Why does no one seem bothered by the team behind Skam PerĂș admitting that they havenât actually gotten the rights from NRK and that they just plan to âgive creditâ at the end of each clip? I get that itâs a âstudent projectâ, but still. I donât know a whole lot about how the business side of tv/movie-making works, but arenât they going against copyright laws and STEALING someone elseâs work?
Oh boy, yeah I actually said a little bit about this last night.Â
Apparently, theyâre talking to lawyers and smaller production companies in Peru butâŠâŠ What the fuck will that do? What theyâre doing does not fall under fair use, this isnât transformative work, they are taking a script and using it as their own, credit or no credit people that own the show can and will sue them if they wish to do so, and itâs NRK they have the money and the power to sue them. Copyright doesnât work in a way thatâs âif I give credit, if I say âthis doesnât belong to meâ itâll all be good.â The only way to make a legal remake is to 1. ask for permission from the creator, or 2. pay the creator. Neither one of these things had been done.
To be honest, this project seems incredible unprepared and rushed to me. Theyâre having the auditions now and theyâre planning on releasing the season in April? They donât even have permission from NRK and theyâre planning on posting the content on YouTube where theyâll be making money from it? To me it feels as if theyâve noticed the peak the remakes are at right now and theyâre only doing this now and rushing it because they know theyâll get views.Â
The thing that will fuck them over the most is the fact that theyâre using content they donât have permission to use and theyâre posting it on a platform that will make them money based on how many views/subscribers they have. There will be viewers from the US which automatically means that fair use laws will be applied, and in this case they do not apply, this doesnât fall under fair use. So they will either get sued, or they will have all of the content deleted from YouTube. Fair use applies to works which are transformative, parodies, reviews, or educational content, this falls under none of these categories, it is simply a rip off. Say what you will about the remakes but that is what they are, they are not original content.Â
I donât think they have any idea what theyâre getting into. Production isnât easy and itâs definitely not quick. They need to write out the treatment, the characterization, the risk assessment needs to be detailed, they need to pick the locations, they need to operate the cameras and mics in a proper manner, and to me it feels like this project wasnât well thought out. It feels very rushed, it wonât end well I donât think. I donât know what the fuck smaller production companies could tell them that isnât right there in front of them, itâs not their content, they donât own the rights to it, and giving credit does not mean that copyright laws donât apply anymore.