Author Archives: Jason Alley

School Plays

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I participated in a couple of plays in middle school, but never really stopped to think about where the rights of the original author and the creative license given to the director lay. In fifth grade I was a part of the play Oliver. In fact, I was Oliver- well the first of 5 Olivers. I wonder if our school had to seek permission to allow for multiple people to play the same person in a role. All of the dialogue and content was maintained from the original. I wonder if there were ever any specifications that my school failed to meet to put on a play, such as proximity to broadway or availability of talent.

 

Basketball Game

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While at the game last night I noticed that my friends back at school were not entirely happy about not being able to watch the game. The Lafayette Sports Network was not broadcasting the game and not everyone gets CBS sports. So I decided to look into why LSN didn’t show the game. Apparently the rights vary on the type of event. During the regular season the respective institutions have the rights but then rights go to networks once tournaments and championships occur.

Copyright on the Court

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As I was attending the Bucknell Lafayette basketball game, I attempted to observe how copy right is used in basketball. What i found curious was how many of the players, on both teams, had huge pictures of their heads being waved around by those in the crowd. If you have ever watched a basketball game on tv, you’ll know what I am talking about. I found it incredibly weird that it was the schools who were behind the creation of these. And although I believe it is within their rights to produce the likenesses of its student athletes, I would find it rather unsettling if someone had huge picture of my head in the stands. Its not something you think about as an athlete at this school, but just like everywhere else, the school more or less owns your likeness and can profit off it.

Back to what is a Book?

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I was recently reading in my educational psychology book for class when i came across this quote: “In early research, psychologists assumed that people create concepts based on rules about defining attributes, or distinctive features. For example, books all contain pages that are bound together in some way” (Woolfolk 299). This got me thinking about eBooks; surely there is no binding of those. However, going back to our last book viewing, not all of those works we saw were bound either. Perhaps in this case, binding is meant in a less literal sense. As books can be bound by story line, content, characters, and or style, as opposed to only being bound physically. But again it is still up for interpretation.

Oz

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I’m not sure if anyone has seen Oz or was planning on it but there is an interesting copyright issue. The book is in public domain but the 1939 film adaptation is not. So elements of the  original film should not have been used in the new movie. It will be interesting to see where this leads.

Compagnie Marie Chouinard

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This performance definitely took me by surprise right from the start. Not only were the costumes that the dancers were wearing quite scandalous, but also the dance moves themselves were a bit risk-ay. Coming into the performance expecting to watch a laid back ballet of sorts performed to classical music, I was very taken a back at what ensued.

But that is beside the point. This performance was greatly related to copyright. The fact that the musical works of Chopin and Stravinsky were interpreted in such different ways than usual really seemed to capture the audience’s attention; I was very surprised by the performance as a whole, to say the least. What went on on stage was definitely very creative and original, so although I did not particularly like the performance it was interesting to watch.

The idea of interpreting or putting a story behind classical music reminded me of an experience I had in elementary school listening to Peter and the Wolf for the first time. Since we were told previously what this piece was “about,” my mind was set on what to imagine. It did not leave room for creativity for me to make up my own story in my head. I was not able to come up with the artistic creativity that Marie Chouinard expressed through the dance performance. Thus, in the same sense, it seems to me that creativity and out of the box thinking is squashed with rules like copyright, keeping everything the same and one dimensional.

The Good Body

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As much as I would love to analyze the performance and meaning of Eve Ensler’s production, let me limit my discussion to matters of copyright and artistic license. From what I saw last night, I can tell that the radical feminist has no qualms about letting her play be performed or changed. The original script calls for only 3 women, but there were easily more than ten Lafayette students and faculty on stage. When I spoke to our fair director, Gene, he said that he had to increase the number of parts because of the high demand of women who wanted to perform. (Joy of my heart!) Though I did not get to speak with him concerning copyrights for the show, it was clear from the performance last night that such changes were permitted. Just like the script for Arabian Nights, you can buy a script for The Good Body straight off of Amazon or from the publishing house itself. An extra fee must be paid in order to actually perform the piece, along with a standard application form. In terms of the art of the play, the effect it gives to the audience, I think this kind of freedom is just. The play is structured as a series of vignettes, personal stories related by a great diversity of women. The choice to increase the cast size could be a way to recreate the intimacy of these stories. The freedom Ensler gives to those who wish to perform the play is in the hopes that it will be presented with appropriate intimacy relative to the audience. And let me tell you, this performance was one which struck a chord with every person in that chapel.

copyrighting choreography

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As I was reflecting on the ballet performance, some of my own dance memories came to mind.  Having danced for the majority of my life, and competitively for seven or eight years, I remembered some issues of choreography.  In one instance a graduate of our company came back to teach a class.  He knew Michael Jackson and was in the midst of the audition process for the “This Is It” tour.  When he came to teach us, he decided he wanted to do an excerpt from one of the numbers that would be featured on the tour.  In class, many dancers liked to videotape themselves doing the choreography from that day and then post it on youtube or Facebook. Knowing this, the graduate told us we could record the choreography just not post it anywhere public because he did not own the rights to the choreography and could get in serious trouble.  Upon remembering this instance, I became interested in how one can copyright choreography. This link provides brief requirements.  I believe that this did not fall under fair use for two main reasons.  The first being that none of the choreography was changed when it was taught to us and the second being that the choreography was being taught to us in a commercial setting where we were essentially paying to learn the choreography through our paid dance lessons.

Going back to Gutenberg

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In my English class today we were discussing the turn of the century in literature.  My professor mentioned how throughout different eras, different concepts affected us, mainly that of religion.  We were talking about how by the Renaissance period, people began to look less towards the word of God and more towards newer philosophies. At one point my professor exclaimed, “we are sons and daughters of the Gutenberg revolution!”  Without Gutenberg, this transition form mainly religious writings to more humanistic ones may not have occurred. I found this website which briefly mentions this transition.

Compagnie Marie Chouinard

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Last night I attended the ballet performance being given at Williams.  Choreographed by Marie Chouinard, the performance was much more avant-garde than I was expecting. This drew my curiosity and led me to find more information on Marie Chouinard. Biographical notes state, “The works created since 1978 reflect the concerns of this surprising choreographer: her view of dance as a sacred art, her respect for the body as a vehicle of that art, her virtuoso approach to performance and the invention of a different universe for each new piece.”  In her piece, “The Rite of Spring”, Chouinard chose to focus on solos as to show the depth of each dancer, something different from others who worked with the same piece of music.  I find it fascinating how one piece of music can evoke such different interpretations from different artists.  I used to competitively dance, and I can remember at competitions, the same song being used, but completely different dances being performed.  While the music may have been the same, the dances evoked different emotions from audience members.