Licensing Christmas Classics

[Randy Stankey]

Consider this to be humor:

Why don't you just play the darned movie and let whoever has the rights send you a cease and deist letter then make an offer a payment to settle.

Sometimes, it's better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission. Right?

[Jim Cassedy]

Welcome to the wonderful world of convoluted copyright conundrums, where sometimes trying
to find out exactly who owns what is like going 'down the rabbit hole' - while simultaneously
"peeling the onion" at the same time. About a decade ago what I thought was going to be a
simple matter to find out who owned the rights to a certain old theatrical short turned into a
never ending online adventure. Although it was originally a Paramount short, in the ensuing
decades the rights had been handled by at least a half-a-dozen entities, a couple of which
had gone bankrupt, and so the rights reverted to one of their creditors, and then we found
out that the company who we thought currently held the rights, only had the TV rights- - not
the theatrical or home video rights- - and then occasionally, you run into someone who has
the rights- - but there is some outstanding music copyright that prevents then from distributing
it. I ran into this once when trying to find a 35mm copy of a certain title, which I knew was
available on DCP. But apparently the end theme music was licensed only for the original
theatrical run-- and so when it was released on video & as a DCP, they had to use different
end credit music- - and although they did have a 35mm print, they wouldn't let anyone use
it because of the music rights issue on it. (Getting a "one time" use license for our screening
was, technically possible but to do so was going to require alotta legal paper filing by a
copyright attorney - -and we could have BOUGHT a 35mm print for less than his fee.)

- - we finally took a chance and screened a print from a private collector. Yes, I know it's
legally illegal- - but so is rolling through a stop sign, but who hasn't occasionally done so
when nobody was looking. I suppose we might have been able to possibly avoid music
rights trouble if we simply cut the audio during the end credits- - but I didn't think of it at the time.

[Greg McGuire]

Thanks for the advice. I told them it was a long shot, especially on such short notice, but I figured if anyone would know it'd be someone here!

[Mark Ogden]

CBS never owned A Charlie Brown Christmas, they were simply a licensor and the first to put it on the air (it subsequently ran on ABC for many years). The original copyright was held by United Features Syndicate, who at the time administered the rights to the Peanuts characters on behalf of Charles Schulz, and the actual show itself was owned by its producer, Lee Mendelson. CBS no longer has a stake in the show and has no distribution rights. All the original Peanuts shows are currently controlled by Apple under license from the Peanuts ownership consortium, of which WildBrain is part owner. They just announced a new feature the other day.

Either way, it doesn't look like there is a theatrical path here.

[Marcel Birgelen]

The trademarks for the Peanuts characters are currently marketed by Wild Brain Entertainment. Charlie Brown Christmas was originally owned by CBS. They probably still have the distribution rights, but if they have licensed them exclusively to Apple, you're pretty much out of luck. But even if CBS has granted them a non-exlcusive license, licensing any TV content from CBS for a one-time screening is nearly impossible. You'd say those companies could earn a lot of money if they would allow more flexible licensing of their vast content library if they'd open some kind of on-line portal that allows you to license their content for individual use cases... just enter your credit card and done...

[Mark Ogden]

A Charlie Brown Christmas and all Peanuts trademarks and copyrights are currently owned by Apple, which does not have a theatrical distribution arm.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Best bet:

- Charlie Brown's Christmas: CBS / Paramount
- Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: NBCUniversal

Good luck getting licenses for individual TV shows from either one of them though...

[Greg McGuire]

Hello,

A local group asked me about showing Charlie Brown's Christmas or Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in conjunction with an event they're doing. Has anyone done this before, or know who's the rights holder for them might be?

Thanks.