Copyright Laws -- Refresher needed!!

[BST]

Folks,

I'll admit to being a bit hazy on the Copyright issue(s) regarding Battlestar Galactica. In general, for BSG, I know that Universal has TV rights and Larson has Theater-based Motion Picture rights. I'm also pretty sure that Larson also has exclusive rights to ANY production involving "Battlestar Pegasus".

Now, I know that this has been discussed in previous threads but, what I'm asking for, here, is --
a concise breakdown of the rights issue concerning Battlestar Galactica / Pegasus AND,
a link to the OFFICIAL Copyright Law enacted by Congress.

Any takers ??

Thanks in advance,

BST

[The 14th Colony]

I can help you with the copyright link. BRB.

[The 14th Colony]

BST, here is the official site with loads of info:
http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/

[kingfish]

This is what makes a property unique. Larson owns them for a big screen version. Sci fi owns the logo and in order to do an exact copy of Glen's work they needed his approval(written) or his involvement. They didn't want him so there are only references to the original show(museam pieces, ect.). With a movie version Larson would be in charge.

[oldwardaggit]

Yes and Ron said that he had full rain to do what he wanted in this version of his. I guess that was another lie because we know that the copy writes restricted what they could actually do without Glen's approval.

I'm grateful to Universal for finally getting the Box set out to the fans and sales so far before they were even available are impressive and show that we were right about there being a huge fan base for this show but in the department of bringing the show back, Universal went in a direction that alienated the fan base.

Why is it so hard to understand that if you bring a show back with it's original name and change most of what made us a fan base in the first place, the fans are not going to be thrilled

Yes there have been a lot of re-makes. Some good, some not so bad but most suck. The difference being that Galactica has always had a very active fan base.

A remake is being made of Starsky and Hutch and even though I have no interest in it, I don't fault the studio's for doing it but if there was a huge active fan base campaigning for a continuation and they did this remake, I would fault the studios because they have the final say.

Galactica has and still has what I call sleeping fans. These are people that still don't know the directing sci fi is taking . Some when they find out are saying oh well, I will watch and see what it's about but most are saying why in the hell are they calling it Battlestar Galactica when it's clearly something Else.

The studio thing reminds me of a thing that Tom Seleck said a while back. He said that he gets loads and loads of fan letters asking for a magnum PI continuation movie and he said he would love to do it. I can't remember exactly how he said it but it was something along the line of him approaching Universal and being turned down. He said they must be the most half a$$ed run studio's there is.

That was about 4 years ago so I can't remember his exact words but I do hope NBC gets in there and shakes things up.

OWD

[kingfish]

Originally posted by oldwardaggit
Yes and Ron said that he had full rain to do what he wanted in this version of his. I guess that was another lie because we know that the copy writes restricted what they could actually do without Glen's approval.

I'm grateful to Universal for finally getting the Box set out to the fans and sales so far before they were even available are impressive and show that we were right about there being a huge fan base for this show but in the department of bringing the show back, Universal went in a direction that alienated the fan base.

Why is it so hard to understand that if you bring a show back with it's original name and change most of what made us a fan base in the first place, the fans are not going to be thrilled

Yes there have been a lot of re-makes. Some good, some not so bad but most suck. The difference being that Galactica has always had a very active fan base.

A remake is being made of Starsky and Hutch and even though I have no interest in it, I don't fault the studio's for doing it but if there was a huge active fan base campaigning for a continuation and they did this remake, I would fault the studios because they have the final say.

Galactica has and still has what I call sleeping fans. These are people that still don't know the directing sci fi is taking . Some when they find out are saying oh well, I will watch and see what it's about but most are saying why in the hell are they calling it Battlestar Galactica when it's clearly something Else.

The studio thing reminds me of a thing that Tom Seleck said a while back. He said that he gets loads and loads of fan letters asking for a magnum PI continuation movie and he said he would love to do it. I can't remember exactly how he said it but it was something along the line of him approaching Universal and being turned down. He said they must be the most half a$$ed run studio's there is.

That was about 4 years ago so I can't remember his exact words but I do hope NBC gets in there and shakes things up.

OWD


Starsky & Hutch.

Hutch- Owen Wilson.
Starsky- Ben Stiller.
Huggy Bear- Snoop Doggy Dog.
Cameo appearance- Paul Michael Glaser.

OWD the darned thing is going to be a comedy. David Soul was just as pissed about the treatment of S&H as we are with the BG revival.

[repcisg]

I did an extensive survey of the copyright laws a couple of years back. Since then some of the more draconian parts have been rescinded. But the upshot is, the series film has two parts, what is on it and who has the rights to display what is on the film. Glen Larson owns the artistic rights to the show, i.e. what is on the film. Universal owns the film (the physical stuff) and the basic theme of the story. By contract Glen has the motion picture rights to his original work.

What this all means is Universal cannot do a continuation without Glen’s approval, in any format. Why? Because it would be a derived work based on his copyright. Glen can do nothing because Universal owns the theme defining the Colonial Universe. Universal has also copyrighted and trademarked the name Battlestar Galactica, for all TV and feature films. The result of all this is a stalemate, nether side can move without the other sides support.

Universal has decided to break the stalemate by reinventing the show. Only those components from the original that Universal can prove conclusively originated from them will be used. If the source of a particular component is uncertain, it will not be used. The end result = the new mini.

Hope this helps.