Question about copyright infringement.

F

fiddilydee

Is it cool for me to mention the names of other movies in my movie? Here is the exact scenario, a mockumentary based on my life as a film maker. In a section about my past we mention that I drew inspiration from 'The Power Rangers' and 'The Crow'. In the movie there is clips from a crow sequel I wrote and shot as a kid, we have a character dressed as Eric from 'The Crow'.

Also what about showing a picture of the crow movie poster or a shot of the power rangers? Can it be video? What are the legal issues here?

Also as a side note, we had a person on set who helped me a lot but aside from camera work I have no good credit to give her. Any suggestions?
 
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I don't know about mentioning the titles of other films. Using original artwork for or images from another movie that is not in the public domain without permission is a no-no. I'm fairly certain that your movie using the characters from "The Crow" is also copyright infringement unless you got consent to use the characters from that film.

As for the very helpful person, you van credit her as a Production Assistant.
 
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Mentioning the title is cool. Showing the poster or any video clips, including your own, is not. At least that's what I believe the case to be. Someone else may know better than I...
 
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Yes. You have characters say the names of movies out loud. You
can have characters discussing movies and TV shows and songs
and art and ads. You cannot show copyrighted artwork without
permission and you cannot show clips without permission.

As long as it is clear in the movie that the clip you are showing of
a character dressed as Eric from 'The Crow' is not a clip from any
movie you can show that. But it must be very clear to the average
viewer that it is a "fan film".
 
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Thanks a lot for the advice, directorik, are you sure? I hope so, lol. This is what I have, in the movie as kids we shot a sequel to the crow, footage from that includes a kid with crow makeup and a sign that says 'the crow' on his back. Basically it's just a bunch of grainy footage of kids fighting.

So let me make sure I have this right. It is cool for us to say 'The Crow' as well as run the short film as long as it is obvious it is not taken from the movie. It definately does not look anything like the real 'Crow' movies and the characters are clearly children.

Thanks a lot guys again, and let me know if I am wrong here.
 
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fiddilydee said:
So let me make sure I have this right. It is cool for us to say 'The Crow'
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This I am sure of. The word "crow" and the two words together
"the crow" are words than can be spoken out loud - even in a
movie. Just because there is movie called "The Crow" does not
mean that no one can use those words again. Even characters
talking about the movie called "The Crow" is still not an infringement
of copyright. No one owns the copyright to a conversation about
any movie.


fiddilydee said:
as well as run the short film as long as it is obvious it is not taken from the movie. It definately does not look anything like the real 'Crow' movies and the characters are clearly children.
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This I am not sure of. If the costume does not look like the movie
and no one will think you are using a clip from the movie you are
not violating copyright. Make sure it is VERY clear in your movie.

What I am sure of is you should not be taking legal advice from me.
Or from anyone posting here no matter what they say. If this is
something that concerns you and you cannot afford to contact an
attorney then do NOT use it in your movie.
 
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fiddilydee said:
, a mockumentary
Click to expand...

There's the keyword right there -- you're not making a doc, therefore you don't have the same leeway you'd have if you were making a doc.

While most titles can't be copyrighted, promient ones can eventually be protected and Star Wars likely is by now.

The suggestion to seek legal advice is a good one -- even a slight appearance that you may be trying to make money off someone else's work is all it takes.
 
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GuerrillaAngel said:
While most titles can't be copyrighted, promient ones can eventually be protected and Star Wars likely is by now.
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So you're thinking that no one can even say "Star Wars" in a movie? Is
that a violation of the protection that title has? I know that logo is
trademarked and I know that anyone using "Star Wars" as a title for
a movie would risk some kind of legal action, but I think that having
a character say those words is not a violation of any laws. Am I
mistaken?
 
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directorik said:
So you're thinking that no one can even say "Star Wars" in a movie? Is
that a violation of the protection that title has? I know that logo is
trademarked and I know that anyone using "Star Wars" as a title for
a movie would risk some kind of legal action, but I think that having
a character say those words is not a violation of any laws. Am I
mistaken?
Click to expand...

