Copyright and clearance

Copyright

In Pat's lessons we learnt about copyright and clearance in film and television. Copyright means an exclusive right given to the owner of something. In this case a film or television show and in which the director has the exclusive right to film or produce something which is entirely their idea and no one else can copy them. If someone does copy them for example another director then they the owner of the copyright then has the right to sue them. Many directors face various copyrighting issues while making a film or telelvision show or very often these copyrighting problems can occur while they have been released after all production has finished. Rich owners often copyright their business, film or franchise like say Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. This is because they don't want people to make money or benefit from their own creative invention. However the copyrighting law states that 70 years after the owner of the copyright has died the copyright is then non exisent and people can do what they please with it. This rule is often disputed by rich copyright owners estates after 70 years of their death and they still want the copyright to continue.

Clearance

Clearance means that a director or one of the senior staff on a production of a film or television show has the right to copy something from something else. For example it could be a song/soundtrack, film title, telelvision program name, a certain characters name, similar idea to another film, a shot of a logo and to film in a certain location. There are many more things which need to get cleared but these are just a few examples. If a film or television show fails to clear something with the original owner then they can get sued for their actions and this could cause the whole production to collapse.

Errors and Omissions insurance

Errors and Omissions insurance is an insurance scheme which aims to help protect people from copyright and clearance issues which weren't made aware to them could happen. Most directors take out Errors and Omissions insurance because a lot of the time things aren't always cleared in production and they could be unaware of this because they could get sued for copyright infringement when it's released. A good example of something which a director could get covered for is that a really long shot of a logo could be seen in their film/tv show but they would never pick up on it and when it comes to it's release they could get sued and it wouldn't be thier fault so their E&O can cover this.