Dutch filmmakers complain about use of their film titles in comics

Several Dutch film directors and producers are complaining about the use of their film titles in a comic book on the history of Dutch cinema. The filmmakers did not give their consent for using the titles.

The comic book, called Filmfanfare, summarizes a famous Dutch film as a comic on each page. The project is a continuation of the project Mooi is dat!, in which 57 Dutch novels and plays were drawn as a comic. The initiators of this project, Dutch Film institute EYE, Film Foundation and Foundation BKVB, did not ask for permission for the use of the film concepts and titles in the comic book. Actually, the directors and producers didn’t know about the project Filmfanfare until they read it in the newspaper.

Dutch producer Rob Houwer said that although he thinks it is a great idea, he can’t give his consent if nobody asks him. Besides Houwer, directors Alex van Warmerdam and Dick Maas were also amazed that nobody asked them for consent. According to Van Warmerdam, it is naïve and really indecent that no one at all came up with the idea to ask the filmmakers for their consent.

Gert Jan Pos, spokesman of the Foundation BKVB said that he did not expect the project would generate these responses. According to Pos, the Filmfanfare book is intended as a tribute to the film industry and certainly not as copyright infringement. It is unclear whether the filmmakers will take legal steps against the project. Nonetheless, they declared that it is up to the initiators of Filmfanfare to properly ask for consent to use their films in the comic book.

Meanwhile, it is debatable whether all the film titles are actually copyright protected. Book and film titles are not necessarily eligible for copyright protection under Dutch law. This will depend on their originality and whether it can be said there is some kind of creative footprint of the author in the title. Furthermore, even if a title is copyright protected, the use of the title is not necessarily infringing that copyright. The use of a title could be a lawful reference to the work under the right to quote.

We will keep you updated on this story.

Reference: Volkskrant

By: Karen Groen