Law Commons^™

An Unaccountable Familiarity: A Dual Solution To The Problem Of Theft In Theatrical Productions, Jeannette Gunderson

Seattle University Law Review

The production of a play as a whole is a derivative work of joint authorship; thus, copyright law should protect it. As a work of authorship, the sum of the design elements that form a production are protectable by copyright because the production is an original creation; while based on the text of the play, any given production is developed separately from the underlying work and merits its own protection.8 Because of the collaborative and interdependent nature of a production of a play, musical, or opera, the resulting combination of all aspects of design and direction should be protected as …