John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara in "McLintock", 1963, Public Domain due to failure of timely copyright renewal 28 years after publication
When A Film Is In The Public Domain, Is The Screenplay In The Public Domain Too?
I have a public domain question – if a movie is in the public domain – does it also mean that the script it was based on is also in the public domain? May I rewrite/reshoot the script? Or is the only the movie as “a whole” in the PD?
Thanks,
Chris
Hi Chris,
Thank you for this – it’s an excellent question and one that very few people think to ask.
For all practical intents and purposes, when a film enters the public domain, it’s screenplay enters the public domain right along with it. Federal courts have upheld this time and time again.
However, there is one little catch that you need to be aware of and if you need more info I can explain in greater detail but for now I’ll give you the short version…
If you are basing your re-shoot solely on the actual public domain film itself (using the old film as your script essentially) then you’re fine, no problem.
If you are actually recreating a film from the actual original screenplay of the public domain film, then you have to be careful – any material in that screenplay that was NOT used in the film is still considered unpublished material, which falls under a whole different category of copyright protection (basically unusable).
So, bottom line – use the public domain film as your guide, not the screenplay.
Also, a few more things to be wary of with regards to public domain films (that you may or may not already be aware of)…
Because films are, by their nature, collaborative works (meaning they combine many different forms of expression and authorship) before attempting to use a public domain film you have to also check the following…
- If the movie was based on another published work such as a book or play, then you must check to make sure that this book or play is in the public domain as well. If it’s not, then permission would need to be obtained from the copyright holder of the book or play before attempting use of the film which usually equates to having to pay licensing fees. If you can verify that the book or play that the movie is based on is also in the public domain, you’re good to go.
- The music in a public domain movie needs to be checked out too before attempting use (songs, themes, and background music) – music and songs in a film in many cases were separately registered for copyright protection which could have been renewed even if the film itself wasn’t. You’ll have to check out each piece of music in a public domain film before reusing. If a piece of music was renewed on time and is not in the public domain, you’ll have to strip out that piece of music from the film before republishing.
Hope that helps…
Thanks Chris!
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Hello,
I am looking to write a book based solely on the dialogue from a film in the public domain.
Can you tell me if I still need to check if the original book (if there was one) is in the public domain.
Thanks
[Reply]
Logan Reply:
November 16th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Hi Tony,
Sounds like an interesting project.
If the movie was based on a book, then yes, you would need to check the copyright status of the book that the movie was based upon. The danger of course is that you can’t tell whether or not the dialogue in the movie was taken directly from the book without checking it out yourself.
Good luck!
[Reply]