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Hi folks,

It was amazing to discover that there are now over 8000 forum members. Awesome to see how it's growing, and maybe that will help with this issue...

I regularly search my name and various play titles/keywords (Google alerts help too), and nearly as regularly, I catch some people producing my plays without licensing/paying for them. Coming up next weekend, it's Harry's Hotter at Twilight, along with Don Zolidis' Game of Tiaras and Ian McWethy's The Internet is Distract--OH LOOK A KITTEN!. A pair of performances each as part of a Wisconsin school's one-act festival. At least in the case of Don and me, they bought a single copy, and here we are. This has happened more times than I can count. While the good news, given the internet these days, is that we catch most of the cheaters, I'm sure there are a few we miss, and considering that most playwrights aren't wealthy, that money, which adds up (my infringements have run into the thousands of dollars), is important.

Now perhaps I'm so used to having my work produced illegally that I'm becoming desensitized, but the next day, searching another play, I found something more disturbing: a North Carolina school that licensed this play for production in May had actually photocopied the entire script and placed it online, so that for the last six months, anyone with the right combination of search words could find it and then download/print it. I can see the teacher thinking of this as a convenient shortcut to communicate with the cast/crew (or maybe a class) and not realizing that stowing something in his website's "uploads" doesn't mean that it's invisible to the rest of the internet. But internet ignorance aside, surely he had to know that he's not supposed to photocopy hard copies of the script and that he's not supposed to put them online.

In both cases, I've notified the publisher, and I'm sure they'll deal with it. (In the second case, I was really tempted to write the teacher myself, but I've decided to leave being the bad guy--at least for now--to my publisher.)

Of course, the "problem" with you folks who frequent this forum is that you're not the problem (at least I hope you're not!). You're the ones who make sure your productions are licensed, don't photocopy what you're not supposed to, don't pass around electronic copies of scripts, etc. But there's a huge problem out there. How do we educate the larger group of teachers/student producers about how this works (i.e. copyright law)? What tangible steps can we take?

A couple things I thought about were...
1. At both the national and state EdTA levels, developing a simple one-sheet regarding some basic copyright rules that would be disseminated to each troupe director, and asking them to acknowledge it specifically. (I would be happy to work with someone to develop it.)
2. At competitions, requiring proof of payment of royalties (which I know some do), not simply an acknowledgment from the group that they've paid royalties.

I'd love to hear other thoughts on both how to spread copyright education, and how to implement it. It's important not only to help playwrights everywhere, but to make sure we're teaching the next generation of theatre teachers and producers how to do the right thing--and what that is. Thanks

Cheers,
Jonathan

Hi folks,

It was amazing to discover that there are now over 8000 forum members. Awesome to see how it's growing, and maybe that will help with this issue...

I regularly search my name and various play titles/keywords (Google alerts help too), and nearly as regularly, I catch some people producing my plays without licensing/paying for them. Coming up next weekend, it's Harry's Hotter at Twilight, along with Don Zolidis' Game of Tiaras and Ian McWethy's The Internet is Distract--OH LOOK A KITTEN!. A pair of performances each as part of a Wisconsin school's one-act festival. At least in the case of Don and me, they bought a single copy, and here we are. This has happened more times than I can count. While the good news, given the internet these days, is that we catch most of the cheaters, I'm sure there are a few we miss, and considering that most playwrights aren't wealthy, that money, which adds up (my infringements have run into the thousands of dollars), is important.

Now perhaps I'm so used to having my work produced illegally that I'm becoming desensitized, but the next day, searching another play, I found something more disturbing: a North Carolina school that licensed this play for production in May had actually photocopied the entire script and placed it online, so that for the last six months, anyone with the right combination of search words could find it and then download/print it. I can see the teacher thinking of this as a convenient shortcut to communicate with the cast/crew (or maybe a class) and not realizing that stowing something in his website's "uploads" doesn't mean that it's invisible to the rest of the internet. But internet ignorance aside, surely he had to know that he's not supposed to photocopy hard copies of the script and that he's not supposed to put them online.

In both cases, I've notified the publisher, and I'm sure they'll deal with it. (In the second case, I was really tempted to write the teacher myself, but I've decided to leave being the bad guy--at least for now--to my publisher.)

Of course, the "problem" with you folks who frequent this forum is that you're not the problem (at least I hope you're not!). You're the ones who make sure your productions are licensed, don't photocopy what you're not supposed to, don't pass around electronic copies of scripts, etc. But there's a huge problem out there. How do we educate the larger group of teachers/student producers about how this works (i.e. copyright law)? What tangible steps can we take?

A couple things I thought about were...
1. At both the national and state EdTA levels, developing a simple one-sheet regarding some basic copyright rules that would be disseminated to each troupe director, and asking them to acknowledge it specifically. (I would be happy to work with someone to develop it.)
2. At competitions, requiring proof of payment of royalties (which I know some do), not simply an acknowledgment from the group that they've paid royalties.

I'd love to hear other thoughts on both how to spread copyright education, and how to implement it. It's important not only to help playwrights everywhere, but to make sure we're teaching the next generation of theatre teachers and producers how to do the right thing--and what that is. Thanks

Cheers,
Jonathan

Hi folks,

It was amazing to discover that there are now over 8000 forum members. Awesome to see how it's growing, and maybe that will help with this issue...

I regularly search my name and various play titles/keywords (Google alerts help too), and nearly as regularly, I catch some people producing my plays without licensing/paying for them. Coming up next weekend, it's Harry's Hotter at Twilight, along with Don Zolidis' Game of Tiaras and Ian McWethy's The Internet is Distract--OH LOOK A KITTEN!. A pair of performances each as part of a Wisconsin school's one-act festival. At least in the case of Don and me, they bought a single copy, and here we are. This has happened more times than I can count. While the good news, given the internet these days, is that we catch most of the cheaters, I'm sure there are a few we miss, and considering that most playwrights aren't wealthy, that money, which adds up (my infringements have run into the thousands of dollars), is important.

Now perhaps I'm so used to having my work produced illegally that I'm becoming desensitized, but the next day, searching another play, I found something more disturbing: a North Carolina school that licensed this play for production in May had actually photocopied the entire script and placed it online, so that for the last six months, anyone with the right combination of search words could find it and then download/print it. I can see the teacher thinking of this as a convenient shortcut to communicate with the cast/crew (or maybe a class) and not realizing that stowing something in his website's "uploads" doesn't mean that it's invisible to the rest of the internet. But internet ignorance aside, surely he had to know that he's not supposed to photocopy hard copies of the script and that he's not supposed to put them online.

In both cases, I've notified the publisher, and I'm sure they'll deal with it. (In the second case, I was really tempted to write the teacher myself, but I've decided to leave being the bad guy--at least for now--to my publisher.)

Of course, the "problem" with you folks who frequent this forum is that you're not the problem (at least I hope you're not!). You're the ones who make sure your productions are licensed, don't photocopy what you're not supposed to, don't pass around electronic copies of scripts, etc. But there's a huge problem out there. How do we educate the larger group of teachers/student producers about how this works (i.e. copyright law)? What tangible steps can we take?

A couple things I thought about were...
1. At both the national and state EdTA levels, developing a simple one-sheet regarding some basic copyright rules that would be disseminated to each troupe director, and asking them to acknowledge it specifically. (I would be happy to work with someone to develop it.)
2. At competitions, requiring proof of payment of royalties (which I know some do), not simply an acknowledgment from the group that they've paid royalties.

I'd love to hear other thoughts on both how to spread copyright education, and how to implement it. It's important not only to help playwrights everywhere, but to make sure we're teaching the next generation of theatre teachers and producers how to do the right thing--and what that is. Thanks

Cheers,
Jonathan

Just wondering ... where are the school board attorneys  in all this.  After all it is the school/school board who are ultimately on the legal hook for this, not the teacher or student director.  The schools administrations as  matter of course should not allow any production to start with ensuring all legal compliance - some one needs to take the ultimate oversight.

I am not surprised by our society's general attitude to copyright etc, it is a part of the current ME FIRST attitude that is becoming all to persuasive.  I know of leaders of both government entities and religious ones who think that they should be exempt from the rules.  Sheeesh, even most of our elected officials and/or candidates think the rules should be different for them than the rest of us.  Is it any wonder that many folks - especially when underfunded - decide to skirt (at least in their mind) the rules and just take.  Jonathan is right it's not cheating, it is theft pure and simple.

It happens all over the place.  As part of my business I rent wireless microphone systems based on first used date and last used date.  While most folks are honest, I have had clients tell me their last performance is a Friday - that means they cannot arrange to have Fedex pick it up until Monday.  Then I see that they actually had weekend performances.  These weren't added, but originally scheduled.  Some folks just believe we can cheat, lie and steal because we are doing "Good Work" or "it's for the kids".  

I think there needs to be a series of major lawsuits against school boards that brings this to the national attention - sure the publishers will be seen as being heartless in the press, but it will make every school board and their attorneys pay attention.  The boards will quickly decide that paying a grand or two for rights and scripts is a bargain versus their attorney fees and settlements.

For those of a religious bent, just remember the scriptures tells us that a laborer is worthy of his wages.  That includes playwrights, publishers, rights providers, and composers.

Hi folks,

It was amazing to discover that there are now over 8000 forum members. Awesome to see how it's growing, and maybe that will help with this issue...

I regularly search my name and various play titles/keywords (Google alerts help too), and nearly as regularly, I catch some people producing my plays without licensing/paying for them. Coming up next weekend, it's Harry's Hotter at Twilight, along with Don Zolidis' Game of Tiaras and Ian McWethy's The Internet is Distract--OH LOOK A KITTEN!. A pair of performances each as part of a Wisconsin school's one-act festival. At least in the case of Don and me, they bought a single copy, and here we are. This has happened more times than I can count. While the good news, given the internet these days, is that we catch most of the cheaters, I'm sure there are a few we miss, and considering that most playwrights aren't wealthy, that money, which adds up (my infringements have run into the thousands of dollars), is important.

Now perhaps I'm so used to having my work produced illegally that I'm becoming desensitized, but the next day, searching another play, I found something more disturbing: a North Carolina school that licensed this play for production in May had actually photocopied the entire script and placed it online, so that for the last six months, anyone with the right combination of search words could find it and then download/print it. I can see the teacher thinking of this as a convenient shortcut to communicate with the cast/crew (or maybe a class) and not realizing that stowing something in his website's "uploads" doesn't mean that it's invisible to the rest of the internet. But internet ignorance aside, surely he had to know that he's not supposed to photocopy hard copies of the script and that he's not supposed to put them online.

