Artists have a sense of ownership to the work that they produce, often times rightfully so. They want to be able to create original work and not have it be stolen and claimed as someone else’s original work. They want to be able to make profits off of their work by touring it around the world, performing it, possibly selling their work to others to have it reproduced. All of types of artwork and media are copyrighted to protect those artists, from plays and musicals, to music both aural and written, dances, visual art, images, logos, poetry, books, and video games. The data lies in the works themselves; plays, books, and poetry in the words. Music in notation and audible sound. Images in colors, shape, texture. Dances, even, in notation, recorded performances, and the physical movement itself.
The controversies arise when the copyright is abused, and when the boundaries between what makes each individual piece of art different is blurred. In February 2019, a handful of theatres across the country were producing To Kill a Mockingbird, a stage play adapted by Christopher Sergel. At the same time in New York City on Broadway, a new adaption of the same book by Aaron Sorkin premiered, and the producer, Scott Rudin, shut down the productions of a different playwright. Rudin closed eight productions of Sergel’s To Kill a Mockingbird (including one in Salt Lake City at the Grand Theatre) because of a 1969 contact, even though a representative of Harper Lee’s (author of To Kill a Mockingbird) estate approved the shows to be produced in the first place.
When art is plainly plagiarized, as with Kelsea Ballerini’s CMA performance, that is a clear violation of someone’s artistic work and legacy. However, to create art, one is inspired by other art. Art builds on itself and is constantly changing; even the most famous artists drew from other pioneers. Michael Jackson’s dance style was influenced by Bob Fosse and Fred Astaire. Hollywood music producers ‘sample’ music. The music of the 80’s, the orchestra hit, was inspired by Stavinsky. Plays are adapted from books (Great Comet of 1812 from War and Peace, West Side Story from Romeo and Juliet) and other sources. Even William Shakespeare’s plays were slightly, if not completely inspired by other plays and stories. The connective tissue between different works in nearly endless. When iconic pieces of art are translated and redefined in a new context, that is merely part of the process of creating new art. The plays written by Sorkin and Sergel were completely two different pieces of work. They were adapted from the same source and have the same narrative spine and characters, but the dialogue isn’t the exact same for every scene, the structure isn’t the same, the subtext isn’t, and the theme isn’t. They aren’t the exact same pieces of work, otherwise that would be plagiarism. Rudin was unjustified in shutting down the eight production’s of Sergel’s play, and this instance only shows that inspiration and plagiarism (even adaptation) are vastly different.
Sources:
Alter, Alexandra and Paulson, Michael. “‘Mockingbird’ Play Publisher Demands $500,00 from Harper Lee Estate.” New York Times, 8 Mar. 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/08/theater/mockingbird-broadway-harper-lee-dispute.html?fbclid=IwAR00ARJAuNjKCYpJ5FXtjB_nAJberafhq0S2qKKaBFcyEVdvf0Oaj0zXtFo.
Alter, Alexandra and Paulson, Michael. “Legal Threats from Broadway’s ‘Mockingbird’ Sinks Productions Around the Country.” New York Times, 28 Feb. 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/theater/scott-rudin-mockingbird-broadway.html?module=inline.
Wingenroth, Lauren. “Can Music Artists Stop Stealing From Choreographers Already?” Dance Magazine, 19 Nov. 2018, https://www.dancemagazine.com/can-music-artists-stop-stealing-from-choreographers-already-2620680049.html.
“The Sound That Connects Stravinsky to Bruno Mars.” Youtube, uploaded by Vox, 15 May 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A1Aj1_EF9Y.
Data/Society/Decision-making Spring 2019 