Can’t name that tune
Copyright law provides important protection for artists, authors, sculptors, and even architects — pretty much anyone who makes his or her living through creative processes. Before there were robust copyright laws, such as back in the eighteenth century when “Robinson Crusoe” arguably became the first modern novel, authors rarely made money off of their work because others would simply print cheaper copies and undersell the original author and his publisher.
Modern copyright law, particularly the current version of the Copyright Act of 1976, does make some allowances. One example is the “fair use” doctrine, which is built into the Copyright Act itself. Fair use permits the use of excerpts from a copyright work, even without the permission of the copyright owner, for such things as criticism, commentary, educational, journalistic, and similar purposes.
But someone who wants to use a copyrighted work in a situation not protected by parody or the fair use doctrine must obtain a license from the copyright owner. This is a specific right to use a copyrighted work in a particular way. Thus, if a motion picture producer wants to use an existing copyrighted song that was not written specifically for a new motion picture, the producer must either obtain a license from the copyright owner or face a lawsuit. Alternatively, the producer may have to have use new music written specifically for the new film; or choose a different existing song for which rights can be obtained; or use music that is already in the public domain instead.
This became a particular problem for older television shows that were created when home video did not exist, or when the television shows licensed the use of a copyrighted song without giving thought to some possible future home video market. While this would not create a problem for rebroadcast of the shows on local television in syndication (which was a use that was anticipated, and almost always covered in the contracts the such shows were produced), it created a significant barrier to release of older shows on home video.
Those original licenses typically permitted only the use of copyrighted music for overthe-air broadcasts, not in a new or different medium such as VHS, DVD, or Blu-ray. Even the theme music written specifically for a television show typically has separate copyright protection, and to release the show in a home video format requires a separate license from the music’s copyright holder.
One of the best examples of the latter was the music written for the television series “The Fugitive,” which ran from 1963 to 1967. The series starred David Janssen as Dr. Richard Kimball, who was wrongly believed to have murdered his wife, and was constantly on the run from the police for the four years the series aired. Its theme music was a jazzy score written by composer Pete Rugolo. Many fans who bought the DVDS of the series when they were first released were distraught to discover that the producers had been unable to secure the rights for home video release — so instead, Rugolo’s recognizable theme was replaced by generic stock music.
But perhaps the most noteworthy example of how licensing music rights can create headaches for the producers of a show originally created in one medium that the producers later want, in effect, to “republish” in a new one, was the 1988-1993 show “The Wonder Years.” The show was set in the late 1960s and told the story of Kevin Arnold, a middle-school student when the series began. Almost every episode featured a different song from that era that would be played in the background as a kind of subtle “commentary” on the story presented in that segment.
Because even in 1988-1993, pre-recorded home video releases of television series were uncommon, the producers apparently failed to secure home video rights for re-use of the songs tied to specific episodes. Ultimately, this kept the series from being released on DVD for nearly 20 years after it went off the air — far later than many of its contemporary television series, as the producers struggled to (re-)secure rights for each song. When the complete series was finally released on DVD in 2011, only 96% of the episodes had the same music originally broadcast within those episodes; 15 episodes had to be re-tracked with different songs or new music written specifically for the DVD release.
So if you happen to catch an episode of an old television series on home video, and the music doesn’t seem to square with your memories of the show, it might not be creeping dementia. It could instead be what might be called “the fugitive wonder years syndrome” instead.