[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”7285″ img_size=”800×450″ alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]You could fill a book about what I don’t know about copyright laws. In fact you could fill a large number of books. For those who take the time to file for copyright protection or through contractual obligation are constrained by them, it is a serious matter and at times, worth going to court over.
Such is the case that was just ruled on by the U.S. District Court in the case of Friday the 13th. In U.S. District Court Judge Stephan Underhill‘s decision he wrote that screenwriter Victor Miller had prevailed in his initial court battle over the domestic copyrights to the cult-classic horror film.
In a report from The Hollywood Reporter, the U.S. District Court ruled that due to a provision in the copyright law, the storyteller regained the “domestic” rights to the property. This was despite the original film’s director Sean Cunningham and other producers’ belief that the film had been written as a “work-made-for-hire”, and thus gave them ownership of the screenplay.
I hold that Miller did not prepare the screenplay as a work for hire and that Miller’s Second Termination Notice validly terminated Horror’s rights to the copyright in the screenplay to Friday the 13th,” U.S. District Court Judge Stephan Underhill write in his summary judgment.
This was the aforementioned provision that allows authors to “terminate” rights they may have granted on projects and reclaim ownership 35 years after publication. The decision brings to an end the lawsuit on this particular issue of ownership which had been said to be holding up any future work on possible Friday the 13th franchise material.
With this decision in the books, it does not resolve all areas of litigation. as one might think. This specific rule pertains only to domestic rights. The Second Termination Notice only applies to domestic rights which leaves all others still in the control of the “producers.” In addition, there is the matter of ownership of the character “Jason.” In his decision, Underhill declined to rule on the copyright of “Jason”, noting that there may be enough for the producers to claim that Miller’s “Jason” character and the character presented in the sequel are distinctly different.”
With the character rights of “Jason” still up in the air, it most likely means that any other Friday the 13th films are still in limbo. How about it, Horror fans? Does a Friday the 13th movie work without Jason Vorhees? Wouldn’t that be like Nightmare on Elm Street without Freddy Krueger? Share your expertise, legal or otherwise with us at GVNation.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Senior Writer at GeekVibesNation – I am a 50 something child of the 70’s who admits to being a Star Trek/Star Wars/Comic Book junkie who once dove head first over a cliff (Ok, it was a small hill) to try to rescue his Fantastic Four comic from a watery grave. I am married to a lovely woman who is as crazy as I am and the proud parent of a 18 year old boy with autism. My wife and son are my real heroes.