In both cases, I've notified the publisher, and I'm sure they'll deal with it. (In the second case, I was really tempted to write the teacher myself, but I've decided to leave being the bad guy--at least for now--to my publisher.)

Of course, the "problem" with you folks who frequent this forum is that you're not the problem (at least I hope you're not!). You're the ones who make sure your productions are licensed, don't photocopy what you're not supposed to, don't pass around electronic copies of scripts, etc. But there's a huge problem out there. How do we educate the larger group of teachers/student producers about how this works (i.e. copyright law)? What tangible steps can we take?

A couple things I thought about were...
1. At both the national and state EdTA levels, developing a simple one-sheet regarding some basic copyright rules that would be disseminated to each troupe director, and asking them to acknowledge it specifically. (I would be happy to work with someone to develop it.)
2. At competitions, requiring proof of payment of royalties (which I know some do), not simply an acknowledgment from the group that they've paid royalties.

I'd love to hear other thoughts on both how to spread copyright education, and how to implement it. It's important not only to help playwrights everywhere, but to make sure we're teaching the next generation of theatre teachers and producers how to do the right thing--and what that is. Thanks

Cheers,
Jonathan

Hi folks,

It was amazing to discover that there are now over 8000 forum members. Awesome to see how it's growing, and maybe that will help with this issue...

I regularly search my name and various play titles/keywords (Google alerts help too), and nearly as regularly, I catch some people producing my plays without licensing/paying for them. Coming up next weekend, it's Harry's Hotter at Twilight, along with Don Zolidis' Game of Tiaras and Ian McWethy's The Internet is Distract--OH LOOK A KITTEN!. A pair of performances each as part of a Wisconsin school's one-act festival. At least in the case of Don and me, they bought a single copy, and here we are. This has happened more times than I can count. While the good news, given the internet these days, is that we catch most of the cheaters, I'm sure there are a few we miss, and considering that most playwrights aren't wealthy, that money, which adds up (my infringements have run into the thousands of dollars), is important.

Now perhaps I'm so used to having my work produced illegally that I'm becoming desensitized, but the next day, searching another play, I found something more disturbing: a North Carolina school that licensed this play for production in May had actually photocopied the entire script and placed it online, so that for the last six months, anyone with the right combination of search words could find it and then download/print it. I can see the teacher thinking of this as a convenient shortcut to communicate with the cast/crew (or maybe a class) and not realizing that stowing something in his website's "uploads" doesn't mean that it's invisible to the rest of the internet. But internet ignorance aside, surely he had to know that he's not supposed to photocopy hard copies of the script and that he's not supposed to put them online.

In both cases, I've notified the publisher, and I'm sure they'll deal with it. (In the second case, I was really tempted to write the teacher myself, but I've decided to leave being the bad guy--at least for now--to my publisher.)

Of course, the "problem" with you folks who frequent this forum is that you're not the problem (at least I hope you're not!). You're the ones who make sure your productions are licensed, don't photocopy what you're not supposed to, don't pass around electronic copies of scripts, etc. But there's a huge problem out there. How do we educate the larger group of teachers/student producers about how this works (i.e. copyright law)? What tangible steps can we take?

A couple things I thought about were...
1. At both the national and state EdTA levels, developing a simple one-sheet regarding some basic copyright rules that would be disseminated to each troupe director, and asking them to acknowledge it specifically. (I would be happy to work with someone to develop it.)
2. At competitions, requiring proof of payment of royalties (which I know some do), not simply an acknowledgment from the group that they've paid royalties.

I'd love to hear other thoughts on both how to spread copyright education, and how to implement it. It's important not only to help playwrights everywhere, but to make sure we're teaching the next generation of theatre teachers and producers how to do the right thing--and what that is. Thanks

Cheers,
Jonathan

If we were going to do a document about the legalities of copyright, I'd like a clear cut definition of "fair use." It's been talked about in other forums I participate in and it is very confusifying. 

Hi folks,

It was amazing to discover that there are now over 8000 forum members. Awesome to see how it's growing, and maybe that will help with this issue...

I regularly search my name and various play titles/keywords (Google alerts help too), and nearly as regularly, I catch some people producing my plays without licensing/paying for them. Coming up next weekend, it's Harry's Hotter at Twilight, along with Don Zolidis' Game of Tiaras and Ian McWethy's The Internet is Distract--OH LOOK A KITTEN!. A pair of performances each as part of a Wisconsin school's one-act festival. At least in the case of Don and me, they bought a single copy, and here we are. This has happened more times than I can count. While the good news, given the internet these days, is that we catch most of the cheaters, I'm sure there are a few we miss, and considering that most playwrights aren't wealthy, that money, which adds up (my infringements have run into the thousands of dollars), is important.

Now perhaps I'm so used to having my work produced illegally that I'm becoming desensitized, but the next day, searching another play, I found something more disturbing: a North Carolina school that licensed this play for production in May had actually photocopied the entire script and placed it online, so that for the last six months, anyone with the right combination of search words could find it and then download/print it. I can see the teacher thinking of this as a convenient shortcut to communicate with the cast/crew (or maybe a class) and not realizing that stowing something in his website's "uploads" doesn't mean that it's invisible to the rest of the internet. But internet ignorance aside, surely he had to know that he's not supposed to photocopy hard copies of the script and that he's not supposed to put them online.

In both cases, I've notified the publisher, and I'm sure they'll deal with it. (In the second case, I was really tempted to write the teacher myself, but I've decided to leave being the bad guy--at least for now--to my publisher.)

Of course, the "problem" with you folks who frequent this forum is that you're not the problem (at least I hope you're not!). You're the ones who make sure your productions are licensed, don't photocopy what you're not supposed to, don't pass around electronic copies of scripts, etc. But there's a huge problem out there. How do we educate the larger group of teachers/student producers about how this works (i.e. copyright law)? What tangible steps can we take?

A couple things I thought about were...
1. At both the national and state EdTA levels, developing a simple one-sheet regarding some basic copyright rules that would be disseminated to each troupe director, and asking them to acknowledge it specifically. (I would be happy to work with someone to develop it.)
2. At competitions, requiring proof of payment of royalties (which I know some do), not simply an acknowledgment from the group that they've paid royalties.

I'd love to hear other thoughts on both how to spread copyright education, and how to implement it. It's important not only to help playwrights everywhere, but to make sure we're teaching the next generation of theatre teachers and producers how to do the right thing--and what that is. Thanks

Cheers,
Jonathan

I think a  workshop for all teachers on copyright issues would be a great idea. I do think having someone who deals with the legalities presenting (at least a portion)  of the workshop is vital. It's more difficult to "blow off" the information if the person presenting is someone who works with the legal portion of producing as opposed to "one of us". (not that that should be a stumbling block but human nature and all...). Someone from a publishing company or an attorney (turned theatre teacher) would be a good choice. Actually... now that I think of it... what about an attorney who turned author? That would be someone who would both understand from the legal p.o.v. and the author...

It's definitely an important issue... It's been years, so... someone who recently graduated from university - do they teach the importance of copyright in the programs? I didn't get it when I was getting my degrees and I was wondering...? If it is not taught that would be an appropriate place to start discussions as well...

If we were going to do a document about the legalities of copyright, I'd like a clear cut definition of "fair use." It's been talked about in other forums I participate in and it is very confusifying. 

Hi folks,

It was amazing to discover that there are now over 8000 forum members. Awesome to see how it's growing, and maybe that will help with this issue...

I regularly search my name and various play titles/keywords (Google alerts help too), and nearly as regularly, I catch some people producing my plays without licensing/paying for them. Coming up next weekend, it's Harry's Hotter at Twilight, along with Don Zolidis' Game of Tiaras and Ian McWethy's The Internet is Distract--OH LOOK A KITTEN!. A pair of performances each as part of a Wisconsin school's one-act festival. At least in the case of Don and me, they bought a single copy, and here we are. This has happened more times than I can count. While the good news, given the internet these days, is that we catch most of the cheaters, I'm sure there are a few we miss, and considering that most playwrights aren't wealthy, that money, which adds up (my infringements have run into the thousands of dollars), is important.

Now perhaps I'm so used to having my work produced illegally that I'm becoming desensitized, but the next day, searching another play, I found something more disturbing: a North Carolina school that licensed this play for production in May had actually photocopied the entire script and placed it online, so that for the last six months, anyone with the right combination of search words could find it and then download/print it. I can see the teacher thinking of this as a convenient shortcut to communicate with the cast/crew (or maybe a class) and not realizing that stowing something in his website's "uploads" doesn't mean that it's invisible to the rest of the internet. But internet ignorance aside, surely he had to know that he's not supposed to photocopy hard copies of the script and that he's not supposed to put them online.

In both cases, I've notified the publisher, and I'm sure they'll deal with it. (In the second case, I was really tempted to write the teacher myself, but I've decided to leave being the bad guy--at least for now--to my publisher.)

Of course, the "problem" with you folks who frequent this forum is that you're not the problem (at least I hope you're not!). You're the ones who make sure your productions are licensed, don't photocopy what you're not supposed to, don't pass around electronic copies of scripts, etc. But there's a huge problem out there. How do we educate the larger group of teachers/student producers about how this works (i.e. copyright law)? What tangible steps can we take?

A couple things I thought about were...
1. At both the national and state EdTA levels, developing a simple one-sheet regarding some basic copyright rules that would be disseminated to each troupe director, and asking them to acknowledge it specifically. (I would be happy to work with someone to develop it.)
2. At competitions, requiring proof of payment of royalties (which I know some do), not simply an acknowledgment from the group that they've paid royalties.

I'd love to hear other thoughts on both how to spread copyright education, and how to implement it. It's important not only to help playwrights everywhere, but to make sure we're teaching the next generation of theatre teachers and producers how to do the right thing--and what that is. Thanks

Cheers,
Jonathan

I have been really strict with my students this year about copyright issues.  While I do see violations from time to time with the scripts, I see it a lot with music and we have had several discussions on this.  

We are doing a show right now where the script asks for the characters to dance to a piece of music.  I told them I would not allow them to use a song unless they secured rights.  We talked about how it is a violation of copyright to use a piece of music in the middle of a show with out obtaining permission to do so because it becomes part of the show and is legally a performance.  Pre-show, intermission and post-show music is different, because it is not part of the show, and is covered by the schools ASCAP license.  But the license does not cover music player within the context of the show. They were shocked, because we see this all the time.  The got the license, we paid $15 and it was good.

