Do directors have a copyright in their version of my stage directions?
No. Statues and courts have not recognized a copyright in stage direction and the Department of Justice has entered at least one civil law suit on behalf of the Copyright Office specifically to state that there is no such thing as a “director’s copyright.” The product of a director’s work is conceptual, not tangible, and copyright does not protect ideas, only the specific expression of an idea fixed in a tangible medium.
Any changes a director may suggest in an author’s stage directions are subject to the author’s approval and, under any Guild contract, all approved changes become the author’s sole property. Directors do not become co-authors of a play simply by offering dramaturgical advice to a playwright or offering ideas that the author is free to accept or reject. Such contributions are conceptual and considered part of directors’ customary services in the course of their employment. Directors do not become co-authors unless they make a copyrightable contribution to a work and the author intends the director to be co-author.
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