To get around paying royalties by tickets are free but programmes are £5

[Iwanttovoteukip]

Our village produced a panto of Cinderella last December. It raised money for a local charity. This year we want to do another panto with local children etc but to do Frozen. I have a feeling Disney would not allow it and expect royalties. However, I've heard you can get round this by making e nary and tickets free but ask people to buy a programme for £5. I'm no legal expert, is this unreasonable. It is for charity.

That is meant to say entry

I think it's one of those 'spirit of the law' things and if royalties are due, they should be paid. Whether you are 'allowed' to do it is nothing to do with whether you 'should' do it and I for one would feel very uncomfortable knowing that I'd raised money for a worthy cause by doing something underhand. Plus there is no way I'd buy a programme for a village panto for £5.

Do you really want to run the risk of taking Disney on...?

Isn't this much the same as Gary Barlow's tax evasion scheme?

I doubt Disney would care about a village panto raising money for charity - why not write to them and ask?

It's a local pantomime for charity! It's NOTHING like evading £13 million in tax!!

What Would Nigel Do?

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement - ACTA - would have created an international agreement to protect copyright/IP/etc, with issues such as Hollywood/motion pictures specifically mentioned.

According to VoteWatch, 8 of 9 UKIP/EFD MEPs didn't vote on ACTA legislation in 2010 (asleep?), with the remaining MEP not even turning up.

So I guess you have the tacit support of UKIP on this

Write and ask disney if it is unreasonable. You've got plenty of time :-) If it's for charity and done with their permission they can't object. OTOH being underhand could backfire on the charity you are fundraising for.

You've got no chance with Disney if my experience of them is anything to go by.

It's not so much avoiding royalties - they'd be tiny for a small charity show - but getting the rights to perform it at all. If Disney have created a live show of Frozen and are showing it anywhere in the UK, no chance.
If they haven't, then they might be OK but probably best to change the name and just nick the plot (it's based on The Snow Queen).

Small charity shows sometimes also have cheap admission but then expensive programmes that come with a free glass of wine, if the venue can't get a bar licence.

you have no chance of getting Disney to agree to let you "do " frozen. they will refuse you the rights to perform full stop. they will also refuse to let you sing the songs from it if you put on another similar show with a similar story but using the same songs. they are a big big business and they protect their performance rights very fiercely in my experience. as for notcitrus suggestion re the bar licence sorry but even if you are giving the alcohol away to the public then you need a licence. speak to trading standards. they will back up what has been said about not being able to do it. don't risk it OP. we had a similar issue with just one song and got nasty solicitor letters and all sorts.

Wouldn't you risk people just pitching up and not buying a program?

It's a local pantomime for charity! It's NOTHING like evading £13 million in tax!!

It is a scheme to avoid paying any royalties that are due. It is exactly like evading tax.

As suggested, do The Snow Queen instead

Thank you. I'm going to start another thread "would it be unreasonable to ask you what else to call a charity performance of Frozen to avoid royalties?" Some ideas:

Fro7en

I need ideas. I'm not sure The Snow Queen will be mistaken for The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Help ideas!

You still wouldn't be able to use the songs from Frozen. Nothing to stop you making a musical based on the Snow Queen, but you wouldn't be able to use any names, dialogue or songs from the film.

I'd stick to something that doesn't have a licence - Disney are very protective of their brand and would be unlikely to make exceptions.

If you want to push it a bit your could do 'The Snow Queen - A story from a FROZEN world'

Just asked my IP expert DH. His advice is don't go anywhere NEAR the name Frozen or any variant thereof. You also can't perform in public any of the songs. Disney are very very litigious, sadly. Sorry to piss on your chips :(

DO NOT write to Disney and ask - they will come down on you like a ton of bricks.

Take the risk that they won't want the bad publicity of suing a village pantomime or do something else.

How about calling it "a bit nippy"?

Def don't write to Disney. I used to work for a well known media company and they never, ever granted permission for using their intellectual property to protect their brands. If a breach of copyright came to their attention they always sent a "strongly worded" letter asking the breacher to stop, and followed it up.

Best stay under the radar, Disney won't notice if you don't advertise it to them.

IME, Disney are notoriously uncompromising on any copyright things.

Do a traditional panto - you can always throw in some topical references, but don't try to do something that's not legal.

Call it The Snow Queen (the original Frozen). Maybe do a panto that is a combination of both of them?

Surely you'd be breaching copyright by producing a programme for "Frozen", I suspect you can't use their images etc without permission.

You're stealing someone's work.

The fact that it is Disney is irrelevant. It annoys me beyond belief when people think it is fine to steal the work of artists, writers, anyone creative, or ask them to work for free because it's just stuff they've made up.

You'll get a bit of cash from the Daily Mail though when you do your sad-face-story if you do go ahead and get sued.

You again?

No, still. It's still copyright infringement and "I'm not a legal expert" is a whopping understatement.

Why has nobody in real life pointed out to you that this is a terrible idea?