mcber@interserf.net wrote:
At 05:54 PM 11/26/96 GMT, Gary Kleppe wrote:
[SNIP]
Hrmmmm, alright, now I'm _really_ confused about the copyright
issue. I was told by the person in charge of our Student Activites
that I was not allowed to show films without sending lots of money to > the company that owned the copyrights. (He called this 'buying the
copyrights') I also talked to the club that runs our $1 movies, and
they said it cost between $300-$1500 to get the right to show the
film on campus. <sighs> I had assumed from all the little 'sorry I'm
violating yer copyright' notices that I, and everyone else slap on
FanFiction, that the companies could care less... just as long as
we're not getting paid.
As a previously published author, I do know a bit about American and
international copyright laws. The true meaning of "Copyright" is the
person who owns this copyright, having all rights to the works protected
by said copyright, against all commercial means of reprocessing,
showing, displaying, copying, selling, distributing, etc., of the item
or items protected. In other words, the work or works are uncopyable by
law.
So, in essence, ANYONE may write any story using any characters, even
those designated as registered trademarks, and may distribute it freely,
as long as the properties of the story is as follows:
1) No one handling this transfer/distribution is making a profit, or
even collecting money of any kind, including paying for the materials
and labor for the distribution. This means that you may write a novel of
Ranma 1/2, and may publish it, but you must do so by giving them away.
The moment you make a penny off of the novel, you have just infringed on
the copyright owned by the entities who own Ranma 1/2.
2) You so designate any and all entities who own these copyrights and
trademarks, and do so so that it sounds as though they own the
copyrights and trademarks, and that you do not. This means that you may
say "Ranma 1/2: A Tale of Tomorrow" by Christopher Bair, but you must
then designate that the story is owned by Takahashi Rumiko. You simply
wrote the tale, not the characters or depictions.
3) You may never place your own copyright on any work that you use
someone else's copyright or trademark on. Therefore, if you write a
Ranma 1/2 story, you cannot copyright it. However, there is a loophole
in the copyright laws, stating that even though someone owns the
copyrights or trademarks, you may still copyright the method with which
you told the tale.
This means that you may write a Ranma 1/2 story, say you wrote it,
designate that Takahashi Rumiko owns the characters and the
trademarks/copyrights, but that the depictions carried within the story
are copyright YOU!
4) Finally, this is not part of the law that I am aware of, but you
should, out of courtesy, plug the owners of the copyrights. I.E., say
that you can find out more about Ranma 1/2 by contacting Viz
Communications . . . Etc.
And, now, onto video and movie public displays:
NO, you may never EVER show any movie or video which is copyrighted in
public. Disney nearly sued video rental companies because of this a few
years ago. Even if you show them for free, the companies lose money
because, well, you are showing these shows for free.
So, the constituents of any and all international and American copyright
laws state that any showings of any copyrighted videos, movies, etc.,
including free ones, without the permission of the owners of the
copyrights, is prohibited, and you could be jailed and/or fined for
doing so. Most anime clubs do have non-profit releases, stating that
they are showing the videos and movies as a non-profit organization.
As to how you can get one of the releases, I do not know. But, if you
wish to show any free screenings, or fund-raising screenings, the best
thing to do is to write to the address of the company who distributed
the video.
I do have, on file somewhere, the addresses of some of the companies in
America to write to for this information. For Pioneer, you can also
contact their main number for information.
It is: (213) PIONEER.
Does this help any?
Does anyone have the emails/addresses of the Anime companies that
would let me show their films? (Several people have mentioned that if > I just ask nicely, they will prob'ly let me ^_^ yea! )
[SNIP SOME MORE]
Katsucon... ^_^
Thanks,
Christopher Bair
caern3@cris.com
http://www.concentric.net/~caern3/