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Broadcasters vs Producers on Content Integrity

Posted by Roblimo on from the annoying-commercials-breaking-into-movies dept.

mpawlo writes "I just did a quick write-up for Greplaw on an interesting pending law suit in Sweden. Two Swedish directors, Vilgot Sjoman and Anders Eriksson, are about to file a suit against Swedish broadcaster Tv 4. According to the author's rights or droit moral doctrine, the work may not be displayed or changed in a way degrading to the author or the author's work. Tv 4 has just changed its policy for commercial breaks. Breaks are now introduced during movies. The commercial breaks used to be placed between the end and start of a program. The directors argue the breaks are degrading from an artistical point of view. They want to try the commercial breaks in court from a copyright perspective."

3 of 173 comments (clear)

  1. Re:hmm by Zeinfeld · · Score: 4, Informative
    My wife remembers watching the 'Blues Brothers' on network TV. The network had cut out all but three bars of each of the musical numbers to make room for ads.

    Continental copyright law is not like US law. There is the doctrine of the moral rights of the author. The widow of Peter Sellers used this right to sue the producers of 'on the trial of the Pink P{anther' which used footage from the previous panther movies which Sellers had rejected.

    There are also a bunch of cases where the directors of movies have prevented studios from agreeing to cuts to comply with censorship boards.

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  2. I'd love to see that as a precedent... by Kjella · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here in Norway, they sometimes put news&weather in the middle of movies, because they aren't allowed to put commercial breaks in movies. Also this would stop the network's self-promotion in the middle of movies (basicly a commercial for the later shows of the evening), equally annoying but usually shorter though.

    But I suppose if this goes through as a general precendent in copyright law, the movie producers will simply get a lower prices for movies that they can't break up. Nothing like sacrificing "artistic integrity" for a bit more money...

    Kjella

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  3. Moral Rights (droit moral) FAQ by dreamword · · Score: 3, Informative

    For the curious, a FAQ on moral rights and their place in U.S. law is here.

    In short, U.S. law provides very little moral rights protection, except for visual fine art.