No, you're not wrong. I was in negotiations with Lucasfilm for a documentary for next years Celebration VI. I can't even show a person in costume, but I can say "Star Wars." They hit hard if you want to mess with them. They are tolerant of fan films, but Lord help you legally if you choose to push it.
 
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directorik said:
So you're thinking that no one can even say "Star Wars" in a movie?
Click to expand...

Here's an example of safe usage:

"I don't want to look like a character from "Star Wars".

(Ha ha, funny, moving on to something else in the conversation)


Not so safe:

"You look like a character from Star Wars"

(The audience has identified a character in your movie as someone from Star Wars. If its a short bit part, maybe ok, but if its a co-star, the as far as Lucasfilms is concerned, you've a Star Wars character in a co-starring role in your film.)

Again, see an entertainment attorney.
 
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fiddilydee said:
What about parody? Are you guys saying that every comedy sketch show that has ever been set in or around a popular franchise had permission to do it?
Click to expand...

Parody is technically covered under US law, but many companies will challenge it anyway. If a big company takes you to court, will you have the funds to defend yourself?

As for Canadian law, check with a Canadian lawyer.
 
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Okay how about this as a work around, we still talk about making our own sequel to the crow but all of the 'archive' footage would just be a bunch of kids screwing around with cameras and lights and maybe a production slate. No visual reference to the Crow what-so-ever. We're talking a couple paragraph worth of dialogue in a 90 minute movie.,.

In fact here is the whole excerpt from the script.

When we watched ‘The Crow’ it changed everything. It instantly became his favourite movie, he watched everyday for 3 whole months. Gambling was a thing of the past and Adam set upon writing the script for our movie, his first movie, ‘The Crow 2 The Return of the Crow”. He dreamt of selling the movie to Mirimax as a demo to use as a template for the sequel. The three of us dedicated our whole summer to The Return of the Crow. We borrowed my dad’s VHS camcorder and played all of the parts ourselves.

When The Crow 2 City of Angels came out Adam was heartbroken, but he didn’t give up. He immediately began writing The Crow 3 The Crowing. He was never able to get the funding to get the project off the ground and when The Crow: Salvation came out he finally gave up. He quit film-making and went back to gambling.

His career may have ended there but I applied for him to get a few scholarships to go to film school. It worked and he managed to get into the McAdam School for film right here in New Brunswick. It took some persuading from me, but Adam decided to go, and to continue with film-making. dropping the shackles of never-completed Crow sequels to pursue a more artistic vision.

So under this would be the archive footage i discussed. Do you think I could pass that without needing a lawyer?
 
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My plan is to release the trailer for the fake movie in which the mockumentary is based on (not the Crow) on the internet. I have about 10 very computer saavy people who have helped me develop a viral marketing plan which will be implemented by hopefully everyone we know and everyone who was involved in the movie, we also have a small sponsorship for advertising. To accompany the trailer we will make a website including a blog from the the director. The plan is for all of this stuff to look like shit, we are shooting for the 'Rebecca Black's Friday' of Movie trailers. The trailer looks great but it is clear the movie is very bad. If I know anything about the internet it is that shit floats better than quality. I'm thinking if we throw up an interview with the director acting like a dick a couple days later then after a couple weeks have the whole site change to 'the making of' and release the movie. I know it's a bit risky but I'm big on hairbrained schemes, and this scheme is so hair-brained it just might work. Plus I have a LOT of dedication from a lot of people who are involved.

So there it is my master plan. I'm hoping to play the distribution on the fly once I see how the Trailer does. If it picks up I can probably find distribution, if it doesn't I'm thinking I will sell the DVD and put it up on PayPerDownload with distrify.com. Worst case scenario I should be able to sell a few hundred or thousand locally and since it didn't cost hardly anything to make I would be fine with that.

Thanks again for the help.
 
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I hope it works. I love a good success story.

Since you do think you can find a distributor my suggestions is
to make sure all the legal aspects are covered. A distributor will
need a LOT of paperwork. I do not think someone in a fake "Crow"
costume in a film-within-a-film will cause any legal issues. In
your worst case scenario you will have no problems at all. In your
best case you need a lawyer.
 
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