I think it is partially an education issue and we can combat that.  What is harder to combat is the people who willfully participate; making cuts, adding characters/lines, rearranging scenes (yep, saw this 3 weeks ago).  Perhaps the best recourse is to when we see something, we say something.  We notify the publisher.  That is what we are supposed to do if we see people pirating software, movies or music.  

As a writer myself, I would be very upset if someone used or changed my words without permission.  I think we have to stand up for the writers and other creators.  I am just not sure how is best.

I think a  workshop for all teachers on copyright issues would be a great idea. I do think having someone who deals with the legalities presenting (at least a portion)  of the workshop is vital. It's more difficult to "blow off" the information if the person presenting is someone who works with the legal portion of producing as opposed to "one of us". (not that that should be a stumbling block but human nature and all...). Someone from a publishing company or an attorney (turned theatre teacher) would be a good choice. Actually... now that I think of it... what about an attorney who turned author? That would be someone who would both understand from the legal p.o.v. and the author...

It's definitely an important issue... It's been years, so... someone who recently graduated from university - do they teach the importance of copyright in the programs? I didn't get it when I was getting my degrees and I was wondering...? If it is not taught that would be an appropriate place to start discussions as well...

If we were going to do a document about the legalities of copyright, I'd like a clear cut definition of "fair use." It's been talked about in other forums I participate in and it is very confusifying. 

Hi folks,

It was amazing to discover that there are now over 8000 forum members. Awesome to see how it's growing, and maybe that will help with this issue...

I regularly search my name and various play titles/keywords (Google alerts help too), and nearly as regularly, I catch some people producing my plays without licensing/paying for them. Coming up next weekend, it's Harry's Hotter at Twilight, along with Don Zolidis' Game of Tiaras and Ian McWethy's The Internet is Distract--OH LOOK A KITTEN!. A pair of performances each as part of a Wisconsin school's one-act festival. At least in the case of Don and me, they bought a single copy, and here we are. This has happened more times than I can count. While the good news, given the internet these days, is that we catch most of the cheaters, I'm sure there are a few we miss, and considering that most playwrights aren't wealthy, that money, which adds up (my infringements have run into the thousands of dollars), is important.

Now perhaps I'm so used to having my work produced illegally that I'm becoming desensitized, but the next day, searching another play, I found something more disturbing: a North Carolina school that licensed this play for production in May had actually photocopied the entire script and placed it online, so that for the last six months, anyone with the right combination of search words could find it and then download/print it. I can see the teacher thinking of this as a convenient shortcut to communicate with the cast/crew (or maybe a class) and not realizing that stowing something in his website's "uploads" doesn't mean that it's invisible to the rest of the internet. But internet ignorance aside, surely he had to know that he's not supposed to photocopy hard copies of the script and that he's not supposed to put them online.

In both cases, I've notified the publisher, and I'm sure they'll deal with it. (In the second case, I was really tempted to write the teacher myself, but I've decided to leave being the bad guy--at least for now--to my publisher.)

Of course, the "problem" with you folks who frequent this forum is that you're not the problem (at least I hope you're not!). You're the ones who make sure your productions are licensed, don't photocopy what you're not supposed to, don't pass around electronic copies of scripts, etc. But there's a huge problem out there. How do we educate the larger group of teachers/student producers about how this works (i.e. copyright law)? What tangible steps can we take?

A couple things I thought about were...
1. At both the national and state EdTA levels, developing a simple one-sheet regarding some basic copyright rules that would be disseminated to each troupe director, and asking them to acknowledge it specifically. (I would be happy to work with someone to develop it.)
2. At competitions, requiring proof of payment of royalties (which I know some do), not simply an acknowledgment from the group that they've paid royalties.

I'd love to hear other thoughts on both how to spread copyright education, and how to implement it. It's important not only to help playwrights everywhere, but to make sure we're teaching the next generation of theatre teachers and producers how to do the right thing--and what that is. Thanks

Cheers,
Jonathan

I think a  workshop for all teachers on copyright issues would be a great idea. I do think having someone who deals with the legalities presenting (at least a portion)  of the workshop is vital. It's more difficult to "blow off" the information if the person presenting is someone who works with the legal portion of producing as opposed to "one of us". (not that that should be a stumbling block but human nature and all...). Someone from a publishing company or an attorney (turned theatre teacher) would be a good choice. Actually... now that I think of it... what about an attorney who turned author? That would be someone who would both understand from the legal p.o.v. and the author...

It's definitely an important issue... It's been years, so... someone who recently graduated from university - do they teach the importance of copyright in the programs? I didn't get it when I was getting my degrees and I was wondering...? If it is not taught that would be an appropriate place to start discussions as well...

If we were going to do a document about the legalities of copyright, I'd like a clear cut definition of "fair use." It's been talked about in other forums I participate in and it is very confusifying. 

Hi folks,

It was amazing to discover that there are now over 8000 forum members. Awesome to see how it's growing, and maybe that will help with this issue...

I regularly search my name and various play titles/keywords (Google alerts help too), and nearly as regularly, I catch some people producing my plays without licensing/paying for them. Coming up next weekend, it's Harry's Hotter at Twilight, along with Don Zolidis' Game of Tiaras and Ian McWethy's The Internet is Distract--OH LOOK A KITTEN!. A pair of performances each as part of a Wisconsin school's one-act festival. At least in the case of Don and me, they bought a single copy, and here we are. This has happened more times than I can count. While the good news, given the internet these days, is that we catch most of the cheaters, I'm sure there are a few we miss, and considering that most playwrights aren't wealthy, that money, which adds up (my infringements have run into the thousands of dollars), is important.

Now perhaps I'm so used to having my work produced illegally that I'm becoming desensitized, but the next day, searching another play, I found something more disturbing: a North Carolina school that licensed this play for production in May had actually photocopied the entire script and placed it online, so that for the last six months, anyone with the right combination of search words could find it and then download/print it. I can see the teacher thinking of this as a convenient shortcut to communicate with the cast/crew (or maybe a class) and not realizing that stowing something in his website's "uploads" doesn't mean that it's invisible to the rest of the internet. But internet ignorance aside, surely he had to know that he's not supposed to photocopy hard copies of the script and that he's not supposed to put them online.

In both cases, I've notified the publisher, and I'm sure they'll deal with it. (In the second case, I was really tempted to write the teacher myself, but I've decided to leave being the bad guy--at least for now--to my publisher.)

Of course, the "problem" with you folks who frequent this forum is that you're not the problem (at least I hope you're not!). You're the ones who make sure your productions are licensed, don't photocopy what you're not supposed to, don't pass around electronic copies of scripts, etc. But there's a huge problem out there. How do we educate the larger group of teachers/student producers about how this works (i.e. copyright law)? What tangible steps can we take?

A couple things I thought about were...
1. At both the national and state EdTA levels, developing a simple one-sheet regarding some basic copyright rules that would be disseminated to each troupe director, and asking them to acknowledge it specifically. (I would be happy to work with someone to develop it.)
2. At competitions, requiring proof of payment of royalties (which I know some do), not simply an acknowledgment from the group that they've paid royalties.

I'd love to hear other thoughts on both how to spread copyright education, and how to implement it. It's important not only to help playwrights everywhere, but to make sure we're teaching the next generation of theatre teachers and producers how to do the right thing--and what that is. Thanks

Cheers,
Jonathan

Hi folks,

It was amazing to discover that there are now over 8000 forum members. Awesome to see how it's growing, and maybe that will help with this issue...

I regularly search my name and various play titles/keywords (Google alerts help too), and nearly as regularly, I catch some people producing my plays without licensing/paying for them. Coming up next weekend, it's Harry's Hotter at Twilight, along with Don Zolidis' Game of Tiaras and Ian McWethy's The Internet is Distract--OH LOOK A KITTEN!. A pair of performances each as part of a Wisconsin school's one-act festival. At least in the case of Don and me, they bought a single copy, and here we are. This has happened more times than I can count. While the good news, given the internet these days, is that we catch most of the cheaters, I'm sure there are a few we miss, and considering that most playwrights aren't wealthy, that money, which adds up (my infringements have run into the thousands of dollars), is important.

Now perhaps I'm so used to having my work produced illegally that I'm becoming desensitized, but the next day, searching another play, I found something more disturbing: a North Carolina school that licensed this play for production in May had actually photocopied the entire script and placed it online, so that for the last six months, anyone with the right combination of search words could find it and then download/print it. I can see the teacher thinking of this as a convenient shortcut to communicate with the cast/crew (or maybe a class) and not realizing that stowing something in his website's "uploads" doesn't mean that it's invisible to the rest of the internet. But internet ignorance aside, surely he had to know that he's not supposed to photocopy hard copies of the script and that he's not supposed to put them online.

In both cases, I've notified the publisher, and I'm sure they'll deal with it. (In the second case, I was really tempted to write the teacher myself, but I've decided to leave being the bad guy--at least for now--to my publisher.)

Of course, the "problem" with you folks who frequent this forum is that you're not the problem (at least I hope you're not!). You're the ones who make sure your productions are licensed, don't photocopy what you're not supposed to, don't pass around electronic copies of scripts, etc. But there's a huge problem out there. How do we educate the larger group of teachers/student producers about how this works (i.e. copyright law)? What tangible steps can we take?

A couple things I thought about were...
1. At both the national and state EdTA levels, developing a simple one-sheet regarding some basic copyright rules that would be disseminated to each troupe director, and asking them to acknowledge it specifically. (I would be happy to work with someone to develop it.)
2. At competitions, requiring proof of payment of royalties (which I know some do), not simply an acknowledgment from the group that they've paid royalties.

I'd love to hear other thoughts on both how to spread copyright education, and how to implement it. It's important not only to help playwrights everywhere, but to make sure we're teaching the next generation of theatre teachers and producers how to do the right thing--and what that is. Thanks

Cheers,
Jonathan

It's a shame that this happens to the extent that it does. I always make sure to preach the importance of paying the price for scripts and royalties with my students. I tell them that's how the writer gets paid. I don't remember getting specifically taught this at any point, but maybe I was? I kinda figured it was just common knowledge...I do teach it to my students, however. I know that as directors we will often order one of any given script for perusal purposes as a necessity for choosing a play to produce. However, I was wondering if there was a way that the publishing companies could require a minimum number of scripts purchased when paying for the royalties to produce the show? Or, perhaps as we progress into the digital age, build the cost of scripts into the price for royalties and offer up eScripts for download and self-printing? This is a great topic Mr. Dorf, thanks for raising it.

