From: "Bear Town" <beartown-AT-bear-town.com>
Subject: PUPT: Re: rights, royalties, and permissions
Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2004 20:53:25 -0500


There are not 100% definative answers to a lot of these - many factors come
in to play - but to answer a few of your questions that fall within my own
experience:

>  Do you concider any work written for you by someone in your company the
> property of your company or of the person who wrote it? Is this an
agreement
> in writing for work for hire, an assumption, handled in some other way, or
> on a case by case basis?

If the person is your employee (an actual employee - not a freelance person
under contract to you) and writes the work on paid time the employer is
usually considered the owner of the work. As Spence mentioned, otherwise the
writer is considered the author unless their is a specific agreement in
place stating otherwise.

>  Do you pay royalties to any publishing house (ie Samuel French, Bantam
> Books, or the like) for a  work that you perform? How is this rate
> determined? Is it a per show rate? A percentage of profit or ticket sales?
> Some other formula?

Everyone has a different formula for this. The usual factors are the ticket
price, number of shows and size of the venue but a whole variety of other
factors can come in to play. A "hot" Broadway musical like Chicago would
probably be more expensive to license than, say, Anything Goes. A good rule
of thumb is that the more money you're likely to make, the more money the
copyright holder is likely to charge.

>  When you get a script or other work that you then adapt for the puppet
> stage how much does it have to change before it becomes a derivitive work
> and your own, rather than a edited version of the original?

Again - as I believe Spence pointed out - you can't create a derivitive work
without the author's permission. You can be sued and liable for damages.

>  Do you have any works that you or your company produced that you have
> licenced to others to perform? How did you figure out what to charge? Have
> you encountered problems with people not paying for your work?

I have one play and a television property licensed. I determine things based
on a case by case basis. The play is usually licensed to small
community/church groups or volunteer organizations so I usually charge a
flat-rate fee of $100 and allow them to copy the script freely, only for the
purposes of producing it (they can't sell or distribute copies outside their
organization). Since it is a flat-fee paid up front I have not had problems.

The TV stuff was negotiated by an entertainment lawyer, which was expensive
but necessary. The licensee actually only paid 30% of the fee and never paid
the remaining $20,000 so I only really made enough to pay the lawyer, who
eventually got a default judgement against the company involved. I've never
recovered any of the money and it was a very messy ordeal.

>  How might one contact a living arthor to obtain permission to adapt their
> work?

Usually this is done through the publisher, or the author's agent (the
publisher can usually tell you who that is). One puppet company with a lot
of experience in this area is Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia, who adapts a
lot of popular children's books.

>  At what point does a work become derivative? When a work is "based on the
> work of X" how do you title and sell that work? For example, all of the
> derivative "Star Wars" books - would they have written the book first and
> submitted it to George Lucas and/or the publisher for permission to
publish
> it or would they have to get permission to write it first?

These books are almost always assigned by the publisher, but I would imagine
that an esthablished writer of Star Wars fiction could submit original ideas
to the publisher. Also, authors usually submit only an outline and a chapter
or two for this type of project.

> ...I can't see someone approving someone
> to write something without seeing something fairly substantial first.
> Perhaps I am not seeing this acurately since I am not a writer by trade.
> Maybe there is a compromise - a sample of the work submitted for approval,
> or the like.

With the licensed books like "Star Wars" or "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"
authors usually get assigned work by the publisher, or if you're a new
writer then your agent could submit samples to the publisher so you can be
considered. Most companies that deal with licensed characters refuse to read
unsolicted material unless it is submitted by a reputable agent. Even "Star
Trek" (which used to welcome material from fans) has adopted this policy now
because of legal concerns.

I hope that helps!

- Andrew



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