Gershwin Shows’ Tonys Fuel Plans for a Musical; New York Times, 6/14/12

Patrick Healy, New York Times; Gershwin Shows’ Tonys Fuel Plans for a Musical:

"Over the last year the trustees — mostly nephews and grandnephews of George and Ira — have been called greedy, unsophisticated and insensitive to the artistic integrity of the brothers’ work: essentially, that they were cashing in on the music before their copyrights expired. While the famous opera songs from “Porgy and Bess” will be available in the public domain in about two decades, the musical version of “Porgy and Bess” is its own licensable property that can generate income for Gershwin relatives for decades, as will the separate license for the other new Gershwin songbook musical on Broadway, “Nice Work if You Can Get It.”"

Lawyers in ‘Spider-Man’ Battle Spin Their Early Arguments; New York Times, 6/1/12

Patrick Healy, New York Times; Lawyers in ‘Spider-Man’ Battle Spin Their Early Arguments:

"Lawyers for the Broadway producers of “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” argued in federal court on Friday that the musical’s former director, Julie Taymor, had borrowed so many ideas from Spider-Man superhero lore that she was not entitled to copyright protection for her initial three-page script outline for the musical, which features characters and subplots from Spider-Man comics and movies. Ms. Taymor’s lawyers, who regard the outline as crucial to her copyright claims and battle for more than $1 million from the producers, countered that the document reflected what they termed originality and the singular vision that she had demonstrated as the Tony Award-winning director of “The Lion King.”"

Life after death: The London Times, 1/3/09

Via The London Times: Life after death, As a new dramatisation of Anne Frank’s diary is about to be shown, Garry Jenkins looks at the ways in which this remarkable Dutch girl’s legacy has extended far beyond her words, to charities and good causes around the world:

"Copyright in the diary [of Anne Frank] expires at the end of the year 2015. From then on, with publishers free to produce and edit the diary without paying for the rights, the foundation’s main income stream could run dry. “I’m afraid that our income may well be less when the rights run out. But we hope that publishers will give us some money so that we can continue our charitable work,” Elias says.

Elias’s greatest fear is that Anne’s legacy might suffer the fate it has already undergone in Spain, where a musical of her life has been playing in Madrid. “I absolutely hate it,” says Elias, who was powerless to stop it because the work didn’t draw on any of the writings in the diary. “I don’t think the story of Anne Frank and the Holocaust is something about which you can make a funny evening with laughter and dance. But as soon as the rights run out, I’m afraid more musicals will be written and composed.”"

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article5388500.ece