Hi folks,

It was amazing to discover that there are now over 8000 forum members. Awesome to see how it's growing, and maybe that will help with this issue...

I regularly search my name and various play titles/keywords (Google alerts help too), and nearly as regularly, I catch some people producing my plays without licensing/paying for them. Coming up next weekend, it's Harry's Hotter at Twilight, along with Don Zolidis' Game of Tiaras and Ian McWethy's The Internet is Distract--OH LOOK A KITTEN!. A pair of performances each as part of a Wisconsin school's one-act festival. At least in the case of Don and me, they bought a single copy, and here we are. This has happened more times than I can count. While the good news, given the internet these days, is that we catch most of the cheaters, I'm sure there are a few we miss, and considering that most playwrights aren't wealthy, that money, which adds up (my infringements have run into the thousands of dollars), is important.

Now perhaps I'm so used to having my work produced illegally that I'm becoming desensitized, but the next day, searching another play, I found something more disturbing: a North Carolina school that licensed this play for production in May had actually photocopied the entire script and placed it online, so that for the last six months, anyone with the right combination of search words could find it and then download/print it. I can see the teacher thinking of this as a convenient shortcut to communicate with the cast/crew (or maybe a class) and not realizing that stowing something in his website's "uploads" doesn't mean that it's invisible to the rest of the internet. But internet ignorance aside, surely he had to know that he's not supposed to photocopy hard copies of the script and that he's not supposed to put them online.

In both cases, I've notified the publisher, and I'm sure they'll deal with it. (In the second case, I was really tempted to write the teacher myself, but I've decided to leave being the bad guy--at least for now--to my publisher.)

Of course, the "problem" with you folks who frequent this forum is that you're not the problem (at least I hope you're not!). You're the ones who make sure your productions are licensed, don't photocopy what you're not supposed to, don't pass around electronic copies of scripts, etc. But there's a huge problem out there. How do we educate the larger group of teachers/student producers about how this works (i.e. copyright law)? What tangible steps can we take?

A couple things I thought about were...
1. At both the national and state EdTA levels, developing a simple one-sheet regarding some basic copyright rules that would be disseminated to each troupe director, and asking them to acknowledge it specifically. (I would be happy to work with someone to develop it.)
2. At competitions, requiring proof of payment of royalties (which I know some do), not simply an acknowledgment from the group that they've paid royalties.

I'd love to hear other thoughts on both how to spread copyright education, and how to implement it. It's important not only to help playwrights everywhere, but to make sure we're teaching the next generation of theatre teachers and producers how to do the right thing--and what that is. Thanks

Cheers,
Jonathan

Hello All,

Thanks Johnathan for starting this important discussion about copyright.  I taught this morning, in my university secondary methods class, about this very topic.  My students knew little about copyright law, licensing and procedures asking for script changes.  We had a great class discusion among ourselves.   I refereed my students to a wonderful article by Lindsey Price entitled, "How To Request A Cut or A Change In A Script".  

I believe there is a lack of understanding concerning copyright laws and licensing among teachers who may have fallen into teaching theatre as a result of being an English Educator or from some other background.

I attended a workshop in NYC several years ago and a representative from MTI came in and discussed copyright with the theatre teachers.  It was wonderful workshop.  With EdTA association with MTI and other playwrights a workshop on this topic might be a great idea at the National Conference,

Warm Regards,

Russ Saxton

It's a shame that this happens to the extent that it does. I always make sure to preach the importance of paying the price for scripts and royalties with my students. I tell them that's how the writer gets paid. I don't remember getting specifically taught this at any point, but maybe I was? I kinda figured it was just common knowledge...I do teach it to my students, however. I know that as directors we will often order one of any given script for perusal purposes as a necessity for choosing a play to produce. However, I was wondering if there was a way that the publishing companies could require a minimum number of scripts purchased when paying for the royalties to produce the show? Or, perhaps as we progress into the digital age, build the cost of scripts into the price for royalties and offer up eScripts for download and self-printing? This is a great topic Mr. Dorf, thanks for raising it.

Hi folks,

It was amazing to discover that there are now over 8000 forum members. Awesome to see how it's growing, and maybe that will help with this issue...

I regularly search my name and various play titles/keywords (Google alerts help too), and nearly as regularly, I catch some people producing my plays without licensing/paying for them. Coming up next weekend, it's Harry's Hotter at Twilight, along with Don Zolidis' Game of Tiaras and Ian McWethy's The Internet is Distract--OH LOOK A KITTEN!. A pair of performances each as part of a Wisconsin school's one-act festival. At least in the case of Don and me, they bought a single copy, and here we are. This has happened more times than I can count. While the good news, given the internet these days, is that we catch most of the cheaters, I'm sure there are a few we miss, and considering that most playwrights aren't wealthy, that money, which adds up (my infringements have run into the thousands of dollars), is important.

Now perhaps I'm so used to having my work produced illegally that I'm becoming desensitized, but the next day, searching another play, I found something more disturbing: a North Carolina school that licensed this play for production in May had actually photocopied the entire script and placed it online, so that for the last six months, anyone with the right combination of search words could find it and then download/print it. I can see the teacher thinking of this as a convenient shortcut to communicate with the cast/crew (or maybe a class) and not realizing that stowing something in his website's "uploads" doesn't mean that it's invisible to the rest of the internet. But internet ignorance aside, surely he had to know that he's not supposed to photocopy hard copies of the script and that he's not supposed to put them online.

In both cases, I've notified the publisher, and I'm sure they'll deal with it. (In the second case, I was really tempted to write the teacher myself, but I've decided to leave being the bad guy--at least for now--to my publisher.)

Of course, the "problem" with you folks who frequent this forum is that you're not the problem (at least I hope you're not!). You're the ones who make sure your productions are licensed, don't photocopy what you're not supposed to, don't pass around electronic copies of scripts, etc. But there's a huge problem out there. How do we educate the larger group of teachers/student producers about how this works (i.e. copyright law)? What tangible steps can we take?

A couple things I thought about were...
1. At both the national and state EdTA levels, developing a simple one-sheet regarding some basic copyright rules that would be disseminated to each troupe director, and asking them to acknowledge it specifically. (I would be happy to work with someone to develop it.)
2. At competitions, requiring proof of payment of royalties (which I know some do), not simply an acknowledgment from the group that they've paid royalties.

I'd love to hear other thoughts on both how to spread copyright education, and how to implement it. It's important not only to help playwrights everywhere, but to make sure we're teaching the next generation of theatre teachers and producers how to do the right thing--and what that is. Thanks

Cheers,
Jonathan

Hello All,

Thanks Johnathan for starting this important discussion about copyright.  I taught this morning, in my university secondary methods class, about this very topic.  My students knew little about copyright law, licensing and procedures asking for script changes.  We had a great class discusion among ourselves.   I refereed my students to a wonderful article by Lindsey Price entitled, "How To Request A Cut or A Change In A Script".  

I believe there is a lack of understanding concerning copyright laws and licensing among teachers who may have fallen into teaching theatre as a result of being an English Educator or from some other background.

I attended a workshop in NYC several years ago and a representative from MTI came in and discussed copyright with the theatre teachers.  It was wonderful workshop.  With EdTA association with MTI and other playwrights a workshop on this topic might be a great idea at the National Conference,

Warm Regards,

Russ Saxton

It's a shame that this happens to the extent that it does. I always make sure to preach the importance of paying the price for scripts and royalties with my students. I tell them that's how the writer gets paid. I don't remember getting specifically taught this at any point, but maybe I was? I kinda figured it was just common knowledge...I do teach it to my students, however. I know that as directors we will often order one of any given script for perusal purposes as a necessity for choosing a play to produce. However, I was wondering if there was a way that the publishing companies could require a minimum number of scripts purchased when paying for the royalties to produce the show? Or, perhaps as we progress into the digital age, build the cost of scripts into the price for royalties and offer up eScripts for download and self-printing? This is a great topic Mr. Dorf, thanks for raising it.

Hi folks,

It was amazing to discover that there are now over 8000 forum members. Awesome to see how it's growing, and maybe that will help with this issue...

I regularly search my name and various play titles/keywords (Google alerts help too), and nearly as regularly, I catch some people producing my plays without licensing/paying for them. Coming up next weekend, it's Harry's Hotter at Twilight, along with Don Zolidis' Game of Tiaras and Ian McWethy's The Internet is Distract--OH LOOK A KITTEN!. A pair of performances each as part of a Wisconsin school's one-act festival. At least in the case of Don and me, they bought a single copy, and here we are. This has happened more times than I can count. While the good news, given the internet these days, is that we catch most of the cheaters, I'm sure there are a few we miss, and considering that most playwrights aren't wealthy, that money, which adds up (my infringements have run into the thousands of dollars), is important.

Now perhaps I'm so used to having my work produced illegally that I'm becoming desensitized, but the next day, searching another play, I found something more disturbing: a North Carolina school that licensed this play for production in May had actually photocopied the entire script and placed it online, so that for the last six months, anyone with the right combination of search words could find it and then download/print it. I can see the teacher thinking of this as a convenient shortcut to communicate with the cast/crew (or maybe a class) and not realizing that stowing something in his website's "uploads" doesn't mean that it's invisible to the rest of the internet. But internet ignorance aside, surely he had to know that he's not supposed to photocopy hard copies of the script and that he's not supposed to put them online.

In both cases, I've notified the publisher, and I'm sure they'll deal with it. (In the second case, I was really tempted to write the teacher myself, but I've decided to leave being the bad guy--at least for now--to my publisher.)

Of course, the "problem" with you folks who frequent this forum is that you're not the problem (at least I hope you're not!). You're the ones who make sure your productions are licensed, don't photocopy what you're not supposed to, don't pass around electronic copies of scripts, etc. But there's a huge problem out there. How do we educate the larger group of teachers/student producers about how this works (i.e. copyright law)? What tangible steps can we take?

A couple things I thought about were...
1. At both the national and state EdTA levels, developing a simple one-sheet regarding some basic copyright rules that would be disseminated to each troupe director, and asking them to acknowledge it specifically. (I would be happy to work with someone to develop it.)
2. At competitions, requiring proof of payment of royalties (which I know some do), not simply an acknowledgment from the group that they've paid royalties.

