Chris writes: "What a coincidence.
"While Cheerskep and I are disputing the necessity of copyright -- Tom Mccormack is publishing the entire scripts of his three unpublished plays online - and he is assured by his theatrical lawyer that "this canny tactic will win me the global audience any playwright craves: I'm bound to be pirated in Asia, Latin America, and all over eastern Europe."" Two responses. First: You're naughty, Chris, to quote that line, and not the very next line, which puts my ironic comment in context. Second: I'm lucky in having enough wherewithal so that I don't need the income from my plays to pay the rent. But when I die, I'll be leaving family behind, so it feels unacceptable to me to squander the millions of dollars producing my own plays would entail. Which means that if they are ever produced -- in the "West", i.e. for the most part the U.S., and western Europe, comprising England, Ireland, and Western Europe -- it will require investors. Without copyright protection, the chances of finding such investors would be far less than it is. As it is, the chances are slim anyway. For example, one of the plays on the website is a comedy/farce with a cast of nine. Many producers who come across that script will stop right there: a cast that large entails crushing start-up expense, and then large running costs. I was aware of that handicap as I wrote it, but, no matter to me the "comfortable" playwright, that's the play I wanted to write. Many playwrights who hope to find their livelihood in theater adopt the pragmatic advice never to write a play with a cast larger than five. I don't blame potential investors who may stand aside from the farce because they believe the chances of their getting their money back on so costly a play are too small. (The website argues that, surprisingly, a farce is the most likely sub-genre to be a cash machine for decades, but to do that it has to be very, very good, and I'm acutely aware that the writer himself is never the best judge of his own work.) One of those running costs is author-royalty -- for the farce, and also for the two other "serious" plays. Without copyright protection, a "pirate" could put the plays on with a considerably lower running cost than a "legit" producer who pays royalties, and, as my ironic remark above concedes, there are such pirates on this globe. Thus copyright protection, while pleasant but not crucial to me personally for the money it would bring me, is crucial to the plays' prospects ever to be staged, so I'm glad there are such laws in the West. In sum, believe it: There are far more books published and plays produced because copyright laws exist. ************** You're invited to Hollywood's biggest party: Get Oscars updates, red carpet pics and more at Moviefone. (http://movies.aol.com/oscars-academy-awards?ncid=emlcntusmovi00000001)
