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Post by Doo on Jul 2, 2018 11:13:12 GMT -5
Thought I'd post this here given copyright has come up a lot lately here, and it's an interesting coincidence. Sonny Bono, who guest starred with Cher in "The Secret of Shark Island" was a politician in addition to his famous music career. He was the mayor of Malibu, California for four years, and afterwards attempted to run for U.S. State Senate with his main campaign promise being to extend copyright terms. He was never elected to Senate, but his campaign promise was later turned into a copyright act which, if I'm understanding correctly, possibly prevented many of the missing New Scooby-Doo Movies episodes from being released. Obviously the celebrities still chose to not allow the episodes to be released, but Sonny's law significantly extended the copyright term for items before 1978 being available in the public domain. He extended the term from 28 years to 75 years. You can read more about his copyright laws in a post I did on my blog. scoobysnax1.weebly.com/blog/fun-fact-of-the-week-195 |
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Post by scoobnick on Jul 3, 2018 11:14:11 GMT -5
since the Secret of Shark Island aired in 1972 , 75 years means that the earliest it could go into the public domain would be 2047, 29 years from now. cher, if shes still alive, would be 101 ( she was born in 1946). Frankly I dont think 75 years is reasonable nor do i think current copyright laws are all that fair.
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Post by Doo on Jul 3, 2018 11:52:55 GMT -5
Fully agreed on all counts. I'm not an expert on copyright, though I don't understand why the guest stars would agree to be in the episode and then not want it to be released anywhere. It makes matters even more confusing that Sonny and Cher allowed their episode to be released in the UK, but not the US.
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Post by Old School Scooby Fan on Jul 5, 2018 5:38:56 GMT -5
It also aired in Canada too. I think those copyright laws Sonny Bono referred to may only apply to the U.S., but doesn't apply to other nations, including the UK and Canada.
CTV Two Atlantic (a network formerly known as Atlantic Satellite Network in Canada) had no problem airing "The Secret of Shark Island", but that was back in 1985. Teletoon Retro (again, in Canada, but now defunct) may also have aired it a few years ago, or they may have purchased the DVD set and only aired the limited run of 15 available episodes. |
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Post by scoobnick on Jul 5, 2018 11:37:33 GMT -5
Yeah I think the Copyright laws in question apply on to the US. you'd think the network would have reached out to the actors in question to get their ok to show the episodes. i mean everytime they get shown, the actors get money for having appeared in it.
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Post by Doo on Jul 7, 2018 10:08:42 GMT -5
The laws do only apply to the US, as Sonny was a US politician. Boomerang (and previously Cartoon Network) has shown all the missing episodes quite a bit in the US. I don't keep up with the Boomerang schedule anymore, but I know as of 2016 they were still actively showing the missing episodes that the actors disallowed from being on the "Best of" DVD set in the US.
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Post by Old School Scooby Fan on Aug 28, 2018 13:20:26 GMT -5
I do have to ask, did "The Secret of Shark Island" ever air on Cartoon Network in the U.S.? If it did air, maybe it was after Sonny Bono's death, and the episode could legally be broadcast since Sonny was deceased and it may imply that it was only he who refused to clear his appearance, and Cher had no problem clearing her appearance.
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Post by Doo on Aug 28, 2018 17:53:50 GMT -5
I do have to ask, did "The Secret of Shark Island" ever air on Cartoon Network in the U.S.? If it did air, maybe it was after Sonny Bono's death, and the episode could legally be broadcast since Sonny was deceased and it may imply that it was only he who refused to clear his appearance, and Cher had no problem clearing her appearance. Yes, it has aired numerous times on both Cartoon Network and Boomerang over the years along with the other 9 unreleased episodes. |
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