I'd love to hear other thoughts on both how to spread copyright education, and how to implement it. It's important not only to help playwrights everywhere, but to make sure we're teaching the next generation of theatre teachers and producers how to do the right thing--and what that is. Thanks

Cheers,
Jonathan

It's a shame that this happens to the extent that it does. I always make sure to preach the importance of paying the price for scripts and royalties with my students. I tell them that's how the writer gets paid. I don't remember getting specifically taught this at any point, but maybe I was? I kinda figured it was just common knowledge...I do teach it to my students, however. I know that as directors we will often order one of any given script for perusal purposes as a necessity for choosing a play to produce. However, I was wondering if there was a way that the publishing companies could require a minimum number of scripts purchased when paying for the royalties to produce the show? Or, perhaps as we progress into the digital age, build the cost of scripts into the price for royalties and offer up eScripts for download and self-printing? This is a great topic Mr. Dorf, thanks for raising it.

Hi folks,

It was amazing to discover that there are now over 8000 forum members. Awesome to see how it's growing, and maybe that will help with this issue...

I regularly search my name and various play titles/keywords (Google alerts help too), and nearly as regularly, I catch some people producing my plays without licensing/paying for them. Coming up next weekend, it's Harry's Hotter at Twilight, along with Don Zolidis' Game of Tiaras and Ian McWethy's The Internet is Distract--OH LOOK A KITTEN!. A pair of performances each as part of a Wisconsin school's one-act festival. At least in the case of Don and me, they bought a single copy, and here we are. This has happened more times than I can count. While the good news, given the internet these days, is that we catch most of the cheaters, I'm sure there are a few we miss, and considering that most playwrights aren't wealthy, that money, which adds up (my infringements have run into the thousands of dollars), is important.

Now perhaps I'm so used to having my work produced illegally that I'm becoming desensitized, but the next day, searching another play, I found something more disturbing: a North Carolina school that licensed this play for production in May had actually photocopied the entire script and placed it online, so that for the last six months, anyone with the right combination of search words could find it and then download/print it. I can see the teacher thinking of this as a convenient shortcut to communicate with the cast/crew (or maybe a class) and not realizing that stowing something in his website's "uploads" doesn't mean that it's invisible to the rest of the internet. But internet ignorance aside, surely he had to know that he's not supposed to photocopy hard copies of the script and that he's not supposed to put them online.

In both cases, I've notified the publisher, and I'm sure they'll deal with it. (In the second case, I was really tempted to write the teacher myself, but I've decided to leave being the bad guy--at least for now--to my publisher.)

Of course, the "problem" with you folks who frequent this forum is that you're not the problem (at least I hope you're not!). You're the ones who make sure your productions are licensed, don't photocopy what you're not supposed to, don't pass around electronic copies of scripts, etc. But there's a huge problem out there. How do we educate the larger group of teachers/student producers about how this works (i.e. copyright law)? What tangible steps can we take?

A couple things I thought about were...
1. At both the national and state EdTA levels, developing a simple one-sheet regarding some basic copyright rules that would be disseminated to each troupe director, and asking them to acknowledge it specifically. (I would be happy to work with someone to develop it.)
2. At competitions, requiring proof of payment of royalties (which I know some do), not simply an acknowledgment from the group that they've paid royalties.

I'd love to hear other thoughts on both how to spread copyright education, and how to implement it. It's important not only to help playwrights everywhere, but to make sure we're teaching the next generation of theatre teachers and producers how to do the right thing--and what that is. Thanks

Cheers,
Jonathan

Hi folks,

It was amazing to discover that there are now over 8000 forum members. Awesome to see how it's growing, and maybe that will help with this issue...

I regularly search my name and various play titles/keywords (Google alerts help too), and nearly as regularly, I catch some people producing my plays without licensing/paying for them. Coming up next weekend, it's Harry's Hotter at Twilight, along with Don Zolidis' Game of Tiaras and Ian McWethy's The Internet is Distract--OH LOOK A KITTEN!. A pair of performances each as part of a Wisconsin school's one-act festival. At least in the case of Don and me, they bought a single copy, and here we are. This has happened more times than I can count. While the good news, given the internet these days, is that we catch most of the cheaters, I'm sure there are a few we miss, and considering that most playwrights aren't wealthy, that money, which adds up (my infringements have run into the thousands of dollars), is important.

Now perhaps I'm so used to having my work produced illegally that I'm becoming desensitized, but the next day, searching another play, I found something more disturbing: a North Carolina school that licensed this play for production in May had actually photocopied the entire script and placed it online, so that for the last six months, anyone with the right combination of search words could find it and then download/print it. I can see the teacher thinking of this as a convenient shortcut to communicate with the cast/crew (or maybe a class) and not realizing that stowing something in his website's "uploads" doesn't mean that it's invisible to the rest of the internet. But internet ignorance aside, surely he had to know that he's not supposed to photocopy hard copies of the script and that he's not supposed to put them online.

In both cases, I've notified the publisher, and I'm sure they'll deal with it. (In the second case, I was really tempted to write the teacher myself, but I've decided to leave being the bad guy--at least for now--to my publisher.)

Of course, the "problem" with you folks who frequent this forum is that you're not the problem (at least I hope you're not!). You're the ones who make sure your productions are licensed, don't photocopy what you're not supposed to, don't pass around electronic copies of scripts, etc. But there's a huge problem out there. How do we educate the larger group of teachers/student producers about how this works (i.e. copyright law)? What tangible steps can we take?

A couple things I thought about were...
1. At both the national and state EdTA levels, developing a simple one-sheet regarding some basic copyright rules that would be disseminated to each troupe director, and asking them to acknowledge it specifically. (I would be happy to work with someone to develop it.)
2. At competitions, requiring proof of payment of royalties (which I know some do), not simply an acknowledgment from the group that they've paid royalties.

I'd love to hear other thoughts on both how to spread copyright education, and how to implement it. It's important not only to help playwrights everywhere, but to make sure we're teaching the next generation of theatre teachers and producers how to do the right thing--and what that is. Thanks

Cheers,
Jonathan

Hi Jonathan,

First, thank you for supporting high school theatre, and being an active member of the community here. 

This afternoon, I was alerted to your message, and while the Educational Theatre Association (EdTA)/Thespians does not run our interscholastic one-act play festival in Wisconsin, we consider them a valued associate in advocating for high school theatre. 

I can assure you that when registering for the contest, each of our schools must acknowledge an agreement that they have secured the necessary performance rights and paid any royalties and script fees as required by the publisher, along with securing permission of their school administration to perform that work. If they do violate this rule, we cooperate with publishers to document as such.

As a state association administrator, I annually attend professional development workshops through the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), where EdTA officials and my colleagues from other states have often done workshops on copyright law and ethics. We also have instructional materials for our directors in our own state documents.

What troubles me is when I went to research which schools participating in the festival this weekend were in violation, NONE of the titles you cited in your original post are due to be performed by our schools.

While I am a big believer in supporting the work of artists and following the correct protocols when it comes to paying royalties, etc., I suspect this happens more often than not when an unsuspecting teacher without formal training in theatre volunteers -- or is asked by the school -- to advise the drama club. That said, I love the idea of a brief information sheet for directors -- the more information that's out there, that can be shared among our community, the more teachers who have not had the benefit of a methods course, etc.

Jonathan -- feel free to email me at adam@whsfa.org with the names of schools who you found to be in violation, and I can investigate appropriately.

Warm regards,
Adam

Hi folks,

It was amazing to discover that there are now over 8000 forum members. Awesome to see how it's growing, and maybe that will help with this issue...

I regularly search my name and various play titles/keywords (Google alerts help too), and nearly as regularly, I catch some people producing my plays without licensing/paying for them. Coming up next weekend, it's Harry's Hotter at Twilight, along with Don Zolidis' Game of Tiaras and Ian McWethy's The Internet is Distract--OH LOOK A KITTEN!. A pair of performances each as part of a Wisconsin school's one-act festival. At least in the case of Don and me, they bought a single copy, and here we are. This has happened more times than I can count. While the good news, given the internet these days, is that we catch most of the cheaters, I'm sure there are a few we miss, and considering that most playwrights aren't wealthy, that money, which adds up (my infringements have run into the thousands of dollars), is important.

Now perhaps I'm so used to having my work produced illegally that I'm becoming desensitized, but the next day, searching another play, I found something more disturbing: a North Carolina school that licensed this play for production in May had actually photocopied the entire script and placed it online, so that for the last six months, anyone with the right combination of search words could find it and then download/print it. I can see the teacher thinking of this as a convenient shortcut to communicate with the cast/crew (or maybe a class) and not realizing that stowing something in his website's "uploads" doesn't mean that it's invisible to the rest of the internet. But internet ignorance aside, surely he had to know that he's not supposed to photocopy hard copies of the script and that he's not supposed to put them online.

In both cases, I've notified the publisher, and I'm sure they'll deal with it. (In the second case, I was really tempted to write the teacher myself, but I've decided to leave being the bad guy--at least for now--to my publisher.)

Of course, the "problem" with you folks who frequent this forum is that you're not the problem (at least I hope you're not!). You're the ones who make sure your productions are licensed, don't photocopy what you're not supposed to, don't pass around electronic copies of scripts, etc. But there's a huge problem out there. How do we educate the larger group of teachers/student producers about how this works (i.e. copyright law)? What tangible steps can we take?

A couple things I thought about were...
1. At both the national and state EdTA levels, developing a simple one-sheet regarding some basic copyright rules that would be disseminated to each troupe director, and asking them to acknowledge it specifically. (I would be happy to work with someone to develop it.)
2. At competitions, requiring proof of payment of royalties (which I know some do), not simply an acknowledgment from the group that they've paid royalties.

I'd love to hear other thoughts on both how to spread copyright education, and how to implement it. It's important not only to help playwrights everywhere, but to make sure we're teaching the next generation of theatre teachers and producers how to do the right thing--and what that is. Thanks

Cheers,
Jonathan

Adam, to clarify, it wasn't at the state one-act festival (perhaps you were confused by my mentioning the step of showing proof of license at festivals), but rather the school's own one-act festival. The publisher has been alerted, and apparently the school has just purchased a performance license--it came through my email a few minutes ago (though there are still some questions re: purchasing sufficient scripts and whether they've purchased enough performances). I've already heard from them regarding the North Carolina school that placed the entire script online, and that school has received a very strongly worded letter, and the publisher will be following up later this week if they haven't gotten a reply.

