Movie Copyrights Are Forever

2009.05.03   prev     next

In theory, copyrights are supposed to end fifty years after the original copyright holder dies. But, in practice, I think, the copyrights on movies will never end.

Take The Wizard of Oz, for example. It was released in 1939. And let’s suppose hypothetically that the original copyright owner died in 1950. Then The Wizard of Oz should have become public domain in 2000.

But what would that mean, exactly? Would it mean that you and I can copy, and even sell copies of, our Wizard of Oz DVDs? No, because the DVD contains other materials that are still under copyright. Well, what if we strip those materials out and sell just the movie? That won’t work, because when the studio converted it to a DVD, they performed an elaborate process of fine-tuning the color and contrast of each scene, so it would look its best in a video format. That work is under copyright, and still will be under copryight long after you and I are dead.

OK, so what are we supposed to do, perform our own transfer? Maybe hire some film-transferring company to do it, and recoup our costs by selling our own Oz DVD for cheap? So we go to the film company that owns the physical, film masters, and say, “May we borrow your masters so we can make our own transfer?” And they likely say, “No, you can’t. Now go away before we have the police cuff you and strip-search you in the jail down the street.”

You see, the company that owns the film can simply deprive anyone of the physical opportunity to make a copyright-free version of the movie. And so their copyright never really expires.

And you can bet that when they do an HD transfer, they’re going to hire an 18-year-old to do it, on the condition that he signs papers saying that he’s the original copyright holder, but is selling those copyrights to the film company for whatever he would really make for that kind of transfer work. Then you have to wait until 50 years after his death before you can even try to do anything with The Wizard of Oz.

And even then — don’t count on it.

Update 2009.07.11 — See what I mean? And it’s not just movies, either.

Update 2010.01.20 — I couldn’t really care less about Jack Benny, but still, this is a perfect example of what I’m talking about.