Legal Question in Intellectual Property in California

It's unclear what you mean by "events that happened in a documentary." To me, a "documentary" is a film about (usually) some current event or other factual scenario. So then, what do you mean? Events that happened during the filming and editing of the documentary itself, or events that occurred before the documentary was made, but which the documentary reports upon? Is your concern possible infringement of copyright? Generally speaking, copyright protection extends to the creative efforts of the author, artist, etc. and not to the subject matter itself. For example, if there were a documentary about the sinking of the German battleship "Bismarck" you could write a novel about the same thing, and perhaps even draw some inspiration from the film, but if you quoted at length from the narrator, you'd be getting into potential copyright problems.

As a general rule, you are free to write about whatever you want. If that is substantially similar to another creative work you may be infringing on their copyright. This is not implicated merely because you wrote about the same topic as my colleague notes as well.

If you are writing about real people and real events you need to be concerned that your commentary is not factually accurate, which may result in a claim against you for defamation assuming people are identifiable from your work.

It is probably a good idea to get some guidance on this before you jump in. If you would like to discuss further over a free phone consult, feel free to contact me anytime that is convenient.

Kind regards,

Frank

www.LanternLegal.com

866-871-8655

[email protected]

DISCLAIMER: this is not intended to be specific legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. No attorney-client relationship is formed on the basis of this posting.