Thinking of remaking a timeless Hindi classic? The time is now!
Most movies made as early as the 1930s and 1940s have lost the protection that their copyright provided them and have now entered public domain. However with increasing greater revenue accruing from movie screening, bigwigs in the Bollywood industry (like Yash Copra) have already approached the HRD Ministry to extend this period to around 95 years following the example of the ‘Mickey Mouse Act’ and the protection offered to motion pictures in the United States.
They have also demanded that producer’s be given the benefit of such extension, since they usually take up the risk of the entire process of movie-making.
Well, unless something is done sooner rather than later, Part II might become a permanent suffix to most of our movie titles!
>> Well, unless something is done
>> sooner rather than later
y should something be done???
Not to be a critic, but we saw what became of Sholay and Don. This view of mine was purely from the perspective of a film buff rather than a legal standpoint.
India’s commitment to limiting the time periods of copyrights, so as to expand the number of works in the public domain is commendable. However, the disparity of the copyright time period to most of the developed world will cost Indian content owners big time. Indian copyright owners should be able to extract rents from derivative works themselves, as opposed to say, foreign owned film companies. Otherwise it could lead to a transfer of capital from India to other countries.
Intellectual property being in public domain is not as bad as it’s thought of. While Kruttika says, we must remember what happened to Sholay and Don, she must be aware that they were reproduced with permission.
We have complete works Shakespeare and Conan Doyal in one book just because they became public domain. Public domain works is as exposed to misuse as are other copyright protected works.
Think over the possibility of release of all the movie that were released before Dec 1947 in DVD or other mediums with restoration and digital cleaning. You can have those things out of the vaults and available in market. Big production houses aren’t interested in restoration of previous works as they consider it monetarily uneconomical. On the other hands it can be boon for small independent groups and movie enthusiasts.
Distortion of work is totally different issue, not to be confused with public domain.
I have the opinion that public domain works stand better chances of revival and reach to public. In process of making money big banners are forgetting art, but public domain could spirit the recirculation of practically extinct artworks of all types.