Mentioning Other Films in Your Films

[veni vechi]

I was curious as to what legalities need to be taken care of if you want to mention other films in your own movies. For example, what if a group of survivors is discussing where they should take refuge, and one of them goes down the list of GAR's films for suggestions? Would you have to contact whoever owns the rights to the mentioned film or just stick something in the credits? Although this is likely never going to affect me (I'm probably not going to distribute anything I make), I just wanted to know for future reference.

[Dagnammit]

Probably not. Simply mentioning a title or referencing the events of another film is not a breach of copyright. Just don't include any footage or music from other movies.

[veni vechi]

Alright, thanks for the help

[Dagnammit]

Just to stay on the safe side though, keep your references to quick nods here and there, don't make it the basis for your whole movie.

For example, if you made a slasher movie and you had one of the characters say lines like "This is worse than Halloween 2!" or "Christ, she makes Jason's mom look like a teddy bear!", that would be fine.

But if you made a film where a movie-obsessed killer was bumping people off by copying the best kills from each one of the Elm Street movies while dressed as Freddy, then you might have a bit of a problem legally, even if you didn't include any footage from those movies, because your story would then be directly dependent upon the NoES franchise and some studio lawyer might say you were making money off the back of their films.

Another rule of thumb is that if you are blatantly ripping a movie off then you shouldn't reference the movie directly because then you can always claim it was a coincidence. On the other hand, if you are making something completely original, but still inspired by another film (like Shaun of the Dead), then you can feel free to make references with impunity.

To be fair though, it's unlikely you'll ever come up against any legal issues as long as you take care not to use any copyrighted audiovisual material. Remember that the Italians have been ripping off American movies for decades (even to the extent of making their own unauthorised sequels), and I don't think any of them were ever sued over it.

[arayner]

would that apply to novels ect as well???????????

[Nil_Failstorm]

If its a parody or considered social commentary then it is protected and not considered infringement.

[Dagnammit]

would that apply to novels ect as well???????????

To an extent, but I'd say you have an even lower chance of infringing copyright with a novel, depending on what you're doing. For example, you could write a story about a masked serial killer, going round slicing up kids at a summer camp, without any chance of getting sued. On the other hand, if you make a movie about it, and the killer bears a strong resemblance to Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th movies, then you would taking a risk because the characteristic VISUAL APPEARANCE of the character is intellectual property. With a book, visual appearances are in the reader's imagination, so you're a bit safer.

Also, if you are going to be quoting more than one or two lines from a movie or song verbatim in your book, try to get permission from the copyright holder and give them a credit at the start of the book like: "Lyrics to Ring of Fire reprinted courtesy of the Johnny Cash estate". This may or may not cost you money depending on who holds the copyright and what mood they are in when you speak to them. However, there are not as many legal obstacles regarding reprinting written material as there are with using copyrighted audio and visual material.

So, yeah, it's easier with a book.

(Bear in mind that I'm not a copyright lawyer, so these are just my suggestions. If you are in any real doubt, speak to a lawyer before you release any story or film you make ;) )