Copyright for Creatives

3.1 Recorded Performance

Let's start by clarifying what we mean by "recorded performances". For the purposes of this conversation, when we talk about recorded performances, we're focusing on television shows, movies, and professionally produced musical and performance arts shows that are captured to a film or similar media. This also includes albums, audiobooks, and other high-quality produced audio material. The kind of things you might check out from a library or watch on your television or stream from Netflix or Hulu.

What makes these recorded audio and video performances nice is that they have a copyright symbol and year listed at the end of the credits. Older shows and movies often display the year in Roman numerals, giving kids stuck in that particular topic in math class plenty of opportunity to practice reading those numbers. (True story: While the reason movie studios started using Roman numerals in their copyright is unknown, it's suspected that they did it to obscure the actual age of the movie so it wouldn't be disregarded by later audiences as "out of touch". Television studios picked it up, and it became "tradition". It's only in recent years that we've started seeing regular numbers widely used.)

I personally run into it every time I narrate an audiobook. I have to include the production year in the copyright notice at the end of the book. And if the original book was in the public domain, I have to include both the book's original publishing year and the production copyright year. I'm even starting to include it on my Instagram and YouTube videos.

Why is it so important to include the copyright year (or years) on these recorded media? For the same reason we put it everywhere else. These recordings are protected by copyright by virtue of being published in a tangible or digital medium. And they remain protected until they reach the Public Domain under the laws of the country where the rightsholder legally resides.

What this means is all of those reboots, sequels or prequels that come years after the original release have to be mindful of the copyright. If the legal entity behind the new material isn't the rightsholder, they have to find the rightsholder and secure a license to work with that material. (If the rightsholder laughs in their face, that's it. Game over. If the new creator continues their work in the manner they were planning, they risk running into legal issues.)

This also has the additional side effect of affecting who can share this material and how. Remember, one of the rights protected by copyright is the right to display or distribute. That means that while a free community movie night might slip under the radar, the same movie night offered as a fundraiser is most likely going to be a violation of the copyright. Crazy, huh?

This is also why some television series and movies aren't available on DVD or through streaming services. In most of those cases, the rightsholder either has declined to license the distribution rights, or can't be found. One of the more interesting situations in my own collection is the 80's cartoon M.A.S.K. The first seasons were released in a box set several years ago, but the last season wasn't included. When people started asking, the distribution company Shout Factory explained that they had been trying to find the rightsholder for that last season to get those rights or a license, but were unsuccessful. That's right. Different companies owned different parts of the series. It happens.

And it affects display (including syndication rights) and distribution.

It's something to think about when you get a strike on YouTube for posting that television show episode you recorded with your phone. There's a reason you get in trouble for it. It's best avoided by, say it with me now, not being that person. So maybe just leave posting copyrighted material to the rightsholder and enjoy the show.