thank you.

              I already assumed that I'd have to get the rights or permission to make this film, but i just wanted to get some other views on the subject.

              here's a little background on me:

              I have written a number of screenplays (12 original, 2 "based on" other works), I am in various stages of writing 6 other screenplays (original works), and have ideas for -- about 20 other original screenplays.

              I know. You're about to ask "why?". "Why haven't I shopped anything around if i've written so many screenplays?"

              I write so much because i LOVE to write. I am an aspiring Independent filmmaker. I don't plan on shopping any scripts around to hollywood. I started writing, not knowing the intense work behind *making* the films and the legal hullabaloo is completely confusing to me, so I do plan on getting a lawyer.

              Anyway, Thanks again for the input.

              Kyle

              Comment


              • #8
                A Different Shade Of Vermillion

                What Jeff said - besides the legal aspects, why tell a story we've heard before?

                Let's use CAMPFIRE TALES as an example, since the writer pops up on the Misc.writing.screenplay boards sometimes and I've bumped into him in person a couple of times.

                CAMPFIRE is eaxactly as you guessed - an anthology of scary stories with the campfire as the wrap-around. It's similar to DEAD OF NIGHT (classic anthology with people telling scary stories in an old mansion after dark), ASYLUM (with crazy people telling their stories to a shrink), TALES FROM THE CRYPT (the movie - where a crypt keeper forsees the future of a group of people at a funueral), TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE (where a comic book comes to life), TALES FROM THE HOOD (written by a couple of people I know - about a Black mortician who tells scary stories about the four dead guys he's just embalmed), and a dozen others.

                All of these films have scary stories, but what makes them different is the wrap around. That's what gives them their identity. The "selling point" to the audience is that they've never seen this wrap around before.

                ASYLUM's wrap is a real corker - the new head of a mental institution arrives to discover the guy who had the job before him was murdered by a lunatic patient. But which one? So he interviews each of the crazies trying to find the killer. Each crazy tells the story of how they came to be in the mental institution (a scary story) and by the end of the film we find out (TWIST!) who the killer is. The wrap gives the film an identity - and each of the scary stories is PART of the larger story - they're all about crazy people.

                Compare that to HOOD - where a group of gang-bangers are out to find a stash of drugs and are caught by the mortician who tells them about the dead guys in the coffins. It's an URBAN horror movie, and all of the scary stories deal with issues the Black audience can relate to. There's racism, street violence, and a great story with David Alan Greer as a seemingly nice guy... wife & child beater whose son finds a way to get revenge against with a new form of voodoo. The urban setting gives the film an identity, and each of the scary stories is part of the larger story.

                A film like this is all about the "wrap around" - that's what makes it different than the other anthology films with scary stories.

                Just changing the sex of the lead & the names in a story may save you from copyright problems, but it doesn't make your story ORIGINAL. You are still using someone else's story, when you need to be thinking of YOUR story, something that speaks to YOU, something that YOU are passionate about and emotionally involved in.

                - Bill

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: A Different Shade Of Vermillion

                  <!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote>Quote:<hr>
                  Say i want to write a screenplay BASED on an actual event (i.e. True Crime drama, Serial Killer who actually existed, etc.). Do i need to get the rights to the story first?
                  <hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END-->
                  From whom? Whom do you believe owns those rights?
                  <!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote>Quote:<hr>
                  Facts and events are already in the public domain.

                  <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> Clearance and Copyright<!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> by Michael C. Donaldson, page 28, Silman-James Press, Los Angeles 1996.
                  <hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END-->
                  <!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote>Quote:<hr>
                  People posess rights to privacy and publicity that you cannot invade, and a right not to be put in a false light. When you purchase someone's life story rights, they waive the right to file a lawsuit based on a violation of those rights.

                  Op. Cit. page 32.
                  <hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END-->
                  <!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote>Quote:<hr>
                  If you feel the urge to pay a felon for life story rights, see a lawyer. At least you won't run afoul of the law.

                  Op. Cit. page 33.
                  <hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END-->
                  <!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote>Quote:<hr>
                  <!--EZCODE BOLD START--> ANNOTATION GUIDE FOR SCRIPTS BASED ON FACTS<!--EZCODE BOLD END-->

                  Annotated scripts should contain for each script element, whether and event, setting or section of dialogue within a scene, notes in the margin which provide the following information:

                  1. Whether the element presents or portrays:

                  a) Fact, in which case the note should indicate whether the person or entity is real; with respect to a person, whether (s)he is is alive, and; with respect to all of the foregoing, whether a signed release has been obtained.

                  b) Fiction, but a product of inference from fact, in which case the information described in 1.(a)should be provided; or

                  c) Fiction, not based on fact.

                  2. Source material for the element:

                  a) Book

                  b) Newspaper or magazine interview

                  c) Recorded interview

                  d) Trial or deposition transcript

                  e) Any other source


                  <!--EZCODE UNDERLINE START-->NOTE:<!--EZCODE UNDERLINE END--> Source material identification should give the name of the source, page reference (if any) and date (e.g., <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> The New Yorker<!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> article, page 27, August 1, 1988). To the extent possible, identify multiple sources for each element. Retain copies of all materials, preferably cross-indexed by reference to script page and scene numbers. Coding may be useful to avoid repeated, lengthy references.

                  Descriptive annotation notes are helpful. (e.g., setting is hotel suite because John Doe usually had business meetings in his hotel suite when visiting L.A., <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> New York Times<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->, section 1, page 8, April 1, 1981).

                  Op. Cit. page 39
                  <hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END-->

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    gothamwriter post

                    "There is so much more to copyright infringement than just using the exact words of an original work. And a court could find copyright infringement even if elements of the original text have not been used"

                    Then the court would be wrong. And what is the "so much more?" Is there something more than words in a screenplay?

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: gothamwriter post

                      So you really believe you can copy a screenplay, without using the same exact words, and you are not guilty of copyright infringement?

                      As a test case for the rest of us, please take a screenplay and slightly change the names, settings and dialogue. Then lets see how far you get. Since you are not using the exact text, you should be fine.

                      Comment

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