Book cover shown on screen

Hey guys,

I`m working on a short and wanted to ask one quick copyright question. One of the characters will be reading a book in one shot (camera sees the book`s cover art) Do I have to worry about getting any sort of release for it to be on screen? Is only seen visually, none of the character are talking about the book`s material or making any sort of comment on it.

Wanted to double check.

Thanks
 
Yes. Legally, the appearance of a book as a prop on screen does require clearance from the the publisher's permissions dept. I used to work for a publishing company many years ago and they have a department set up to deal with these requests.

Now, whether or not they a) find out you did it, and b) care enough to pursue legal action is a risk you have to evaluate for yourself.
 
To clarify, the cover artwork and design is copyright and therefore protected, hence the need for permission. Titles cannot be copyright (at least that is my understanding) so if you were to create an original mock book cover to wrap around your prop book that should be okay. However I am not a legal expert in this manner, so take my advice with a grain of salt.
 
As I understand it, the above advice is as good and accurate as you can get.

Me? I went to the school of Who-Gives-a-Shit, so I'll highlight something that Bophe already mentioned:

How many people are going to see your film? What are the odds that any of them will care about the very minor copyright infringement? What are the odds that they'll actually do anything about it?

Here's my street-wise, but completely non-legally-qualified advice -- don't paint their book in a negative light, and so long as your movie isn't coming to a cinema near us, you have absolutely nothing to worry about.
 
I actually hate how litigious filmmaking has become. I wish we could all just use common sense about these things.

But we can't. Cracker Funk's method is probably sound and, to add to it, if your movie did get picked up for distribution, and the book wasn't painted in a negative light, then the distributor's would probably be able to get retrospective clearance.

But don't risk it if you don't feel totally comfortable.
 
If you rented out a book store and it's just books seen way in the background it's OK. Once a character draws attention to it (by reading it) or if the book takes up a lot of screen space then it becomes a problem.
 
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