Pardon my French but just discovered 3 films made from my scripts on YouTube... that were all produced without my permission or knowledge ;-(

The first one (The L Equation) doesn't list me on the credits and has taken a romantic drama and made a shit comedy out of it... this was made by students at a University in Australia!

The next (also The L Equation), has at least tried to keep the tone but has cut so much out that it doesn't make a lot of sense. Oh and I'm not listed in the credits again.

The last one is a subtle drama about grief (A Furtive Response), well it was... and has been trashed in a badly colour corrected mess.

FFS!!!

ARRRGGGHHH!!!

So angry... does copyright mean nothing?

Rant over, now to figure out what to do about it!

Dreading looking at Vimeo ;-(

Sorry to hear that.  I've been the victim of this kind of crap before; a few times over.  How are you handling it?

With beer!

How did you happen to stumble across them?

I don't bother searching for my scripts anymore. It happens too often. The best you can do is firmly point out on the cover page that the script is copy righted and no one has permission to do anything with it without your permission. Sorry.  

The thing I can't wrap my head around is: why don't these idiots change the script title when they steal it?

Wes, I was trying to see if I could use Youtube to upload a work video which was too big for email, figured i;d upload and share it that way... Couldn't remember if I had a channel setup so searched my name... 4 legit shorts that I knew were there and these 3 new ones.

Dressel - worse, in each case they list the fact that they are based on my scripts in the little intro blurb below the video, i'm suprised they can operate the camera!

Pia - you may be right... But the student one I'm definitely complaining to the college, what sort of film classes are they teaching that dont cover copyright!

Oh and I think I'll report all 3 to YouTube for sopyright infringemrnt too.

Anthony, the student thing, I think, is because there's some law or something that let schools use any material regardless of copyright if it's for teaching/learning purposes only. I think the biggest victim of this is Dogglebe. This happened to him all the time. I have no idea what the actual rules are on this, but it's certainly annoying for us writers.

I don't think there's any blanket fair use exception just because it's for educational purposes. That's one factor that favors the alleged infringer using that defense but there are other factors that side against them.

If it really pisses you off (and that's totally understandable), raising a stink will probably get them to take it down.

Of course, you do whatever you wanna do. And sorry that happened. Seems like this is going on a lot recently.  

Yeah unfortunately copyright infringement doesn't cover use for nonprofit educational purposes.  Damn fair use exception.

You might want to look at this . . .
http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl100.html

Disclaimer -- I am not a practicing attorney nor have I taken the bar and nothing I say should ever be construed as legal advice.

There are four factors courts consider when applying the fair use doctrine. One factor is the purpose and character of the use. Nonprofit educational use tilts the scale for that one factor heavily in favor of the alleged infringer. There are still three other factors that can push things the other way. It is possible for a purely nonprofit educational use to fail the fair use test when courts consider all the factors together.

I do not have any knowledge of specific cases related to your situation. But I do know Universities prefer to avoid lawsuits. If you send a polite but firm email they might take it down. Same goes for any of the other individuals posting those videos. It's worth a shot.

That's fucked mate. I'm guessing they were shorts?

Want me to go bash those University of Australia punk ass bitches?

Yeah, typical bloody Aussies! Who do they think the are.

Seriously, commiserations, Anthony. Not even a writer credit. Very poor form.

Thanks for the support all.

I was unaware of students usage/fair use angle, I'm not totally convinced but will do some additional research.

I've certainly had conversations with loads of students, one made an art installation of The L Equation for his Masters dissertation and another bunch have used scripts in line producing classes etc... but all sought permission.

I think ethically, even if 'fair use' applies, shouldn't schools/universities teach students to seek permission, work with writers, credit people properly?

One of the students did reply to me overnight...

Hi Anthony,

I had to do use your script as a practice for screen class, nothing further. We don’t take ownership of your work in any form of way.
I don’t mean to infringe on your copyright. I am more than happy to take down the video.


I'll take her up on the offer of taking it down and push the other two to do the same.

Thanks all.