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Copyright.
It's something all authors need and take for granted.
We place that little symbol on the copyright page of our self-published book. Our traditional book publisher does that. The newspaper or magazine or ezine where we publish articles, short stories, or poems.
I'm not a lawyer and am not giving legal advice here. I'm just noticing something disturbing in an article in today's Toronto Star about the new
WINNIE THE POOH movie FOR ADULTS, that's a HORROR SLASHER MOVIE.
What????!!!!
I'm not going to give it any free publicity by naming it, but you can easily do a search to find its name.
I couldn't help groaning and shaking my head several times as I read the article. (The journalist was clearly as shocked and disgusted as I was.)
Apparently, the copyright protection for Winnie the Pooh has gone into public domain.
Anyone can write whatever screenplay or novel or whatever they wish. But sometimes common sense and decency should be at play as well a crass desire to cash in a childhood classic's popularity and turn it into the exact opposite of the author's intention.
I'm going out on a tree limb to guess the intention of author, A.A. Milne:
To share some gentle wisdom and humour that will help a child, lull them to sleep, or brighten their day.
Let this be a lesson to all authors about copyright protection. You'd think 100 years would be long enough to protect a children's classic from this sort of thing. Guess not.
The thought of this new horror movie can be expressed best by Eeyore:
"It moved me to tears."
Poor Pooh. He's probably scratching his head and singing "Tra-la-la tidly-pom boom-boom" :,(
ReplyDeleteBut I also think there is a point to let go of rights. Fanfic/derivative stories were never to my taste. Pooh will always be the definition of innocence. What creepers choose to do so many years later is just that: creepy. It doesn't matter a whole lot.
As I said to M when I was explaining what I was writing and why lunch was so late, "It's one thing to write 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies' which I'm sure Jane Austen would have hated. Both books are for adults. A satire of an adult work for adults is fair game."
DeleteIn my opinion, a satire of a children's book in a horror movie for adults is a travesty. Also, what if kids see advertising for it on tv or billboards?
I'm guessing some disturbed creative has had it in for Pooh Bear for years, probably since childhood. I pity this creator.
DeleteSome of the fare I see for children is downright evil nowadays. I doubt they'll have any staying power like the original Winnie does. True beauty remains. We watched a lovely documentary about Winnie. You'd enjoy it Barb. As to copyrights--there's an Indian movie called Bride and Prejudice that's really good.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm sure the producers were just out for a quick buck. But they don't have any compassion for innocent kids who could be traumatized by accidentally stumbling on this movie or its advertising.
DeleteThanks for telling me about the Winnie documentary, Vijaya.
I find this shocking, too! It's so . . . crass! A real violation of an author who can't sue them because he's dead. Anything for money, I suppose. SMH. Thanks for stopping by my bolg and commenting.
ReplyDeleteCrass is exactly the right word, Elizabeth. Thanks for visiting and commenting.
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