Originally published at: "Friday The 13th" writer wins back copyright | Boing Boing
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It seems pretty clear to me that if his paychecks didn’t come from the WGA than he was not their employee.
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I’ve always thought that this aspect of copyright is super interesting because it flips the script on a lot of copyright rhetoric. Corporations that make money off IP love to trot out the trope of the “poor starving artist” when they advocate for stronger copyright laws. We need strong copyright laws so that artists can get paid for their work!
Of course, a lot of the time the original artist doesn’t own the copyright in their work and so stronger copyright laws don’t benefit the artist all that much. They benefit the companies that ultimately end up owning the copyright.
This is one aspect of copyright law that really does benefit the artists themselves - and so it’s interesting to see the same companies that scream “think of the artists” every chance they get suddenly fighting tooth and nail to weaken it.
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Good.
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I’m wondering if it was worth the struggle, though. After all, almost nothing from the original film was the basis for the subsequent films - the premise is completely different. He now owns the rights to the script, not the series name, not the main character, not even the idea of a hockey-masked killer - so can he do anything with it? Would anyone want to re-make that film (under a different name)? And it seems like the franchise can continue without ever referencing any elements of his script. Heck, they made two movies without even the rights to, or use of, the “Friday the 13th” name.
I hope he didn’t fight a big, expensive legal battle to end up with something of no value.
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Maybe the time is right for The Pamela Voorhees Chronicles!!!
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Except she was only “Mrs. Voorhees” in the original movie - her full name came later, in subsequent films, apparently. Maybe he can do a spin-off series about Jason Voorhees, a dead child floating around in a lake…
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An anthology series! Every episode can have different characters, a different genre, but each one ends with young Jason popping out from somewhere, a bathtub, a cupboard, a bachelor party cake…
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“Value” is in the eye of the beholder, and it’s not always monetary in nature.
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Although my understanding is that in this case, the question wasn’t "Was this a work-made-for-hire?’ but “Who was he employed by?” And the answer appears to be “The company that he controls.” Which has some impact on the copyright term, I think.
Cory had a thread about this legal concept last week. It’s of use to very few people, most IP is worthless after that amount of time, but for some very few for whom the disparity in earning is great it’s necessary.
We don’t want more Siegal and Schusters dying poor while their creation makes corporations billions.
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The irony in this case is that “Friday the 13th” is one of the few (and perhaps the most) valuable '80s slasher movie IPs - but it has pretty much nothing to do with the movie that started it (and thus his movie script).
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