Second Life VDay Campaign and Live Theatre Clarification
Ina Centaur
I just heard about VDay rescinding rights to the SL Production of VM.
While I'm not sure what's gone on exactly -- as I mentioned, I have
been officially out of the loop on this earlier this week -- I am
going to take a guess at the issue. I want to mention that because of
the way Second Life is designed, the production would not be easily
record-able unless a degree of care is done in advance. Second Life
was designed to emulate reality in the form of a virtual world. If a
technology demo or the support of an organization or SL-related fiscal
sponsor is necessary, I can definitely refer contacts for
clarification and validation.
I want to also mention that numerous individuals have already spent a
lot of time on this production, and while I realize VDay has
regulations, I just feel that the current issue is a misunderstanding
of the Second Life medium and platform and not a violation (... per
se?), and it would just be a tremendous waste were it canceled for the
wrong reasons!
Other than that, I want to mention again that I am no longer involved
with this production, but I really believe in the idea of a virtual
world in a global community as a venue for live theatre -- and would
do my best to clarify the notion (since, I'd bet you probably find
this just a bit weird!)
Thanks,
Ina
CalliopeDelgado
Shael Norris
I absolutely know how much you have put into this event and I understand
and am familiar with the medium completely. As I expressed to you a
couple of weeks ago, some copy rights issues had come up. When I called
to explain to Victoria, I had been working with our lawyers to solve the
problem for those entire 2 weeks.
What I explained to her is that V-Day does not and has never owned the
rights to "The Vagina Monologues." The issue that has come up is that
of the translation of the existing contract we have with all rights
holders of "The Vagina Monologues." We are not, in any way, legally
able to allow any broadcasts of the content of the play. What we have
been trying to work out comes down to an issue of semantics of the
contractual definition of 'broadcast.' While I, and everyone, now
understand that your presentation will be a virtual one and not live
people performing, the actual content (ie. the full script) will be
being presented via broadcast. As I detailed to Victoria, V-Day has
been very graciously allowed to utilize the script of "The Vagina
Monologues" as a fundraising tool for the past 10 years and we are
obligated to err on the side of caution when it comes to the legal
rights surrounding presentations of any kind. Without the agreement
that we have with the rights holders, we will no longer have a means to
continue the kind of non-profit work we do.
While I too am very disappointed to discontinue your event (as I have
never had to stop one!) we are obligated to be responsible to the
contract and the relationship we have with the rights holders in order
to be able to continue the work that we do.
I sincerely hope that you understand and trust that I worked incredibly
hard to try and see that this not happen. Victoria and I spoke about
the possibility of her presenting 'Welcome to the Wetlands' as an
outreach tool and she mentioned possibly putting together a poetry
collection performance of sorts to include the piece. Please be in
touch if you have any questions or concerns about this outcome.
shael
Shael Norris
Director, College Campaign
718.885.9447 (voice)
WILL YOU BE IN NEW ORLEANS ON APRIL 11-12, 2008!?
Ina Centaur
I realize that VDay has contractual obligations, and that the keyword
"broadcast" may be a potential point of danger. But, I'm still not
sure if this production is a broadcast, per se... since it would not
be recorded or re-transmitted.
Although the actresses will be visually represented as "avatars," the
actual performance will be live. That is, real people would be voicing
out the roles in real time during the performance. See it as a puppet
show in that we have "mannequins" in lieu of flesh -- but it's the
real actresses behind the puppets that drive the show on, and it's
totally live. If an actress blanks out (for example), there's no
erasing and fixing in postwork. It's seen; people roll their eyes or
laugh; the moment transpires in the spoken word... perhaps another
actor jumps in to ad lib to save the show!
Albeit set in a virtual world, the performance would not be recorded
or retransmitted. It's seen, perhaps registered in the viewer's
memory, and gone. It's set in an actual location/theatre with seating
limitations. (And the Second Life software is designed so that
recording a performance is actually a *lot* harder than putting
batteries in a camcorder and powering it on!) So, other than the fact
that the audience and actresses might not be in the same physical
location, a production set in Second Life... seems as real and
tangible and temporal as something set in a physical theatre... to me
at least.
But, tell me if I'm just being (legally) delusional. ;-P
Ina
P.S. While I think I might have shed some light on how the broadcast
issue doesn't apply per se, but just in case... Again, I respect the
work that the directors and actresses have done already, and my stance
is to always to not let good work go to waste... So... I just looked
up the pricing to perform Vagina Monologues on Dramatists, and it
looks like it's $75 per performance. If we purchase the rights to
perform the play once directly from Dramatists, we would sidestep the
current issue... But, can we still donate proceeds to VDay? 0;-)
Lauren Weyland
appreciated. We are working on a plan now that may coincide with the
rights mentioned below. I want to personally thank you for what you
have done and continue to do one behalf of this production.
Lauren
Ina Centaur
granted approval for VM for this production. Can we still donate
proceeds to VDay if we obtain rights to VM separate from VDay?
On Jan 21, 2008 12:03 PM, Shael Norris <sh...@vday.org> wrote:
> Ina,
> We were able to talk with everyone this afternoon and I hope the
> information will be passed on to you. We fully understand what Second
> Life is and how it works, but there are many, many layers to the
> copyright agreements that exist around the world. We detailed our
> reasons in the call, but I just wanted to get back to you to thank you
> for helping to explain your end and for supporting V-Day and our work.
> I hope we will be able to make something work in the coming years!
> shael
>
> Shael Norris
> Director, College Campaign
> 718.885.9447 (voice)
>
> WILL YOU BE IN NEW ORLEANS ON APRIL 11-12, 2008!?
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ina Centaur [mailto:ina.c...@gmail.com]
> Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2008 3:01 AM
> To: Shael Norris
> Cc: slv...@googlegroups.com; VICTORI...@gmail.com; Ada Radius;
> Lauren Weyland; sliter...@googlegroups.com
>
> Subject: Re: Second Life VDay Campaign and Live Theatre Clarification