But while this particular infringement didn't take place at your state festival, I can't help but notice--and perhaps I'm misunderstanding this--that you said each school "must acknowledge an agreement that they have secured the necessary performance rights and paid any royalties and script fees as required by the publisher." Rather than having them acknowledge that they paid, why not actually have them show proof that they did? It seems like that would be easier for all involved, and it would eliminate any possibility of misunderstanding and having to chase people down after the fact.

Cheers,
Jonathan

Hi Jonathan,

First, thank you for supporting high school theatre, and being an active member of the community here. 

This afternoon, I was alerted to your message, and while the Educational Theatre Association (EdTA)/Thespians does not run our interscholastic one-act play festival in Wisconsin, we consider them a valued associate in advocating for high school theatre. 

I can assure you that when registering for the contest, each of our schools must acknowledge an agreement that they have secured the necessary performance rights and paid any royalties and script fees as required by the publisher, along with securing permission of their school administration to perform that work. If they do violate this rule, we cooperate with publishers to document as such.

As a state association administrator, I annually attend professional development workshops through the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), where EdTA officials and my colleagues from other states have often done workshops on copyright law and ethics. We also have instructional materials for our directors in our own state documents.

What troubles me is when I went to research which schools participating in the festival this weekend were in violation, NONE of the titles you cited in your original post are due to be performed by our schools.

While I am a big believer in supporting the work of artists and following the correct protocols when it comes to paying royalties, etc., I suspect this happens more often than not when an unsuspecting teacher without formal training in theatre volunteers -- or is asked by the school -- to advise the drama club. That said, I love the idea of a brief information sheet for directors -- the more information that's out there, that can be shared among our community, the more teachers who have not had the benefit of a methods course, etc.

Jonathan -- feel free to email me at adam@whsfa.org with the names of schools who you found to be in violation, and I can investigate appropriately.

Warm regards,
Adam

Hi folks,

It was amazing to discover that there are now over 8000 forum members. Awesome to see how it's growing, and maybe that will help with this issue...

I regularly search my name and various play titles/keywords (Google alerts help too), and nearly as regularly, I catch some people producing my plays without licensing/paying for them. Coming up next weekend, it's Harry's Hotter at Twilight, along with Don Zolidis' Game of Tiaras and Ian McWethy's The Internet is Distract--OH LOOK A KITTEN!. A pair of performances each as part of a Wisconsin school's one-act festival. At least in the case of Don and me, they bought a single copy, and here we are. This has happened more times than I can count. While the good news, given the internet these days, is that we catch most of the cheaters, I'm sure there are a few we miss, and considering that most playwrights aren't wealthy, that money, which adds up (my infringements have run into the thousands of dollars), is important.

Now perhaps I'm so used to having my work produced illegally that I'm becoming desensitized, but the next day, searching another play, I found something more disturbing: a North Carolina school that licensed this play for production in May had actually photocopied the entire script and placed it online, so that for the last six months, anyone with the right combination of search words could find it and then download/print it. I can see the teacher thinking of this as a convenient shortcut to communicate with the cast/crew (or maybe a class) and not realizing that stowing something in his website's "uploads" doesn't mean that it's invisible to the rest of the internet. But internet ignorance aside, surely he had to know that he's not supposed to photocopy hard copies of the script and that he's not supposed to put them online.

In both cases, I've notified the publisher, and I'm sure they'll deal with it. (In the second case, I was really tempted to write the teacher myself, but I've decided to leave being the bad guy--at least for now--to my publisher.)

Of course, the "problem" with you folks who frequent this forum is that you're not the problem (at least I hope you're not!). You're the ones who make sure your productions are licensed, don't photocopy what you're not supposed to, don't pass around electronic copies of scripts, etc. But there's a huge problem out there. How do we educate the larger group of teachers/student producers about how this works (i.e. copyright law)? What tangible steps can we take?

A couple things I thought about were...
1. At both the national and state EdTA levels, developing a simple one-sheet regarding some basic copyright rules that would be disseminated to each troupe director, and asking them to acknowledge it specifically. (I would be happy to work with someone to develop it.)
2. At competitions, requiring proof of payment of royalties (which I know some do), not simply an acknowledgment from the group that they've paid royalties.

I'd love to hear other thoughts on both how to spread copyright education, and how to implement it. It's important not only to help playwrights everywhere, but to make sure we're teaching the next generation of theatre teachers and producers how to do the right thing--and what that is. Thanks

Cheers,
Jonathan

Hi Jonathan,

Thank you for replying, and I did misunderstand, as did the director who told me about this thread, who was concerned one of our directors was not following through on our rules, which is why I replied.

One of my state association colleagues from another state adopted the same protocol regarding performance rights at their interscholastic state festival, which Wisconsin then followed suit. It has something to do with liability, and schools being the agent of licensure when it comes to obtaining royalties. I'm not an attorney, so I cannot do justice to explaining this. 

The bottom line here is we all need to work together to educate the educators and raise awareness, and I am committing to being part of that solution. 

Adam

Adam, to clarify, it wasn't at the state one-act festival (perhaps you were confused by my mentioning the step of showing proof of license at festivals), but rather the school's own one-act festival. The publisher has been alerted, and apparently the school has just purchased a performance license--it came through my email a few minutes ago (though there are still some questions re: purchasing sufficient scripts and whether they've purchased enough performances). I've already heard from them regarding the North Carolina school that placed the entire script online, and that school has received a very strongly worded letter, and the publisher will be following up later this week if they haven't gotten a reply.

But while this particular infringement didn't take place at your state festival, I can't help but notice--and perhaps I'm misunderstanding this--that you said each school "must acknowledge an agreement that they have secured the necessary performance rights and paid any royalties and script fees as required by the publisher." Rather than having them acknowledge that they paid, why not actually have them show proof that they did? It seems like that would be easier for all involved, and it would eliminate any possibility of misunderstanding and having to chase people down after the fact.

Cheers,
Jonathan

Hi Jonathan,

First, thank you for supporting high school theatre, and being an active member of the community here. 

This afternoon, I was alerted to your message, and while the Educational Theatre Association (EdTA)/Thespians does not run our interscholastic one-act play festival in Wisconsin, we consider them a valued associate in advocating for high school theatre. 

I can assure you that when registering for the contest, each of our schools must acknowledge an agreement that they have secured the necessary performance rights and paid any royalties and script fees as required by the publisher, along with securing permission of their school administration to perform that work. If they do violate this rule, we cooperate with publishers to document as such.

As a state association administrator, I annually attend professional development workshops through the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), where EdTA officials and my colleagues from other states have often done workshops on copyright law and ethics. We also have instructional materials for our directors in our own state documents.

What troubles me is when I went to research which schools participating in the festival this weekend were in violation, NONE of the titles you cited in your original post are due to be performed by our schools.

While I am a big believer in supporting the work of artists and following the correct protocols when it comes to paying royalties, etc., I suspect this happens more often than not when an unsuspecting teacher without formal training in theatre volunteers -- or is asked by the school -- to advise the drama club. That said, I love the idea of a brief information sheet for directors -- the more information that's out there, that can be shared among our community, the more teachers who have not had the benefit of a methods course, etc.

Jonathan -- feel free to email me at adam@whsfa.org with the names of schools who you found to be in violation, and I can investigate appropriately.

Warm regards,
Adam

Hi folks,

It was amazing to discover that there are now over 8000 forum members. Awesome to see how it's growing, and maybe that will help with this issue...

I regularly search my name and various play titles/keywords (Google alerts help too), and nearly as regularly, I catch some people producing my plays without licensing/paying for them. Coming up next weekend, it's Harry's Hotter at Twilight, along with Don Zolidis' Game of Tiaras and Ian McWethy's The Internet is Distract--OH LOOK A KITTEN!. A pair of performances each as part of a Wisconsin school's one-act festival. At least in the case of Don and me, they bought a single copy, and here we are. This has happened more times than I can count. While the good news, given the internet these days, is that we catch most of the cheaters, I'm sure there are a few we miss, and considering that most playwrights aren't wealthy, that money, which adds up (my infringements have run into the thousands of dollars), is important.

Now perhaps I'm so used to having my work produced illegally that I'm becoming desensitized, but the next day, searching another play, I found something more disturbing: a North Carolina school that licensed this play for production in May had actually photocopied the entire script and placed it online, so that for the last six months, anyone with the right combination of search words could find it and then download/print it. I can see the teacher thinking of this as a convenient shortcut to communicate with the cast/crew (or maybe a class) and not realizing that stowing something in his website's "uploads" doesn't mean that it's invisible to the rest of the internet. But internet ignorance aside, surely he had to know that he's not supposed to photocopy hard copies of the script and that he's not supposed to put them online.

In both cases, I've notified the publisher, and I'm sure they'll deal with it. (In the second case, I was really tempted to write the teacher myself, but I've decided to leave being the bad guy--at least for now--to my publisher.)

Of course, the "problem" with you folks who frequent this forum is that you're not the problem (at least I hope you're not!). You're the ones who make sure your productions are licensed, don't photocopy what you're not supposed to, don't pass around electronic copies of scripts, etc. But there's a huge problem out there. How do we educate the larger group of teachers/student producers about how this works (i.e. copyright law)? What tangible steps can we take?

A couple things I thought about were...
1. At both the national and state EdTA levels, developing a simple one-sheet regarding some basic copyright rules that would be disseminated to each troupe director, and asking them to acknowledge it specifically. (I would be happy to work with someone to develop it.)
2. At competitions, requiring proof of payment of royalties (which I know some do), not simply an acknowledgment from the group that they've paid royalties.

I'd love to hear other thoughts on both how to spread copyright education, and how to implement it. It's important not only to help playwrights everywhere, but to make sure we're teaching the next generation of theatre teachers and producers how to do the right thing--and what that is. Thanks

Cheers,
Jonathan

Hi folks,

It was amazing to discover that there are now over 8000 forum members. Awesome to see how it's growing, and maybe that will help with this issue...

I regularly search my name and various play titles/keywords (Google alerts help too), and nearly as regularly, I catch some people producing my plays without licensing/paying for them. Coming up next weekend, it's Harry's Hotter at Twilight, along with Don Zolidis' Game of Tiaras and Ian McWethy's The Internet is Distract--OH LOOK A KITTEN!. A pair of performances each as part of a Wisconsin school's one-act festival. At least in the case of Don and me, they bought a single copy, and here we are. This has happened more times than I can count. While the good news, given the internet these days, is that we catch most of the cheaters, I'm sure there are a few we miss, and considering that most playwrights aren't wealthy, that money, which adds up (my infringements have run into the thousands of dollars), is important.

