On November 24, 2020, comedian Dave Chappelle released a video on his Instagram page entitled “Unforgiven”. In it, he discusses times in his life where he was taken advantage of and spends the majority of the video talking about the legendary Chappelle’s Show. He drops a bomb – that he has no rights to the show.
Dave Chappelle has given me a great opportunity to discuss copyright assignments and licenses.
What is copyright law?
Copyright law protects creative works. Whenever a person 1) creates a work of authorship (ex. a TV show), 2) the work is original (i.e. the creator used their own creative juices to create the work), and 3) the work has the ability to be fixed in something tangible (ex. lyrics written on paper, that is tangible), the work is protected by copyright law.
What rights does one attain with copyright law?
Once protected by copyright law, the creator of the work has the ability to do whatever they want with the work. They gain a bundle of exclusive rights, including the right to copy the work and right to perform the work.
What is the difference between a copyright assignment and copyright license?
Copyright is a type of intellectual property – the key word being property. For that reason, I am going to analogize it to real property.
You can think of a copyright assignment like selling a house. With an assignment, the creator of the work is selling all of their exclusive rights in a work to someone else. Once the creator does this, the creator (even though they created the work) no longer has ownership rights in whatever they created. So the creator can no longer exercise their exclusive rights.
You can think of a license like renting out a house. With a license, the creator still owns all the exclusive rights for the work. However, they’re leasing out their rights to someone else (sometimes for a fee). The party who is given the license can do whatever is allowed under the terms of the license.
Maybe they can only copy the work. Maybe they can only perform it. Maybe the license can be revoked. And maybe it can’t. In the end, the creator will still retain all of their rights in the work.
How does one make a copyright assignment or license?
Copyright rights can only be transferred in writing. Thus, there has to be a written contract.
So, if someone creates a logo for a party and that party pays for the logo without a written contract, the logo designer still owns the copyright rights to the logo.
What do you think happened with Dave Chappelle and his contract with Comedy Central regarding Chappelle’s Show?
Because I didn’t see the contract between Chappelle and Comedy Central, I’m making assumptions here. Based on what he said in the video, I believe that Chappelle assigned (and did not license) all of his exclusive rights in Chappelle’s Show to Comedy Central. Thus, Comedy Central could do whatever they wanted with the show and Chappelle could not.
On top of this, since they already bought the exclusive rights from Chappelle initially, they no longer had to pay him after the fact.
How do you feel about Dave Chappelle’s revelation?
As a former dancer, I saw firsthand how creatives were exploited. Seeing how artistic legends like Dave were taken advantage of breaks my heart and fuels me to do what I do – teach people how to understand contracts.
But, Chappelle probably didn’t realize how legendary Chappelle’s Show would become when he signed the contract. His revelation also serves as a great lesson to creatives – know your value and worth when coming to the negotiation table.
How do I find out more about copyright law?
You can click the Copyright tag on the right to read more blog posts. You can also contact us here.
