MTI licensing copyright violations

[booth0882]

Posted: 6/21/13 at 11:58pm

I am currently involved in a production that is having some serious issues with cutting parts of the score and libretto hap hasardly. Just wondering, has anyone else been in a situation where this has been the case? How did you deal with it? I have been working with my state's Licensing Representative from MTI to try to resolve the situation, however the director seems to think that she has the "artistic license" to change or cut whatever she wants to. The section of the MTI standard licensing agreement in question is as follows

2. Changing the Play: Under federal law, you may not make any changes, including but not limited to the following:

a. You may not add new music, dialogue, lyrics or anything to the text included with the rented material.

b. You may not delete, in whole or in part, any material in the existing Play.

c. You may not make changes of any kind, including but not limited to changes of music, lyrics or dialogue or change in the period, characters or characterizations in the presently existing Play. d. You agree that any proposed change, addition, omission, interpolation, or alteration in the book, music, or lyrics of the Play shall first be submitted in writing to MTI so that the written consent of the Authors, if granted, may be obtained by MTI.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 6/22/13 at 12:40am

Since it seems you've made MTI aware of the situation my guess is they will now keep a closer eye on this production and your director may find a cease and desist letter in her mailbox sooner or later.

[CapnHook]

Posted: 6/22/13 at 12:46am

This happens all the time. Sometimes theaters get caught, sometimes they don't. And even when they do get caught...you cannot always enforce a fine. What MTI usually does in that case is not grant the rights to any other show to the theater.

So tell your director and/or artistic director that if they get caught, MTI could indefinitely suspend the rights to shows from their catalogue to the theater. (I'm sure they're not worried about it.)

I have directed shows and needed to alter the material. I wrote the licensing company (Samuel French, I think?) and they responded in reasonable time to inform me that the author had approved my edits.

Bottomline is that authors want their plays performed and seen by audiences. As long as it remains THEIR play, meaning that the edits do not interfere with the integrity of their piece, they are usually OK with it. One might assume that the author would automatically object to any alterations of their work, but sometimes they are OK with it, especially if the reasons for the edits are justified.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 6/22/13 at 6:00am

Yes, IF you get permission, all is fine. But as has been stated: the worst that will likely happen if they know/care that your production has overstepped those boundries, is being banned from renting from them again. (Usually until a new director has been in place.)

However, nearly every high school makes some cuts....killing a refrain, changing a few words that won't work for the community, dropping a line here and there. Doesn't make it "right", but it does happen.

I will say: good for you for being concerned over these issues, I think young people often don't give it a second thought.

Fun story: about 15 years ago, I was directing Once Upon a Mattress at my middle school, the principal was fine, but "just" wanted to know if we could change THE TITLE!

[SNAFU]

Posted: 6/22/13 at 6:26am

My High School did A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and the PTA decided it was inappropriate for us High Schoolers to say the word Virgin! OK it was the early 70's. The director changed all the virgins to maidens. LOL! Don't think the changes were approved.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 6/22/13 at 7:36am

^awesome!

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 6/22/13 at 12:13pm

booth - as long as you have been in communication with your licensing rep, you have done all you can at this point.

MTI will pursue the violation if they feel it's necessary. Sometimes it will depend on the kind of violation and the property/title it's connected to. On some occasions, MTI will not pursue an alleged violation, and there are other times where they do...and do it aggressively (see: RENT at Towson University or COMPANY at New York University).

[Kad]

Posted: 6/22/13 at 12:32pm

What is the story with the NYU production of Company?

[Visceral_Fella]

Posted: 6/22/13 at 1:57pm

^I believe that they wanted to do an all male version, and they received a cease and desist.

Funny, they actually did Company just a few months ago. Of course it had the intended gender casting this time.

