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Post by John Green on Jan 1, 2015 12:18:52 GMT
Am I right in thinking that there was a record released,from the TV soundtrack,of Susan talking with the Daleks? If so,that would be copyright,but wouldn't be if it had been original?
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Post by Tony Ingram on Jan 1, 2015 14:41:59 GMT
"Progfitable", Tony? How cromulent! Give me a break, I was typing in a hurry.
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Post by Paul McDermott on Jan 1, 2015 15:06:36 GMT
"Progfitable", Tony? How cromulent! Give me a break, I was typing in a hurry. I know Tony, all's well! SARAH: Doctor, you're being childish. DOCTOR: Well of course I am. There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes.
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Post by Mike Biggs on Jan 1, 2015 20:32:55 GMT
so when does Dr Who become public domain anyway (under british law). like i have said (other forum i belong to), all these copyright laws need to be change to something that is reasonable (up to 120 years in the USA) i would make it (would grandfather it in) 50 years plus 1 25 year renewal (must request it in the 49 year of copyright). if it is not renewed, its becomes public domain. who in 2065 (as an example) going to remember justin bieber. So long as the BBC continue to maintain Doctor Who as a trade mark, it will remain illegal for anyone to use the Doctor Who brand name or any of its associated trade marks without their permission. And since it's one of their most profitable brands, they're unlikely ever to let that trade mark lapse. There are limits on that though, otherwise you couldn't use the Doctor Who name when selling a second hand DVD. I doubt the trademark would prevent you selling copies of an out of copyright work - but you wouldn't be able to make your own related merchandise without permission. This reference suggests it would be fine: dearrichblog.blogspot.co.nz/2014/11/does-tm-law-limit-supermans-pd.html (but it's based on US law).
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Post by Mike Biggs on Jan 1, 2015 20:35:58 GMT
Regardless of the rights and wrongs, the whole thing is probably a legal minefield.
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Post by oj-wake on Jan 4, 2015 22:42:28 GMT
Please excuse me if this seems rude, but there’s a lot of misunderstanding and nonsense in this thread. The Dr Who trademark is irrelevant. It doesn’t stop you selling a copy of something, as one poster pointed out, so you could just as easily sell a 1964 lost episode as any other one, *if* it wasn’t covered by copyright.
But *no* episode of Dr Who will be out of copyright for quite some time. I don’t know when (someone can work it out though) but it will won’t be for decades yet.
Although a broadcast is copyright for 50 years, you’ve got to bear in mind that most programmes will include within them more than one type of copyright and all have to expire before a programme falls into the public domain. Notably, copyright also separately covers the script, which is the most pertinent factor here. In many cases, but not all, it will also cover the music and elements of the design work, but I will talk about the script’s copyright as it’s the main hurdle and a straightforward one.
As a drama series, everything within an episode of Dr Who is dependent upon the script. The script is covered by copyright for 70 years after the end of the year the author died (the last dying one, when more than one author contributed). Therefore the whole programme, except generic opening and closing titles, is covered for this period.
So, for example, Marco Polo’s script falls out of copyright at the end of 2064, whereas Power of the Daleks’ script is ‘only’ covered until 2050. Someone better acquainted with Dr Who can probably tell us which script writer died earliest for the first script to fall out of copyright.
There may be other copyrights within the episodes too, but I can’t comment on those.
This is under UK copyright law, though I believe most countries (in the Western world at least) have agreed essentially the same rules.
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Post by Marty Schultz on Jan 5, 2015 0:54:33 GMT
so when does Dr Who become public domain anyway (under british law). like i have said (other forum i belong to), all these copyright laws need to be change to something that is reasonable (up to 120 years in the USA) i would make it (would grandfather it in) 50 years plus 1 25 year renewal (must request it in the 49 year of copyright). if it is not renewed, its becomes public domain. who in 2065 (as an example) going to remember justin bieber. So long as the BBC continue to maintain Doctor Who as a trade mark, it will remain illegal for anyone to use the Doctor Who brand name or any of its associated trade marks without their permission. And since it's one of their most profitable brands, they're unlikely ever to let that trade mark lapse. As I understand Titles are not able to be copyrighted. Thus if the later episodes were actually technically titled "Doctor Who and the..." it could be released as such minus logos etc. Also... if the owner of the cans transferred the film to digital formats they would own the mechanical copyright of the transfer and the BBC would be unable to copy it and release it themselves...
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