From Bloomberg:
Winning a copyright battle can mean losing a public relations war.
Broadway producer Scott Rudin endured a wave of criticism after sending letters to at least eight community theater groups that had planned to perform the play “To Kill a Mockingbird” with an older script than the one used in the Broadway production. That prompted a #BoycottRudinPlays hashtag on Twitter with comments such as “This is just greed.” Rudin eventually backtracked, and allowed the theaters to stage the play using his production’s script.
The episode shows how heavy-handed copyright enforcement tactics can backfire in the age of social media, intellectual property attorneys said. Trademark and copyright owners increasingly must weigh public perception when considering how to enforce their rights. A lighter touch can put an alleged infringer on notice while avoiding bad publicity, and even produce some good publicity through humor and wit, the attorneys said.
“Clever companies and brand owners have come to realize it’s a way to come across as the good guy while still getting their messages out about their property,” Richard Rochford, a trademark attorney at Haynes and Boone LLP, said. He said Rudin and his team are “trying to be graceful now, but they’ve already done P.R. damage. Had they done this at the outset, it would be pretty good.”
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Rudin secured rights to produce a new version of “Mockingbird” in 2015. It premiered on Broadway in December, after Rudin settled a lawsuit from author Harper Lee’s estate that argued the new script written by Aaron Sorkin strayed too far from the novel.
Local theaters have licensed playwright Christopher Sergel’s adaptation of the book for decades. But Sergel’s company’s 1969 agreement with Lee barred production within 25 miles of a city with more than 150,000 people as of 1960 during the run of any “first-class” production. Rudin claimed Dramatic Publishing Co, now run by Sergel’s grandson, licensed the old script to the theaters without the right to do so.
The theater community blasted Rudin over his attorney’s threats to seek $150,000 in statutory damages if the non-profit theaters performed the play, and called for a boycott of the Broadway production. Some groups accepted Rudin’s offer to use Sorkin’s script; others were too far along in preparation and had to cancel performances.
Mugford Street Players in Marblehead, Massachusetts, rescheduled its opening four weeks later and outside the 25-mile radius from Boston after having to cancel on about a week’s notice. Creative director John Fogle acknowledged Dramatic Publishing licensed rights it didn’t have, but said he didn’t see why Rudin needed to shut down misled groups.
“It wouldn’t have damaged their property one iota to have us perform this show in Marblehead,” Fogle said.
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Humor and grace in a cease-and-desist letter can avoid any hurt feelings, copyright lawyers say. As an example, they cited a letter that Netflix Inc. sent to Chicago man who set up a “pop-up bar” with furnishings and drinks based on its hit science-fiction series “Stranger Things.”
The 2017 letter referred the show’s “Upside Down” alternate dimension and 1980s pre-teen vernacular in asking the bar not to extend its use of copyrighted elements beyond the bar’s planned six-week run, and not to do it again without permission. Netflix stressed its affection for the show’s fans, but said “the demogorgon is not always as forgiving,” referring to the demon prince in “Dungeons and Dragons” after which characters in the show named its monster.
“So please don’t make us call your mom,” Netflix’s letter concluded.
Link to the rest at Bloomberg