Global Media Entertainment Discoveries May Not Be Discoveries At All

I agree with the argument that creative arts, cultural products, invention and discovery are not original ideas, but the combination and recombination of previous ideas. Christopher Booker, an English journalist and author believes that there are seven basic plots and that all stories told can be grouped into at least one of the seven plots he listed in his book ‘The Seven Basic Plots’. This means that with the amount of television drama series, there must be many with very similar plots and characters. Is this wrong? Do copyright laws prevent this from happening?

As Kirby Ferguson indicates in his series ‘Everything is a Remix’, there are many more copyright cases today than ever before by saying ‘prior to this (George Harrison’s case) plenty of songs sounded much more like other songs without ending up in court’. So with many more copyright cases being heard today than in any other era, why wouldn't copyright laws prevent similar television drama series airing as the laws do for songs?

Well, according to the U.S Copyright Office ‘The general idea or concept for a program is not copyright-able’.  Although, what about when the story-lines and main characters of two shows are similar? Where is the line drawn? This is hard to tell as stated by Ferguson; copyright laws are very broad in order to cover a broad range of happenings.

The two television drama series that I have in mind are a couple of my favourites, The O.C. and Gossip Girl who were both created by Josh Schwartz.

(Image: http://glee.wikia.com/wiki/File:Gossip_girl_11.jpg)

(Image: http://www.last.fm/music/O.C.+California)

The O.C. was first aired in 2003 and Gossip Girl in 2007. The similarities can be seen here and consist of similar characters who even look the same with both shows having a very similar storyline. Yes, both shows were created by the same person but even university students have to abide by copyright laws that do not allow their own work to be re-submitted/ re-published. I assumed that professionals would have similar rules. Another issue is the fact that the Gossip Girl series is based on a novel written by Cecily Von Ziegesar in 2002. So did Schwatz ‘copy, transform and combine’ which is what Ferguson believes creative artists and inventors do, and make The O.C. to have it cancelled and then dive in to just copy the original work anyway? Again, is this wrong?

There are many shows with this same similar storyline and include, Melrose Place and Laguna Beach. These shows are global and reach many people in different countries who in turn create their own shows and could add to the list of similar television drama series.

Although, shows are made to entertain the viewer and if the audience only enjoys these particular drama series then they will be hurt if copyright laws act to limit the amount of shows produced. Or maybe the audience will just purchase more copies of the one television series making them more money. With this view, copyright laws seem worthy.

But then again maybe the audience will just share movie files. This may be 'illegal' but globalisation has made it difficult for authorities to rule.

References

Mars-Jones, A 2004, ‘Terminator 2, The Odyssey Bad’, The Guardian, 21 November, Accessed 13 August 2013, <http://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/nov/21/fiction.features>

U.S. Copyright Office, 2010, ‘Copyright| Dramatic Works: Scripts, Pantomimes, and Choreography, 13 August 2013, <http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl119.html>

Vimeo, 2012, ‘Everything is a Remix- Part 4’, 13 August 2013, <http://vimeo.com/36881035>

Wikipedia, 2013, ‘Josh Schwartz’, 13 August 2013, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Schwartz>