I'm a little in the Foggy area of understanding a lot of Copyright, and with getting more and more into screen writing and hopefully making it to a festival I'm downright paranoid if I'm violating somebody's copyright. Here's a couple of my concerns:
1) I have a script in progress where one of the characters works for a railroad company, which is rathe rmajor plot point, so it is referred to. The railroad is representative of CSX or Norfolk Southern, you know, Big Class 1 lines from the south. The name I wrote in was "Southern Transportation" now, back in the day (up til the 80's) there was a Southern Railways Company (Which eventually merged with the Norfolk & Western to Form the Now known Norfolk Southern, but I digress) And I believe NS currently still has the Copyright to the logo and railroad whatnots. Is "Southern Transportation" too close to "the Southern Railway" that it could be a possible suit point? The "logo" I intended to use is in no way close to the Southern Railway's logo of the day, but an idea for the paint of a locomotive is somewhat based on their passenger paint. The former Southern Railway operated with reporting marks of SOU, which is still used on occasion by NS (usually on old, unrepainted freight cars) whereas my fictional line utilizes the marks STR or STS (both, i believe, are unclaimed with the FRA and AAR) Has any of that crossed a line? Is any of it close enough I should reconsider? I understand no railroad really wants to be associated in the public eye with a disaster such as that, so I understand the creation of a faux line for the locomotives as well as the freight cars in the case, which is why I'm trying to make sure I'm not skirting a thin line.
2) Another script in progress is based on some Pennsylvania State Troopers. I know PSP has copyrights on their current Door emblem/Shoulder patch logo. I know some "period" films were okay to use the previous logos, but what about the name? I Have designed a similar but different logo for them, but will I have to secure copyright permission to even refer to them as the Pennsylvania State Police? I'm not even sure how this works or not, as in Tony Scott's upcoming film "Unstoppable" the art department designed a very very similar but still different logo for their version of PSP, yet on an episode of House I saw last week they used the current PSP patch (as well as door emblems very briefly seen on a car door) Does providing your own logo design, ala Scott, avoid the copyright issue entirely or did they still have to seek some permission? Does the name of "Pennsylvania State Police" fall into fair use, I suppose would be the direct question. I remember seeing a movie (Groundhog Day??) Where they used the Blue and White cars and Blue Keystone logo from the 80's and I remember a discussion about how the director wanted to use the current PSP paint (they just switched to the still used Black stripe) and the art department pushed the blue and white since it would avoid the new copyright laws that came with the new image. I found this on a website for hobbyists into restoring old police cars:
I underlined the part I'm referring to. This seems to suggest the name "Pennsylvania State Police" is fair game, but again, hopefully someone here knows more than I "think."
Thanks! I'm sure I can come up with more if I sit and think, oh and I apologize for misspellings and whatnot, it's late.
1) I have a script in progress where one of the characters works for a railroad company, which is rathe rmajor plot point, so it is referred to. The railroad is representative of CSX or Norfolk Southern, you know, Big Class 1 lines from the south. The name I wrote in was "Southern Transportation" now, back in the day (up til the 80's) there was a Southern Railways Company (Which eventually merged with the Norfolk & Western to Form the Now known Norfolk Southern, but I digress) And I believe NS currently still has the Copyright to the logo and railroad whatnots. Is "Southern Transportation" too close to "the Southern Railway" that it could be a possible suit point? The "logo" I intended to use is in no way close to the Southern Railway's logo of the day, but an idea for the paint of a locomotive is somewhat based on their passenger paint. The former Southern Railway operated with reporting marks of SOU, which is still used on occasion by NS (usually on old, unrepainted freight cars) whereas my fictional line utilizes the marks STR or STS (both, i believe, are unclaimed with the FRA and AAR) Has any of that crossed a line? Is any of it close enough I should reconsider? I understand no railroad really wants to be associated in the public eye with a disaster such as that, so I understand the creation of a faux line for the locomotives as well as the freight cars in the case, which is why I'm trying to make sure I'm not skirting a thin line.
2) Another script in progress is based on some Pennsylvania State Troopers. I know PSP has copyrights on their current Door emblem/Shoulder patch logo. I know some "period" films were okay to use the previous logos, but what about the name? I Have designed a similar but different logo for them, but will I have to secure copyright permission to even refer to them as the Pennsylvania State Police? I'm not even sure how this works or not, as in Tony Scott's upcoming film "Unstoppable" the art department designed a very very similar but still different logo for their version of PSP, yet on an episode of House I saw last week they used the current PSP patch (as well as door emblems very briefly seen on a car door) Does providing your own logo design, ala Scott, avoid the copyright issue entirely or did they still have to seek some permission? Does the name of "Pennsylvania State Police" fall into fair use, I suppose would be the direct question. I remember seeing a movie (Groundhog Day??) Where they used the Blue and White cars and Blue Keystone logo from the 80's and I remember a discussion about how the director wanted to use the current PSP paint (they just switched to the still used Black stripe) and the art department pushed the blue and white since it would avoid the new copyright laws that came with the new image. I found this on a website for hobbyists into restoring old police cars:
SOURCE: http://www.allpar.com/squads/collecting/rules.php
I underlined the part I'm referring to. This seems to suggest the name "Pennsylvania State Police" is fair game, but again, hopefully someone here knows more than I "think."
Thanks! I'm sure I can come up with more if I sit and think, oh and I apologize for misspellings and whatnot, it's late.
