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spudthedestroyer
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Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2008 1:59 pm Post subject: Public Domain - our rights? |
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Site Admin Joined: Sat Nov 02, 2002 1:35 am Posts: 19755 Location: En España
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I was wondering if anyone had delved into copyright law and could advise me on our rights regarding "trademark", script and imagery from a public domain movie. This is a generic question rather than citing a specific example, so whilst I have a specific film in mind, I'll keep it vague. The film in question is an old cult favourite, and has been released several times, including being colourised which is usually a good sign regarding its public domain status, appears on archive.org and contains a link to the creative commons licensing agreement: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/Quote: | Dedicator recognizes that, once placed in the public domain, the Work may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, used, modified, built upon, or otherwise exploited by anyone for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial, and in any way, including by methods that have not yet been invented or conceived. |
My interest is on the name of the movie, which I believe comes under the rights of public domain, the use of select imagery and basic plot traits. I believe that each of these can be used for use as parody/reconstruction and retransmission without risk of copyright infringement and will not effect the creators rights or ownership of the end 'product'?
_________________ Mouse nipple for the win! Trackpoint or death!
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GrindCallus
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Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 8:34 pm Post subject: Re: Public Domain - our rights? |
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The Devil, Probably Joined: Sun Mar 27, 2005 2:43 pm Posts: 2250 Location: C.L.R.'s Grave, Hackensack, NJ
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spudthedestroyer
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Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 8:58 pm Post subject: Re: Public Domain - our rights? |
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Site Admin Joined: Sat Nov 02, 2002 1:35 am Posts: 19755 Location: En España
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I got more fruitful information at fileheaven: chrissiecool wrote: | well as i understand you can do anything you like with public domain movies unless a remake has been made with the same title in which case that title will surely be copyrighted hope you aren't remaking Night of the Living Dead which is now in the public domain |
spudthedestroyer wrote: | chrissiecool wrote: | well as i understand you can do anything you like with public domain movies unless a remake has been made with the same title in which case that title will surely be copyrighted hope you aren't remaking Night of the Living Dead which is now in the public domain |
Yeah i was aware of the copyright issues they had with Night, its probably one of the best public domain movies out there. Night of the living dead has already been remade twice: http://www.dead-donkey.com/modules/shar ... vies&id=86http://www.dead-donkey.com/modules/shar ... ies&id=636and colourised: http://www.dead-donkey.com/modules/shar ... vies&id=87It does raise a question, since it has been remade (twice), would that mean "Night of the Living Dead" can not be used? Has ownership been reclaimed with the remake? I was reading an interview with the guy that made the Day of the Dead remake, and he stated reasons for changing the plot, one of which was that George Romero would not allow him to use Night or Dawn as reference points, he could not use characters of either and he could not continue the plot of either. Which makes me think Night may have been reclaimed with the remake. Then again I don't trust that remaker, he had the balls to say Day of the Dead was the weakest movie and saw room for improvement before giving us his half-assed attempt. However, I don't have any aspirations to insult a movie, nor do i think I have the talent to jump into such butchery. Its an entirely different film that is unbelievably crap, and its largely some plot elements and the name that I'm after |
Sons_Of_Liberty wrote: | Well, this is what I take on it. The public domain can also be defined in contrast to trademarks. Names, logos, and other identifying marks used in commerce can be restricted as proprietary trademarks for a single business to use. Trademarks can be maintained indefinitely, but they can also lapse through disuse, negligence, or widespread misuse, and enter the public domain. It is possible, however, for a lapsed trademark to become proprietary again, leaving the public domain. And it seems to vary country by country... Don't know if any of these links can shed any insight...but from my understanding if there is a remake, it's then copyrighted for a certain amount of time and then brought back to the public domain, and trademarks can be kept indefinetly, maybe there is someone you can write to and clarify this.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domainhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonny_Bono ... ension_Acthttp://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html |
mersault wrote: | IANAL. spudthedestroyer wrote: | My interest is on the name of the movie, which I believe comes under the rights of public domain,the use of select imagery and basic plot traits. I believe that each of these can be used for use as parody/reconstruction and retransmission without risk of copyright infringement and will not effect the creators rights or ownership of the end 'product'? |
Select imagery and basic plot traits should definetely be usable if it's public domain. That's what public domain means; anyone can use the material for any purpose, including derivative works. The name of the movie probably falls under trademark (if it's trademarked!). You can probably check with the country the movie was made in to see if there's a trademark by that name registered. If you're doing parody or something similar, you should be able to do that with copyrighted works as well. I believe it's called Fair Use in some countries. Even though being a derivative work, parody is of different nature than the original work. spudthedestroyer wrote: | It does raise a question, since it has been remade (twice), would that mean "Night of the Living Dead" can not be used? Has ownership been reclaimed with the remake? |
Remakes do un-public-domain the original work. As long as you make a derivative work of the original, not of a remake, it should be all right. As to the trademark of the title, I'd assume that remakers would not be able to trademark the original name, since trademarks are supposed to be unique names to identify products. |
_________________ Mouse nipple for the win! Trackpoint or death!
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