Heard that producers are looking for scripts in the public domain. I know you shouldn't try to write fads, but a guy I know sold his script almost solely because it was a sequel to a novel in the public domain. So, I've had a concept for a PETER PAN sequel for a number of years and thought, why not. Can't figure out exactly what the copyright status is....Can anyone help?

Copyright status
The copyright status of Peter Pan varies from one jurisdiction to another, and is disputed in at least one of them. The question is complicated somewhat by the various versions in which the story has been published. For example, elements introduced in the earliest versions of the story by Barrie may be in public domain in a given jurisdiction, but elements introduced in later editions or adaptations might not. For example, Disney holds the copyright for the character designs, songs, etc. introduced in the 1953 animated film, but not for the characters themselves.

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European Union
Great Ormond Street Hospital (to which Barrie assigned the copyright as a gift before his death) claims full copyright in the European Union until the end of 2007. In the 1990s, the term of copyrights was standardised throughout the EU (see Directive on harmonising the term of copyright protection) to extend 70 years after the creator's death. Although Peter Pan was considered public domain in some jurisdictions at that time, this provision placed it back under copyright protection.

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United Kingdom
The U.K. copyright for Peter Pan originally expired at the end of 1987 (50 years after Barrie's death), but was reestablished through 2007 by the European Union directive. Additionally, in 1988 the government had enacted a perpetual extension of some of the rights to the work, entitling the hospital to royalties for any performance or publication of the work. This is not a true perpetual copyright, however, as it does not grant the hospital creative control nor the right to refuse permission. Nor does it cover the Peter Pan sections of The Little White Bird, which pre-dates the play. The exact phrasing is in section 301 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988:

301. The provisions of Schedule 6 have effect for conferring on trustees for the benefit of the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, London, a right to a royalty in respect of the public performance, commercial publication, broadcasting or inclusion in a cable programme service of the play 'Peter Pan' by Sir James Matthew Barrie, or of any adaptation of that work, notwithstanding that copyright in the work expired on 31 December 1987. ([1])

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United States
The conversion of U.S. copyright terms from a fixed number of years following publication, to an extending number of years following the creator's death, has introduced confusion over Peter Pan's copyright status. Great Ormond Street Hospital claims that U.S. legislation effective in 1978 and again in 1998 extended their copyright until 2023. Their claim is based on the copyright for the play script for Peter Pan, which was not published until 1928. By then, the character of Peter Pan had appeared in three previously published books, the copyrights of which have since expired.

GOSH's claim is contested by various parties, including Disney, who had cooperated with the hospital previously, but in 2004 published Dave Barry's and Ridley Pearson's Peter and the Starcatchers without permission or royalty payments. The Library of Congress catalog states that the original edition of Peter and Wendy was published in 1911, and Disney asserts that that material, like any other work published before 1923, was already in the public domain at the time of these extensions, and was therefore ineligible to be extended.

A dispute between the hospital and writer J.E. Somma over the U.S. publication of her sequel After the Rain, was settled out of court in March 2005. GOSH and Somma issued a joint statement which characterized her novel as "fair use" of the hospital's "U.S. intellectual property rights". Their confidential settlement does not set any legal precedent, however. [2]

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Other jurisdictions
The original versions of Peter Pan are in the public domain in Australia and in Canada (where Somma's book was first published without incident).

bodegage,

Man, that is a hard example.  I mean, if you are writing, for fun, a sequel to Peter Pan, I'd say, 'go for it'.  However, if you have a Peter Pan sequel that you are trying to sell, that is another matter.  Barrie's intent was to have Great Ormond Street Hospital be beneficiary of royalties from “Peter Pan”.  A worthy cause.  Honestly, if you’ve written a sequel, shop it around and let the studio worry about it.

Dab

As I head into my third revision of TSC, I'm taking out anything that may configure with copyright laws.  Virtually all copyrighted things in the story are self explanatory and subject to elmination, but there's two things that I'm still curious on.

Those who have read will know what I'm talking about, those who haven't, I'll try to explain clearly.

1)  I'm considering changing the opening sequence to the gang filming their version of a James Bond film.  I know not to include any music or anything, but when they do that standard James Bond opening, where that circle thing is on him and then he fires a shot at the camera, if I were to actually use the name "James Bond" to describe what's going on, will that violate the copyright?

2) Same goes for the closing Shaft sequence, only when they're doing their "remake" the title "SHAFT" appears on the screen and one of the guys takes the role of him.

I've done some looking up on shtuff like this, and I don't know if my desired plan is scraping the edges or not or if I will need a release form or perhaps alter it further.

Any knowledge on this would be appreciated.  Thanks

I sat through twenty hours of copyright junk at a film class in Texas this past year...It's hard to remember, so I can't really tell you what the guy said about this kind of stuff. But I would think that you would need to get the people who own the James Bond franchise to sign something saying that you can use it. You can do this or a creative lawyer can do this...I'm not sure how to get a creative lawyer though...

I'm not sure if you really HAVE to do this, but I wouldn't take any chance with this kind of stuff...

=Me

Tough one. I'm not sure I know the answer. I guess it depends how much you use. I mean, there are a ton of movies packed full of pop-culture references. I can't see how what you're doing is much different. You still have your Star Wars parody, right?

I'm almost certain you can use 'James Bond-style' in your description, but there is probably another way to write it without mentioning the franchise (I like the Bond idea btw)

I wouldn't worry about it too much. If your hero drove a Cadillac or worked for Fed-Ex, would you feel the need to omit the name? It's only a problem if you're portraying that product in a negative way.

Actually, I have a similar question to Greg's if anyone has the answers.

A character in one of my scripts quotes Aldous Huxley in dialogue, mostly from The Doors of Perception, but also one or two of his other essays. Huxley is mentioned in the script, but the quoted dialogue isn't referenced and sometimes it's even paraphrased. Anyone familiar with The Doors... would probably recognize a few quotes, but obviously I don't want anyone thinking I'm stealing from another author. The character quotes Huxley's work like a thespian might quote Shakespeare. I'm not sure how to handle this.

If you want to include a literary work that is protected by copyright in your film, whether spoken by a character or displayed on the screen, you will generally need permission. You will also need permission to adapt a copyright literary work into a dramatic form such as a screenplay.

There are many other areas in film regarding copyright and you can read an 8-page PDF document by the Australian Film Council (which says pretty much the same thing as US and European bodies would) at:

http://www.copyright.org.au/publications/pdf/infosheets/G069.pdf

Ah, Kevan to the rescue.  Well, it says that generally film titles aren't protected by a copyright.  As far as the gang's remakes of Shaft, Star Wars, etc., that may be a different story.  

Thanks!

Hi guys,

well I hava a question :

A know a few things about copyright, and adaptations where you always have to ask for permission!

but let's say your screenplay is inspired by some small things, for instance : "a gun", a prop, or just the setting, are we then speaking of copyright?

Hi Pedro! What do want to adapt, pa? A book, characters or scripts already produced, no produced scripts or produced movies?

RPEDRO, can you explain a bit further? I don't quite understand.

Gabriel

well, it's from a manga, I don't want to adapt the characters,

but I like the idea of the gun!

I just like the gun, and would like to use a look a like gun!

I mean,

I don't want to adapt the story of the manga!

I like some small things, and it inspirated me to make somehting different!

is that copyright also?

Well, I know that ideas are not copyrighted. The structure its in is. So I think you could utilize it. Ideas are up for grab with anybody. The story that's told to convey the idea are different and thats copyrighted, so I think your free to use the gun idea.

Gabriel

Hope this helps

thanks a lot all!

you really helped me out on this!