Movies for TV - Early Television Foundation

364
THE PROGRAM ANGLE
releases. It is suggested that a copy of the current revision of this be
obtained by interested persons.
Some of the main problems which cause trouble to the station,
producer, advertiser, or agency are literary and music rights, motion
picture rights, invasion of privacy, and defamation. In the case of
motion pictures used for television the subject becomes very in-
volved since very often the person who really holds the rights to its
television use is unknown and may even be dead. Since literary and
dramatic rights are bound up together it seems well to discuss them
coincidentally.
Generally speaking, the author of a play
holds the television
rights as well as the theatrical rights and, therefore, he is entitled to
a fee for the performance of his work over the former medium.
Permission to use these works may usually be obtained from the
author or his agent or publisher. On the other hand, the play may
have been made into a film, in which case the motion picture com-
pany will probably have bought all the rights including broadcast
and television performances. In that case it is necessary to get au-
thorization from the motion picture producer before the play is pro-
duced over television, or, even more important, it is refilmed, per-
haps for a special TV film.
Literary rights are controls vested in the author which determine
the uses which may be made of his works. If the work is not a dra-
matic production or intended for such use, the release to use it may
not contain specific permission to use it as a dramatic presentation,
and it is possible that the courts may rule that the use made of it
was unfair to whomever holds the rights. Even if it is a lecture which
you wish to dramatize or televise, it should be released,
since the
copyright holder has all rights to use it as he desires. Even the fact
that the is performance not for profit will not protect one against a
suit for infringement. Every dramatic performance requires a spe-
cific license. This works somewhat of a hardship on producers for
be obtained.
there is no one source where all these licenses may
Almost every situation is different and must be considered as
a separate case. It is very seldom that a precedent can be followed
safely because the art is so young that there has not been enough