Annie said: "It appears to me that US copyright law is very similar if not the same as international (and UK) copyright law. Whether or not the trademark laws are also the same, I have to admit I don't know. I can say, though, that trademark and copyright are two different things and you *can not* copyright a character name (or situation)."
I'm not sure if that is true in the UK. The reason I say that is that I am currently reading Chris Boucher's Dr Who novel Corpse Marker in which the character Carnell from B7 appears. Now I understood that the reason Chris could do this was that he owned the copyright on the character Carnell.
-- cheers Steve Rogerson http://homepages.poptel.org.uk/steve.rogerson
Redemption 03, 21-23 February 2003, Ashford, Kent The 25th Anniversary Blake's 7 Convention The 10th Anniversary Babylon 5 Convention http://www.smof.com/redemption
Steve said:
I'm not sure if that is true in the UK. The reason I say that is that I am currently reading Chris Boucher's Dr Who novel Corpse Marker in which the character Carnell from B7 appears. Now I understood that the reason Chris
could do
this was that he owned the copyright on the character Carnell.
You can't copyright a character either, but when you copyright a written work you gain the right to control use of the characters of that work in derivative works. The most plausible scenario is that the BBC controlled both the B7 and Dr. Who properties (I'm not sure if Boucher wrote the script in which Carnell appears--if so, he might be the copyright proprietor) and told him to go ahead and have a laugh.
-(Y)
Watching Series one recently - there are actually 5 unfinished stories
What happens to the prisoners on Cygnus Alpha - Vargas and his ancestors had created a form of society, however unpleasant, and Blake effectively destroyed the leadership.
The Decimas - what happened to them
The Mushrooms of Destiny - did the Liberator get there in time?
President Sarkoff and Tyce - sent down without it being clear that there is a welcoming committee (non-Federation)
And Meegat and friends - where there is a discussion among the Liberator group. The population of Cephalon (about 250-300 from what Meegat says) could not be transported on the Liberator - Avon et al spend about 12 hours roughly (the original time they were there, plus 8 hours for the Liberator's return visit) and received a fatal dose of radiation while Meegat and the others had lived in that environment all their lives - so possibly could not tolerate a low-radiation life.
Any comments on this?
Jacqui __________________________________________________________________ Get your own FREE, personal Netscape Webmail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com/
From: "Dana Shilling" dshilling@worldnet.att.net Subject: Re: [B7L] Re: copyright
You can't copyright a character either, but when you copyright a written work you gain the right to control use of the characters of that work in derivative works. The most plausible scenario is that the BBC controlled both the B7 and Dr. Who properties (I'm not sure if Boucher wrote the script in which Carnell appears--if so, he might be the copyright proprietor) and told him to go ahead and have a laugh.
This seems to be accurate, based on a reading of the book in question (whatever its called!).
Mr Boucher (I think) wrote 'Weapon' and so he can use original characters and concepts from the episode.
He is permitted to freely use the Carnell character. In addition to this, he is also allowed to freely use the 'psychostrategist' concept because this first came up in his work (and presumably was his idea).
He is not allowed to use the Servalan character, nor is he permitted to discuss the 'Federation' - at least not without negotiations and fees being paid.
I use the 'Federation' in quote marks, because it is the name of the totalitarian (is that the right word?) government featured in Blakes 7. In the book, Carnell is described as having worked for A totalitarian federation in the past. Note that 'federation' is a description of an organisation, whereas 'Federation' is the name of a particular organisation, in this case created by someone else. Carnell's history does not go into specifics, Boucher doesn't discuss the Blakes 7 universe or the episode 'Weapon' in any way, except for the inclusion of Carnell.
On the Dr Who side, Boucher did not create Dr Who and its associated paraphernalia (Tardis, Doctor, Time Lords, etc.) He did create the world on which the book is set, the robots, and the original characters in the book. So of course he is free to do what he wants with these. Naturally, since it's a Doctor Who book, Boucher was permitted to use the Doctor Who-related paraphernalia. I don't know about Leela, however. She DID first appear in one of Boucher's scripts, but he may have been instructed to introduce the character, after she was created by the script editor (or whomever). I think the Leela character is BBC-owned.
Wildean
I've just re-read all of the above, and I'm unsure if it even makes sense! If not, then I apologise (and will re-write if necessary). And I can't even remember the name of the book I'm talking about here!!
Wildean said:
Mr Boucher (I think) wrote 'Weapon' and so he can use original characters and concepts from the episode.
Well, it all depends. It's fairly usual for TV and film scripts to be done either as "works for hire" (copyrighted by the producing organization) or for the copyright to start out with the creator but then be assigned to the producing organization.
-(Y)
Dana wrote:
You can't copyright a character either, but when you copyright a written work you gain the right to control use of the characters of that work in derivative works. The most plausible scenario is that the BBC controlled both the B7 and Dr. Who properties (I'm not sure if Boucher wrote the script in which Carnell appears--if so, he might be the copyright proprietor) and told him to go ahead and have a laugh.
Not sure if someone's covered this since trudging through email backlog... Didn't the BBC have a weird system in place for its drama series and serials that original characters remained the property of the person writing the script? In the case of B7, the ownership of the premise and the main characters (and, I should imagine, the image of the Liberator) was joint between Nation and the BBC, but those who invented characters in scripts they wrote for the series kept ownership of those characters and would have to be paid each time that character was used (e.g. Carnell). The classic one on 'Dr Who' is Nyssa, who appeared in a single story ('The Keeper of Traken') and then was brought back as a companion - the Beeb consequently had to pay the writer who invented her (Johnny Byrne?) each time she appeared.
Una
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Una McCormack