Copyright infringement?

[Accountable]

What is the name of your state? Texas

what are the copyright laws in connection with fan bands that generate from the popularity of book series and the movies that follow? For example, there are numerous fan bands nationwide that perform in small venues whose stage image and song lyrics focus on the Harry Potter books and music?

My daughter recently started a small band of 14 yr old girls that have written songs revolving around the characters and story of another popular book series (not Harry Potter) which also has a movie in the early stages of production. They are quite good, considering their age, and have booked their first performance at a midnight release party for the 3rd book in the series. The venue is a bookstore in an old mall in a very small Texas town. They are not being compensated other than receiving the book for free. However, this could lead to future bookings

Their band name is also a derivative of book characters. Do they need the author's permission?

[quincy]

Yes, they probably need permission from the author (who owns the copyrights to the books unless she has relinguished them) and also, possibly, from the movie studio who may have obtained rights to the characters. For instance, using Harry Potter as an example, J.K. Rowling owns the copyright to the Harry Potter books but Warner Brothers owns the film and marketing rights. The characters and names, etc., are trademarked by Warner Brothers. And both J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers have brought infringement suits in the past over the illegal use of Harry Potter material.

You can check to see if the book series your daughter and her friends are using is copyrighted and/or trademarked by doing your own copyright and trademark search, or having a search done. For more information on this you can go to [url]www.copyright.gov[/url] or [url]www.uspto.gov[/url].

There is a possibility that your daughter's band performances could fall under "fair use" or "parody" (if what they are doing does not interfere with the marketability of the copyrighted work) since they are writing and performing their own songs. But you would need to check this out.

It is always best to seek permission from the copyright owner.

[Accountable]

Thanks Quincy. I think I will try to contact the author or her agent or publicist....if I can find their contact information. As I said, some of the original music and lyrics my daughter's group have composed are actually very good (in my biased opinion, of course) and I actually think I should try to figure out how to submit it for consideration for the movie soundtrack or something.

We are running out of time before their booking and may not be able to get permission beforehand. If they are not profiting from the use of the book material, is it still considered infringement? No, what they are doing would not interfere with the marketability of the copyrighted work, but I wouldn't call it parody. These are young teens you absolutely worship this book series and its author.

[quincy]

I would think that your daughter and her friends are on pretty safe ground when it comes to the bookstore performance, if nothing else. Someone does not necessarily need to profit from the use of a copyrighted work to make it infringement, but that is certainly an indication of whether it is fair use or not. That the girls are not getting paid for performing (except with copies of the book) will help them.

What the fair use statute requires the courts look at is if the use of the copyrighted material is a competitive use (if your daughter's group potentially affects the sales of the copied material, for their benefit and not for the copyright holder, it is probably not fair use), and they look at how much of the copyrighted material is used (the more material taken from the copyrighted work, the less likely it is to be fair...and here your daughter may also run into trademark problems with the character names), and they look at how this material is used (if the use is "transformative", which it appears your daughter's use is, then it is easier to claim as fair use), and then they look at the nature of the copyrighted work itself. Since this book series has a movie, with music, in the works, it could create more difficulties than it would otherwise for your daughter's group.

I think it is just safer, always, to contact the copyright holder to make sure the use is not infringing in any way. Although the odds are pretty good that your daughter can safely perform without this permission at this point, if her music is as good as you say, and you think it could be considered for the movie (wouldn't THAT be fun!), then contact with the owner is the wisest and best choice.

[Accountable]

Thanks Quincy. I'll try to contact the author, her agent or her publicist and see what they say. According to the author's website, the movie rights have been sold, but production hasn't actually started, so there's no music....(yet )