From Media & Entertainment Law Wypadkis

Contents 1 Theatre terms 2 Case 2.1 Thompson v. Larson 3 Reality Television 4 Record contracts

Theatre terms

• Broadway play/musical: term of art which does not necessarily refer to a production on Broadway
  • Refers to any production in New York City appearing in a venue of more than 500 seats
• Off-Broadway: any production in New York City appearing in a venue of 200-499 seats
• Off Off Broadway: in venue of less than 199 seats
• West End Productions similar but appearing in London
• First Class Production: in United States other than New York City, similar to Broadway play/musical category
• Live plays/productions are referred to as “legitimate theatre”

• Producer
  • Boss of the production of the play/musical
  • Playwright makes contract with producer, producer then secures venues, finds funding, finds actors, assembles staff (including those that work on creative end as well as business end)
  • Producer doesn’t change the script or edit the play in any way, as movie producer does
  • Much of theatre is nonprofit, important way to finance productions

• New production:
  • Playwright works with producer in developing the play
  • Dramaturgs are generally employees of the company and issues of copyright would not be raised as their work would be considered a work-for-hire
  • No changes to play without playwright’s approval
  • Merger clause: when play is completed and no more changes are made; all contributors’ work is merged into one work
    • Usually set for press opening of play/musical
    • Usually previews prior to that, but may be used to gauge audience feedback
    • Press opening is first day seats are sold and press publishes review the following morning
    • Contributors and playwright paid usually by advances and small percentages of box office ticket sales
    • Question as to whether people who contributed very small pieces of material should be compensated
    • Playwright may authorize productions in other locations, touring companies, etc. so long as they haven’t given the rights away
      • Permission from other contributors not necessary after merge

• Issues in rights
  • Directors contributions: question as to copyrightability but not resolved in law as of yet
    • Director is finished after press opening
    • Production then run by stage manager
  • Question as to set designers’ work
  • Production company has only license and playrights retain rights to work

• Union
  • United Scenic Designers
  • Stagehands
  • Actors’ Union – Actors Equity
    • Equity waiver – 99 seat plan: may be able to use actors without paying them

Case

Thompson v. Larson

(Ct. App. 1998) When there is a new play or new musical, the theater company that is developing it for the first time, works with the playwright in a very collaborative way …

FACTS: Larson was the playwrite for the play RENT. When he tried to get it produced, the production company ultimatly hired a dramaturg to help Larson fine tune the play. The dramaturg, Thompson, is now claiming that she is the co-author of the work.

DISCUSSION: Apply the test for co-authors. Need the person claiming to be the co-author to prove 1) that they made an independant copyrightable contribution and 2) that the intent was to be co-authors.

• Larson never intended for there to be a co-author of this work. He did everything in his power to prevent anyone from being considered a co-author.
• NOTE: In plays, the playwrite owns everything and can do whatever they want with it - unlike Hollywood where the studio owns everything

• usually a dramaturg is attached to a drama company and works for the company and everything they do is a work for hire
  • the dramaturg is a learned literary person in the company who really provides the chief creative officer role in developing plays
    • working with playwright, director and choreographer
      • these people change but the dramaturg stays within the company
• Thomson is brought is as an independent contractor – that doesn’t come up all that often

Reality Television

Ratings

• Ratings Point – Fixed quantity of households
  • nationally a ratings point is:
    • 1,098,000 households = 1 ratings point
      • (1% of all US households)
• Ratings Share – a portion of households viewing at any given time
  • 1% of households with a television on

So if you have a ratings share of 23 – 23% of the people watching television are watching your show (that will be good)

• share tells you how you are doing against other programming
• point is what advertisers are worried about – how many people they are reaching

Two Ways Nielson Collects Data

• People Meters – this can tell what you are watching and you tell the remote how many people are in the room
  • when these came out, the cable companies were happy because people were under-reporting what they were watching on cable
• Diaries – you have a piece of paper and you report what you are watching and how many people are watching it

Record contracts

• Artist required to appear, perform, appear in promotions
• Record company typically not obligated to do anything
  • Don’t have to record a record
  • If record a record, company does not have to release it
• California Civil Code § 53423
  • Minimum payments for record contracts:
    • $9,000 first year
    • $12,000 second year
    • $15,000 subsequent years (3-7)
    • Contract still valid if it doesn’t provide for above, but means that contract cannot be used as basis for preventing artist from going to another company
  • Artist may be able to sue for minimum payments if company does not pay
  • Royalties
    • Artist has to receive minimum payments of $15,000 in years 4-5 in royalties
    • Artist has to receive minimum payments of $30,000 in years 6-7 in royalties
    • Record company can pay royalties at any time, until filing for injunction
    • If previous not met, record company can make good by paying ten times the minimums (superstar provision)
      • Can be used to get injunction to prevent artist from going to another label
• New artist generally get 10-15% of royalties after deductions
  • Foreign reductions
    • 85% for Europe/Canada
  • Single as opposed to entire album
  • Reduction to 75%
  • 3% producer royalty
  • Packaging reduction
  • 15% free goods deduction
  • 35% Reserve against returns