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 6/22/13 at 2:03pm

I was just about to respond but Visceral is correct. It has been several years and I'm getting old(er), so maybe it wasn't COMPANY but it was a Sondheim musical. MTI got wind of it, then investigated and alerted Sondheim. Eventually, both Sondheim and MTI sent them cease and desist letters.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 6/22/13 at 2:16pm

It was indeed an all-male Company. However, it was entirely a student production, not what would have been considered an official part of the department's season. The student who was directing it was in the CAP21 program (before they split off from NYU, obviously) and with a bit of Google searching you can find that he still lists the production in his program bios, even though they did indeed get a very strongly worded letter from Sondheim himself.

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 6/22/13 at 2:40pm

I can tell you (from first hand knowledge on the MTI side of it) that someone, either the student rep or a director or faculty advisor, did receive a cease & desist letter but continued on with the production. It wasn't until after the fact that they received the "strongly worded" letter from Sondheim, by the way.

[Visceral_Fella]

Posted: 6/22/13 at 2:49pm

What confuses me is High School productions that use girls as guys. Which happens a lot. I assume that, that's okay and permission isn't required because they're trying to truthfully portray the opposite gender.

So when a character is intentionally portrayed as something other than the intended gender, then one should seek permission? Would this production of Company received a cease and desist if the males playing the female parts actually played them as females?

[dramamama611]

Posted: 6/22/13 at 3:05pm

It's worded very specifically, and I'm 'fairly' certain that it's you can't CHANGE the gender. If a girl is going to play a boy's part AS A boy, I'm not sure there is any issue.

To SWITCH a role, does indeed require permission.

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 6/22/13 at 3:22pm

^^ What dramamama said.

Posted: 6/22/13 at 10:20pm

booth can I ask your role in this production/ if I maybe so bold, nothing good has ever come of turning the director in to the licensing agent. You'll always be "the jerk" in that situation.

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 6/22/13 at 10:39pm

At least he's "the jerk" with morals, and great respect for the writers and dramatic rights holder. Kudos to booth for promoting the integrity of licensing.

Posted: 6/22/13 at 10:51pm

Good point. If his school loses the rights to a show or his teacher/director gets canned, I am sure they will nevertheless hail him for promoting the integrity of licensing.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 6/23/13 at 7:32am

So is your message that he should value popularity over morality/integrity? And who's to say he blew the whistle, maybe the production has been trying to be legit?

Doing the right thing is seldom the easy thing. (And when it is, its not worth talking about.)

Posted: 6/23/13 at 11:44am

That's why I asked his role, Drama. What is his involvement in this situation?

[Brave Sir Robin2]

Posted: 6/23/13 at 3:56pm

I think with permission, you can add and remove stuff. For example, in a production of Aladdin Jr. I was in, we didn't get permission to add a song so we didn't, but a recent local production just added in Proud of Your Boy.

I also played Dauntless in a production of Once Upon A Mattress where we cut Normandy and Man to Man Talk. We did some restructuring in general, which honestly made a so-so musical much better. Later, I did the full version as Sir Harry and realized how horrible the show is.

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 6/23/13 at 4:32pm

"I think with permission, you can add and remove stuff."

Unless explicitly stated differently, yes. That is the case for any show from any licensing agency. I don't think that is the problem here. The problem is that the director is simply taking a hacksaw to the material in numerous ways WITHOUT permission.

One line here or there, okay. Fine. No big deal. But if I had to go just on what booth said, this seems to be a much larger issue. Who knows though

[dramamama611]

Posted: 6/23/13 at 4:33pm

while agree its not the best of shows ... but it is far from 'horrible'. You CUT Man to Man Talk? What a pity. I'd b e pretty sure no one had permission to do that. It should have been a high point for both Dauntless and the King.

Posted: 6/23/13 at 4:35pm

Wow- your King must have been awful- Man to Man talk is usually one of the biggest laugh numbers in the show.

[Brave Sir Robin2]

Posted: 6/23/13 at 6:16pm

To be honest, the cast was ages 8-15, and the King was three years younger than me. Plus, we tried to make the show move quicker.