Now perhaps I'm so used to having my work produced illegally that I'm becoming desensitized, but the next day, searching another play, I found something more disturbing: a North Carolina school that licensed this play for production in May had actually photocopied the entire script and placed it online, so that for the last six months, anyone with the right combination of search words could find it and then download/print it. I can see the teacher thinking of this as a convenient shortcut to communicate with the cast/crew (or maybe a class) and not realizing that stowing something in his website's "uploads" doesn't mean that it's invisible to the rest of the internet. But internet ignorance aside, surely he had to know that he's not supposed to photocopy hard copies of the script and that he's not supposed to put them online.

In both cases, I've notified the publisher, and I'm sure they'll deal with it. (In the second case, I was really tempted to write the teacher myself, but I've decided to leave being the bad guy--at least for now--to my publisher.)

Of course, the "problem" with you folks who frequent this forum is that you're not the problem (at least I hope you're not!). You're the ones who make sure your productions are licensed, don't photocopy what you're not supposed to, don't pass around electronic copies of scripts, etc. But there's a huge problem out there. How do we educate the larger group of teachers/student producers about how this works (i.e. copyright law)? What tangible steps can we take?

A couple things I thought about were...
1. At both the national and state EdTA levels, developing a simple one-sheet regarding some basic copyright rules that would be disseminated to each troupe director, and asking them to acknowledge it specifically. (I would be happy to work with someone to develop it.)
2. At competitions, requiring proof of payment of royalties (which I know some do), not simply an acknowledgment from the group that they've paid royalties.

I'd love to hear other thoughts on both how to spread copyright education, and how to implement it. It's important not only to help playwrights everywhere, but to make sure we're teaching the next generation of theatre teachers and producers how to do the right thing--and what that is. Thanks

Cheers,
Jonathan

I would urge anyone in a school situation to seek the assistance of your school librarian (if you're lucky enough to still have one).  While not necessary expert in copyright as it applies to theatre, they are experts in intellectual property, and would welcome a chance to talk with your classes, or you or a group of colleagues about this.

Hi folks,

It was amazing to discover that there are now over 8000 forum members. Awesome to see how it's growing, and maybe that will help with this issue...

I regularly search my name and various play titles/keywords (Google alerts help too), and nearly as regularly, I catch some people producing my plays without licensing/paying for them. Coming up next weekend, it's Harry's Hotter at Twilight, along with Don Zolidis' Game of Tiaras and Ian McWethy's The Internet is Distract--OH LOOK A KITTEN!. A pair of performances each as part of a Wisconsin school's one-act festival. At least in the case of Don and me, they bought a single copy, and here we are. This has happened more times than I can count. While the good news, given the internet these days, is that we catch most of the cheaters, I'm sure there are a few we miss, and considering that most playwrights aren't wealthy, that money, which adds up (my infringements have run into the thousands of dollars), is important.

Now perhaps I'm so used to having my work produced illegally that I'm becoming desensitized, but the next day, searching another play, I found something more disturbing: a North Carolina school that licensed this play for production in May had actually photocopied the entire script and placed it online, so that for the last six months, anyone with the right combination of search words could find it and then download/print it. I can see the teacher thinking of this as a convenient shortcut to communicate with the cast/crew (or maybe a class) and not realizing that stowing something in his website's "uploads" doesn't mean that it's invisible to the rest of the internet. But internet ignorance aside, surely he had to know that he's not supposed to photocopy hard copies of the script and that he's not supposed to put them online.

In both cases, I've notified the publisher, and I'm sure they'll deal with it. (In the second case, I was really tempted to write the teacher myself, but I've decided to leave being the bad guy--at least for now--to my publisher.)

Of course, the "problem" with you folks who frequent this forum is that you're not the problem (at least I hope you're not!). You're the ones who make sure your productions are licensed, don't photocopy what you're not supposed to, don't pass around electronic copies of scripts, etc. But there's a huge problem out there. How do we educate the larger group of teachers/student producers about how this works (i.e. copyright law)? What tangible steps can we take?

A couple things I thought about were...
1. At both the national and state EdTA levels, developing a simple one-sheet regarding some basic copyright rules that would be disseminated to each troupe director, and asking them to acknowledge it specifically. (I would be happy to work with someone to develop it.)
2. At competitions, requiring proof of payment of royalties (which I know some do), not simply an acknowledgment from the group that they've paid royalties.

I'd love to hear other thoughts on both how to spread copyright education, and how to implement it. It's important not only to help playwrights everywhere, but to make sure we're teaching the next generation of theatre teachers and producers how to do the right thing--and what that is. Thanks

Cheers,
Jonathan

When I asked about a colleague "cheating" it wasn't in reference to stealing the rights. I fully believe they are paying the royalties. My problem are the changes they make in the scripts so they are "appropriate" (whatever that means). A major school in our district makes changes under the "belief" that "we're a school so we can change it". They don't want to offend the delicate sensibilities of the parents. 

I teach my students the law so that we all know what's right and wrong. Someone will always say, "who'll know?" and I say, "I'll know and now you know that it's breaking the law."

I have been trying to get our state theatre association (Kentucky Theatre Association) to make it a requirement that the schools participating show proof they have permission and have paid the royalties before participating in the one-act competition. It will never happen. I always put in my competition program the required statement of publishing agency. 

Gotta go, there's another dead horse I need to beat.

I would urge anyone in a school situation to seek the assistance of your school librarian (if you're lucky enough to still have one).  While not necessary expert in copyright as it applies to theatre, they are experts in intellectual property, and would welcome a chance to talk with your classes, or you or a group of colleagues about this.

Hi folks,

It was amazing to discover that there are now over 8000 forum members. Awesome to see how it's growing, and maybe that will help with this issue...

I regularly search my name and various play titles/keywords (Google alerts help too), and nearly as regularly, I catch some people producing my plays without licensing/paying for them. Coming up next weekend, it's Harry's Hotter at Twilight, along with Don Zolidis' Game of Tiaras and Ian McWethy's The Internet is Distract--OH LOOK A KITTEN!. A pair of performances each as part of a Wisconsin school's one-act festival. At least in the case of Don and me, they bought a single copy, and here we are. This has happened more times than I can count. While the good news, given the internet these days, is that we catch most of the cheaters, I'm sure there are a few we miss, and considering that most playwrights aren't wealthy, that money, which adds up (my infringements have run into the thousands of dollars), is important.

Now perhaps I'm so used to having my work produced illegally that I'm becoming desensitized, but the next day, searching another play, I found something more disturbing: a North Carolina school that licensed this play for production in May had actually photocopied the entire script and placed it online, so that for the last six months, anyone with the right combination of search words could find it and then download/print it. I can see the teacher thinking of this as a convenient shortcut to communicate with the cast/crew (or maybe a class) and not realizing that stowing something in his website's "uploads" doesn't mean that it's invisible to the rest of the internet. But internet ignorance aside, surely he had to know that he's not supposed to photocopy hard copies of the script and that he's not supposed to put them online.

In both cases, I've notified the publisher, and I'm sure they'll deal with it. (In the second case, I was really tempted to write the teacher myself, but I've decided to leave being the bad guy--at least for now--to my publisher.)

Of course, the "problem" with you folks who frequent this forum is that you're not the problem (at least I hope you're not!). You're the ones who make sure your productions are licensed, don't photocopy what you're not supposed to, don't pass around electronic copies of scripts, etc. But there's a huge problem out there. How do we educate the larger group of teachers/student producers about how this works (i.e. copyright law)? What tangible steps can we take?

A couple things I thought about were...
1. At both the national and state EdTA levels, developing a simple one-sheet regarding some basic copyright rules that would be disseminated to each troupe director, and asking them to acknowledge it specifically. (I would be happy to work with someone to develop it.)
2. At competitions, requiring proof of payment of royalties (which I know some do), not simply an acknowledgment from the group that they've paid royalties.

I'd love to hear other thoughts on both how to spread copyright education, and how to implement it. It's important not only to help playwrights everywhere, but to make sure we're teaching the next generation of theatre teachers and producers how to do the right thing--and what that is. Thanks

Cheers,
Jonathan

A librarian would probably be a great resource insofar as something like Fair Use is concerned.

John, what have you found the resistance/objection toward your suggestion of providing proof of license to be?

I wonder if making a short video about copyright/licensing/rights might be a way to engage more people...

Cheers,
Jonathan

When I asked about a colleague "cheating" it wasn't in reference to stealing the rights. I fully believe they are paying the royalties. My problem are the changes they make in the scripts so they are "appropriate" (whatever that means). A major school in our district makes changes under the "belief" that "we're a school so we can change it". They don't want to offend the delicate sensibilities of the parents. 

I teach my students the law so that we all know what's right and wrong. Someone will always say, "who'll know?" and I say, "I'll know and now you know that it's breaking the law."

I have been trying to get our state theatre association (Kentucky Theatre Association) to make it a requirement that the schools participating show proof they have permission and have paid the royalties before participating in the one-act competition. It will never happen. I always put in my competition program the required statement of publishing agency. 

Gotta go, there's another dead horse I need to beat.

I would urge anyone in a school situation to seek the assistance of your school librarian (if you're lucky enough to still have one).  While not necessary expert in copyright as it applies to theatre, they are experts in intellectual property, and would welcome a chance to talk with your classes, or you or a group of colleagues about this.

Hi folks,

It was amazing to discover that there are now over 8000 forum members. Awesome to see how it's growing, and maybe that will help with this issue...

I regularly search my name and various play titles/keywords (Google alerts help too), and nearly as regularly, I catch some people producing my plays without licensing/paying for them. Coming up next weekend, it's Harry's Hotter at Twilight, along with Don Zolidis' Game of Tiaras and Ian McWethy's The Internet is Distract--OH LOOK A KITTEN!. A pair of performances each as part of a Wisconsin school's one-act festival. At least in the case of Don and me, they bought a single copy, and here we are. This has happened more times than I can count. While the good news, given the internet these days, is that we catch most of the cheaters, I'm sure there are a few we miss, and considering that most playwrights aren't wealthy, that money, which adds up (my infringements have run into the thousands of dollars), is important.

