Real names in short film
- Thread starter mhh
- Start date
Dick Campbell
Veteran
imo, copyright violation.
Douglas Thigpen
Well-known member
Ask an Entertainment Attorney. Or just deviate a bit and make sure it can be classified as satire.
grinner
Carbonite Member
While there is no copyright to infringe, you will need written content to portay anyone without rolling the dice. Should they see it as defermatin of character, they most liekly have better lawyers than you.
I agree with Dougless. It's as easy and chaging a vowel here and there.
I agree with Dougless. It's as easy and chaging a vowel here and there.
Jon Starr
Veteran
I've just had another class on copyright/trademarks, and the main thing I'm learning is... ask a lawyer.
It gets REALLY murky in some areas, and it may change from case to case.
If I had to guess, depending on the celebrity, it may be trademarked, and using that name would be a violation.
Copyright has more to do with authored work than it does for names. However copyright is automatic as soon as you put something down.
Trademark, however, is trademarking names, phrases, etc, for commercial purposes. There are steps that need to be taken to trademark, and people or companies may not trademark absolutely everything (which has lead to some interesting cases).
So talk to a lawyer and find out. Something like Madonna may be trademarked but "natalie portman" may not. Plus there's strong cases for trademark depending on the how uncommon the name is. (I saw set of three films called sex, drugs and natalie portman, and Natalie Portman knew about it but didn't do anything)
However, you may run into other problem completely unrelated to copyright or trademark, such as "damages" where the person claims that you put them in a bad light and caused problems.
And neither satire nor parody (both different in a court of law) have any leeway when it comes to trademark or damages. Parody and/or satire only have leeway with copyright, and even then it's a tad bit tricky. Trust me, things get really murky.
I'm no expert though, so ask a lawyer, or just avoid doing it. But if this is a small film that won't be going into theaters, I would just do it. No one really clamps down on small indy films that make no money (but don't quote me). Can you tell us what the name is?
It gets REALLY murky in some areas, and it may change from case to case.
If I had to guess, depending on the celebrity, it may be trademarked, and using that name would be a violation.
Copyright has more to do with authored work than it does for names. However copyright is automatic as soon as you put something down.
Trademark, however, is trademarking names, phrases, etc, for commercial purposes. There are steps that need to be taken to trademark, and people or companies may not trademark absolutely everything (which has lead to some interesting cases).
So talk to a lawyer and find out. Something like Madonna may be trademarked but "natalie portman" may not. Plus there's strong cases for trademark depending on the how uncommon the name is. (I saw set of three films called sex, drugs and natalie portman, and Natalie Portman knew about it but didn't do anything)
However, you may run into other problem completely unrelated to copyright or trademark, such as "damages" where the person claims that you put them in a bad light and caused problems.
And neither satire nor parody (both different in a court of law) have any leeway when it comes to trademark or damages. Parody and/or satire only have leeway with copyright, and even then it's a tad bit tricky. Trust me, things get really murky.
I'm no expert though, so ask a lawyer, or just avoid doing it. But if this is a small film that won't be going into theaters, I would just do it. No one really clamps down on small indy films that make no money (but don't quote me). Can you tell us what the name is?
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