Byzantine Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 I think my school's annual Christmas play is a major copyright infringement. As in, last year we took Toy Story 3 and gave it a Christmas theme. This year it's the Wizard of Oz. Would there be something wrong with participating in it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mme_hardy Posted October 1, 2011 Share Posted October 1, 2011 Copyright law is [i]way[/i] complicated, and any time you go up against the Disney lawyers you will be a very unhappy camper -- mostly for trademark reasons rather than copyright. I would be nervous doing a Christmas play using the Toy Story characters -- which is not a copyright violation but a trademark violation -- because Disney doesn't make exceptions for nonprofit use. The thing is, copyright does expire. The Wizard of Oz was written in 1899, and the copyright expired in 1956. Nobody has any legal rights over that story -- or, rather, everybody has legal rights in that story. Your church is committing neither a sin or a crime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AccountDeleted Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 They wouldn't have any problem if they stuck to the original story - the copyright on that expired nearly 2000 years ago! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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