Now perhaps I'm so used to having my work produced illegally that I'm becoming desensitized, but the next day, searching another play, I found something more disturbing: a North Carolina school that licensed this play for production in May had actually photocopied the entire script and placed it online, so that for the last six months, anyone with the right combination of search words could find it and then download/print it. I can see the teacher thinking of this as a convenient shortcut to communicate with the cast/crew (or maybe a class) and not realizing that stowing something in his website's "uploads" doesn't mean that it's invisible to the rest of the internet. But internet ignorance aside, surely he had to know that he's not supposed to photocopy hard copies of the script and that he's not supposed to put them online.

In both cases, I've notified the publisher, and I'm sure they'll deal with it. (In the second case, I was really tempted to write the teacher myself, but I've decided to leave being the bad guy--at least for now--to my publisher.)

Of course, the "problem" with you folks who frequent this forum is that you're not the problem (at least I hope you're not!). You're the ones who make sure your productions are licensed, don't photocopy what you're not supposed to, don't pass around electronic copies of scripts, etc. But there's a huge problem out there. How do we educate the larger group of teachers/student producers about how this works (i.e. copyright law)? What tangible steps can we take?

A couple things I thought about were...
1. At both the national and state EdTA levels, developing a simple one-sheet regarding some basic copyright rules that would be disseminated to each troupe director, and asking them to acknowledge it specifically. (I would be happy to work with someone to develop it.)
2. At competitions, requiring proof of payment of royalties (which I know some do), not simply an acknowledgment from the group that they've paid royalties.

I'd love to hear other thoughts on both how to spread copyright education, and how to implement it. It's important not only to help playwrights everywhere, but to make sure we're teaching the next generation of theatre teachers and producers how to do the right thing--and what that is. Thanks

Cheers,
Jonathan

When I asked about a colleague "cheating" it wasn't in reference to stealing the rights. I fully believe they are paying the royalties. My problem are the changes they make in the scripts so they are "appropriate" (whatever that means). A major school in our district makes changes under the "belief" that "we're a school so we can change it". They don't want to offend the delicate sensibilities of the parents. 

I teach my students the law so that we all know what's right and wrong. Someone will always say, "who'll know?" and I say, "I'll know and now you know that it's breaking the law."

I have been trying to get our state theatre association (Kentucky Theatre Association) to make it a requirement that the schools participating show proof they have permission and have paid the royalties before participating in the one-act competition. It will never happen. I always put in my competition program the required statement of publishing agency. 

Gotta go, there's another dead horse I need to beat.

I would urge anyone in a school situation to seek the assistance of your school librarian (if you're lucky enough to still have one).  While not necessary expert in copyright as it applies to theatre, they are experts in intellectual property, and would welcome a chance to talk with your classes, or you or a group of colleagues about this.

Hi folks,

It was amazing to discover that there are now over 8000 forum members. Awesome to see how it's growing, and maybe that will help with this issue...

I regularly search my name and various play titles/keywords (Google alerts help too), and nearly as regularly, I catch some people producing my plays without licensing/paying for them. Coming up next weekend, it's Harry's Hotter at Twilight, along with Don Zolidis' Game of Tiaras and Ian McWethy's The Internet is Distract--OH LOOK A KITTEN!. A pair of performances each as part of a Wisconsin school's one-act festival. At least in the case of Don and me, they bought a single copy, and here we are. This has happened more times than I can count. While the good news, given the internet these days, is that we catch most of the cheaters, I'm sure there are a few we miss, and considering that most playwrights aren't wealthy, that money, which adds up (my infringements have run into the thousands of dollars), is important.

Now perhaps I'm so used to having my work produced illegally that I'm becoming desensitized, but the next day, searching another play, I found something more disturbing: a North Carolina school that licensed this play for production in May had actually photocopied the entire script and placed it online, so that for the last six months, anyone with the right combination of search words could find it and then download/print it. I can see the teacher thinking of this as a convenient shortcut to communicate with the cast/crew (or maybe a class) and not realizing that stowing something in his website's "uploads" doesn't mean that it's invisible to the rest of the internet. But internet ignorance aside, surely he had to know that he's not supposed to photocopy hard copies of the script and that he's not supposed to put them online.

In both cases, I've notified the publisher, and I'm sure they'll deal with it. (In the second case, I was really tempted to write the teacher myself, but I've decided to leave being the bad guy--at least for now--to my publisher.)

Of course, the "problem" with you folks who frequent this forum is that you're not the problem (at least I hope you're not!). You're the ones who make sure your productions are licensed, don't photocopy what you're not supposed to, don't pass around electronic copies of scripts, etc. But there's a huge problem out there. How do we educate the larger group of teachers/student producers about how this works (i.e. copyright law)? What tangible steps can we take?

A couple things I thought about were...
1. At both the national and state EdTA levels, developing a simple one-sheet regarding some basic copyright rules that would be disseminated to each troupe director, and asking them to acknowledge it specifically. (I would be happy to work with someone to develop it.)
2. At competitions, requiring proof of payment of royalties (which I know some do), not simply an acknowledgment from the group that they've paid royalties.

I'd love to hear other thoughts on both how to spread copyright education, and how to implement it. It's important not only to help playwrights everywhere, but to make sure we're teaching the next generation of theatre teachers and producers how to do the right thing--and what that is. Thanks

Cheers,
Jonathan

Hi folks,

It was amazing to discover that there are now over 8000 forum members. Awesome to see how it's growing, and maybe that will help with this issue...

I regularly search my name and various play titles/keywords (Google alerts help too), and nearly as regularly, I catch some people producing my plays without licensing/paying for them. Coming up next weekend, it's Harry's Hotter at Twilight, along with Don Zolidis' Game of Tiaras and Ian McWethy's The Internet is Distract--OH LOOK A KITTEN!. A pair of performances each as part of a Wisconsin school's one-act festival. At least in the case of Don and me, they bought a single copy, and here we are. This has happened more times than I can count. While the good news, given the internet these days, is that we catch most of the cheaters, I'm sure there are a few we miss, and considering that most playwrights aren't wealthy, that money, which adds up (my infringements have run into the thousands of dollars), is important.

Now perhaps I'm so used to having my work produced illegally that I'm becoming desensitized, but the next day, searching another play, I found something more disturbing: a North Carolina school that licensed this play for production in May had actually photocopied the entire script and placed it online, so that for the last six months, anyone with the right combination of search words could find it and then download/print it. I can see the teacher thinking of this as a convenient shortcut to communicate with the cast/crew (or maybe a class) and not realizing that stowing something in his website's "uploads" doesn't mean that it's invisible to the rest of the internet. But internet ignorance aside, surely he had to know that he's not supposed to photocopy hard copies of the script and that he's not supposed to put them online.

In both cases, I've notified the publisher, and I'm sure they'll deal with it. (In the second case, I was really tempted to write the teacher myself, but I've decided to leave being the bad guy--at least for now--to my publisher.)

Of course, the "problem" with you folks who frequent this forum is that you're not the problem (at least I hope you're not!). You're the ones who make sure your productions are licensed, don't photocopy what you're not supposed to, don't pass around electronic copies of scripts, etc. But there's a huge problem out there. How do we educate the larger group of teachers/student producers about how this works (i.e. copyright law)? What tangible steps can we take?

A couple things I thought about were...
1. At both the national and state EdTA levels, developing a simple one-sheet regarding some basic copyright rules that would be disseminated to each troupe director, and asking them to acknowledge it specifically. (I would be happy to work with someone to develop it.)
2. At competitions, requiring proof of payment of royalties (which I know some do), not simply an acknowledgment from the group that they've paid royalties.

I'd love to hear other thoughts on both how to spread copyright education, and how to implement it. It's important not only to help playwrights everywhere, but to make sure we're teaching the next generation of theatre teachers and producers how to do the right thing--and what that is. Thanks

Cheers,
Jonathan

For exactly this sort of purpose, Samuel French set out to write a white paper on copyright protection and piracy a couple of years ago entitled Owning Their Words: Understanding the Playwright, Protecting Their Work and How You Can Help.

Here is a link to the PDF of the white paper which you can share freely.   And for additional info on how to protect the rights of authors, please take a look at our Tumblr page.

Hi folks,

It was amazing to discover that there are now over 8000 forum members. Awesome to see how it's growing, and maybe that will help with this issue...

I regularly search my name and various play titles/keywords (Google alerts help too), and nearly as regularly, I catch some people producing my plays without licensing/paying for them. Coming up next weekend, it's Harry's Hotter at Twilight, along with Don Zolidis' Game of Tiaras and Ian McWethy's The Internet is Distract--OH LOOK A KITTEN!. A pair of performances each as part of a Wisconsin school's one-act festival. At least in the case of Don and me, they bought a single copy, and here we are. This has happened more times than I can count. While the good news, given the internet these days, is that we catch most of the cheaters, I'm sure there are a few we miss, and considering that most playwrights aren't wealthy, that money, which adds up (my infringements have run into the thousands of dollars), is important.

Now perhaps I'm so used to having my work produced illegally that I'm becoming desensitized, but the next day, searching another play, I found something more disturbing: a North Carolina school that licensed this play for production in May had actually photocopied the entire script and placed it online, so that for the last six months, anyone with the right combination of search words could find it and then download/print it. I can see the teacher thinking of this as a convenient shortcut to communicate with the cast/crew (or maybe a class) and not realizing that stowing something in his website's "uploads" doesn't mean that it's invisible to the rest of the internet. But internet ignorance aside, surely he had to know that he's not supposed to photocopy hard copies of the script and that he's not supposed to put them online.

In both cases, I've notified the publisher, and I'm sure they'll deal with it. (In the second case, I was really tempted to write the teacher myself, but I've decided to leave being the bad guy--at least for now--to my publisher.)

Of course, the "problem" with you folks who frequent this forum is that you're not the problem (at least I hope you're not!). You're the ones who make sure your productions are licensed, don't photocopy what you're not supposed to, don't pass around electronic copies of scripts, etc. But there's a huge problem out there. How do we educate the larger group of teachers/student producers about how this works (i.e. copyright law)? What tangible steps can we take?

A couple things I thought about were...
1. At both the national and state EdTA levels, developing a simple one-sheet regarding some basic copyright rules that would be disseminated to each troupe director, and asking them to acknowledge it specifically. (I would be happy to work with someone to develop it.)
2. At competitions, requiring proof of payment of royalties (which I know some do), not simply an acknowledgment from the group that they've paid royalties.

I'd love to hear other thoughts on both how to spread copyright education, and how to implement it. It's important not only to help playwrights everywhere, but to make sure we're teaching the next generation of theatre teachers and producers how to do the right thing--and what that is. Thanks

Cheers,
Jonathan