Holy Copyright!

Joe Wilcox | February 02, 2005, 08:45 PM

I just came back from my daughter's school play auditions. Kids from the local elementary, middle and high schools will perform in the play, which I won't name.

Holy copyright! The authors are taking pennies from babies. The local cluster of schools hasn't done a play since 1992, and PTA organizers chose the same one to perform. Back then, the volunteer mom producer got rights for three performances in a big hall for $120. To secure rights for the same play in the same hall for the same number of performances would cost more than $1,300, she told me this evening as she fanned through the inch-thick contract. Seeing as how the money is coming out of depleted PTA funds and play ticket sales, there won't be three performances. Not for shelling out 1,300 bucks.

Instead, there will be two performances in a smaller hall for a cool $700 to the copyright holders. And absolutely no reproduction rights. That means no cameras, no camcorders and no opportunity for the PTA to sell parents tapes of the performance. I'd like to see how the play's organizers are going to explain to parents why they can't bring cameras or camcorders to film their kids. All because the copyright holders expect their cut.

The whole situation seems a little outrageous to me, grubbing money from kids for a play that was written for kids to perform. My quandary is the reason. Has our society reached the state where intellectual property rights are just about money and perhaps self defeating in their restrictions? I would answer yes and no to that one. How much has illegal file trading created more sensitivity about copyrights and who pays for performances. And more importantly, how much has illegal trade and reproduction affected copyright holder attitudes about something as seemingly innocent as grandad taping the kids' play?

The questions are important. For example, there remain legal uncertainties about fair-use with respect to digital content. Soon some cable channels will be able to scramble certain broadcasts, a tactic which feels oh-so late 1970s, early 1980s to me. High-tech vendors and content publishers are grappling over how to right protect high-definition DVDs, downloads or streaming throughout the home.

My advice to all parties: Don't kill the golden goose. My daughter's school play is example. I'll wager that if the school play doesn't break even, it will be another 14 years before the kids do another one. You do the math. That's lots of lost performance revenue for the copyright holders, much more than they would make for one's year's cost. And I don't even know what the full cost would be. The mom producer didn't say what the fees would be with performance rights. Maybe she didn't have to.