Butts In the Seats: Copyright may seem like a pretty dry subject, but the court cases that lead to the development of the law and theory surrounding copyright law can be pretty interesting. HowlRound posted the transcript of Michael Lueger’s podcast discussion with Dr. Derek Miller about some of the early copyright cases that applied to theater and music performance.
1 comment:
Although this is an interesting historical case study, I disagree with the author’s viewpoint as stated towards the end of the article--”the basic idea that people are willing to pay a lower price for a discount version of the same product and cannibalize your potential audience is a real concern.” He’s referring, to some degree, to the specific issue of utilizing a particular element that is unique to a certain show in a knockoff show. I agree with that aspect of it, but he’s also more specifically talking about smaller theaters preventing bigger theaters from doing shows because they secured the rights earlier. The author states more or less directly that a lesser budget means a lesser production, and that’s just not right. His viewpoint seems to be totally economically based--a theatre that can pay for the best of everything for a big show is automatically better than a theatre that can’t, and people who choose the smaller production over the larger are cheapskates. I think he is totally wrong on all counts.
Post a Comment