The Department of Applied Professional Studies of the School of Business will be hosting an event, organized by Dr. Stuart Shapiro, to discuss the issues of copyright, on Thursday, Oct. 15 at 7 p.m. in McEwen Hall Room G24.
Speakers will include Federal Court Magistrate Judge Jeremiah McCarthy, Dr. Terrence Burns, Paul Zuydhoek, Esq. and Kenneth Africano, Esq.
The event was organized for Dr. Shapiro’s music industry students in the courses Music Copyright and Music Contacts, but is free to all campus and community members. It will be a valuable opportunity to hear about real life experiences while learning about some of the legal and ethical theories that factor into the marketing and protection of intellectual property.
The speakers will not only be covering their experience with a particular copyright case, but will also be speaking on general topics including: how to protect a screenplay with submission agreements, Screen Actors Guild (SAG) registration, and copyright; scenes de faire arguments, which are certain types of scenes that can’t be totally protected because they go with the genre; the use of experts; economic analysis of damages, which is if the entire work was not appropriated, and how to figure out the value of the individual infringing parts as against the value of the whole completed work.
The specific case being presented is about two plaintiffs who sued Universal Pictures for copyright issues. Two firemen from Buffalo wrote a screenplay and sent it off to Hollywood only to think that it disappeared. When the movie “Backdraft’ came out they recognized their work. The film was one of Universal Picture’s most successful movies and resulted in the creation of a “Backdraft” ride at Universal Studios. It took over 10 years of litigation including multiple depositions of the screenwriters, the producers, including Ron Howard, and extensive paper discovery before the matter was finally resolved. Much attention was given to the 12 re-writes by the four screenwriters who were involved with the film.
