Copyright Absurdity: School Play Canceled Over Copyright Due To Minor Performance Changes
There’s a great deal that is absurd about copyright law in America, but its most basic absurdity remains the length of time for which the copyright monopoly applies. The length of copyright protection a work gets depends on a number of factors. Was the work published before or after 1978? Was it renewed, if the former? Was it published anonymously or by a named individual? Was it work for hire? The answer to all of these impact the term length of copyright for an individual work. Keep that preamble in mind as we go through the rest of this conversation.
Fanin County High School in northern Georgia had scheduled a two day, two play production of The Crucible, the famed play by Arthur Miller which tells the story of the Salem Witch Trials as an allegory for McCarthyism. The school canceled the second day’s production, however, due to what it said is a copyright issue.
In a statement released by the high school, Principal Dr. Scott Ramsey and other school leaders said they’d “received several complaints as to an unauthorized change in the script of the play.”
While the changes themselves were not detailed, and Channel 2 Action News has reached out for more information, school officials said the copyright violation from their license of the play made their decision for them.
“Upon investigation, we learned that the performance did not reflect the original script. These alterations were not approved by the licensing company or administration. The performance contract for The Crucible does not allow modifications without prior written approval. Failing to follow the proper licensing approval process for additions led to a breach in our contract with the play’s publisher,” school officials said. “The infraction resulted in an automatic termination of the licensing agreement. The second performance of The Crucible could not occur because we were no longer covered by a copyright agreement.”
Unfortunately some key details here are hidden behind the school’s vague statements. What were the changes? That seems important, as it would be good to know just how substantial these changes were. Who discovered the changes and raised the alarm over the licensing? Was a member of the licensor really in the audience during the first performance and blew the whistle? Did the school do this proactively, indicating some sort of chilling effect?
While those are all valid questions, let’s really take a step back to get a sense of how absurd this is. A school made apparently some material performance changes to a play and that violated its licensing agreement such that performances would then violate the play’s copyright. A play, mind you, that was first published in 1953 and the author for which died in 2005. So, in a world where The Crucible is 72 years old, 23 years from its copyright expiration, and the creator dead for two decades… a group of high school children can’t put on the play they worked so hard to prepare for because of vague changes to the performance?
In what world would we call that copyright sanity?