Re: Welles's "Touch Of Evil"

On 7/15/98, James Rogers <jetan[_at_]ionet.net> wrote:
>
> As film fans may have heard, prior to Orson Welles's death, he
> left a very detailed set of notes specifying how he would have cut the
> film TOUCH OF EVIL. A version of the film has been edited in accordance
> with his wishes and is now slated for release. The new edit apparently
> adds no unreleased footage and subtracts nothing other than some of the
> music in the famous opening shot (probably the longest and most complex
> in film in history). The other changes are entirely a matter of the
> placement of the shots in relation to one another.
>
> The question therfore is... is the new cut a separate
> derivative work with protection dating from now, or is it simply the
> same thing as the old flick? How has this issue been treated in the
> past, as in so-called "director's cuts" available on videotape, the STAR
> WARS reissue, and the current digitally enhanced GONE W/ THE WIND? Does
> it make any difference that the new edit only realizes the dirctor's
> original intent?

This strikes me as a classic example of a "selection and arrangement" that could support the so-called "thin" copyright. Since it is a selection and arrangement of the author's own original work, it may also blend into a derivative work. Yet, if (for the sake of discussion) the original film had become public domain, someone else could arrange and edit the original footage without violating the copyright in the "new" Welles version.

• Vance R. Koven * phone: 617-482-3852 *
• attorney at law * fax: 617-482-4972 *
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