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Keep Those Swear Words The Same --It's Copyright
Posted by Rebecca Bolin on Thursday, July 15 @ 14:09:14 EDT Copyright
A Mormon drama student has settled a lawsuit against the University of Utah. Christina Axson-Flynn claimed she was treated unfairly when she requested not to curse or use the Lord's name in vain in monologues. She settled for some past tuition costs (she subsequently dropped out to take care of her daughter and act) and attorney costs, and the university is establishing a policy for religious objections and an appeals process to question faculty decisions.

The commitee drafting these policies has some tough choices: "Will a creationist biology major be forced to complete assignments on evolution? Should religious college athletes be required to play in Sunday games?" Another wrinkle is one of the early justifications to force Axson-Flynn to curse--it is illegal to change a playwright's words without written permission. Clearly the university also needs a copyright infringing mitigation policy for religious objection. How about actually asking the copyright holder first? What awful playwright would force Mormon students to curse in a non-profit university play?

Copyright certainly allows the "gosh-darn" substitution in the classroom--it's not even a public performance. In a public performance there could be more issues. Playwrights could be real sticklers for detail and insist on their curse words. They might have a licensing claim for breach of contract with puny damages--or better yet a derivative work claim with statutory damages. $150,000 if it was willful (which the permission-asking might make it)! The strength of the derivative work claims would depend on the language in the license, and it would be hurt by the non-profit status and the quite small change. This could be a pretty nasty fair use vs. derivative work argument in some cases ("Frankly, my dear, I don't give a gosh-darn!"). In others, the substitution would probably be no big deal. If the substitution really changed the work--say the clean version of "Seven Dirty Words"--it could be a transformative work or a parody, entirely different copyright defenses.

 
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