Would it be a copyright infringement if a youth dance group sells tickets for their original dance production of the Wizard of Oz to the public and uses Wizard of Oz as the name of their show?

Answer 1

It is quite possible to infringe one or more elements of the copyright-protected musical, motion picture, sound recordings, or book, "The Wizard of Oz", by performing the work in public, or by printing anything (such as posters) using copyrighted drawings, designs or photographs without the necessary licenses (the original choreography, lyrics, score, script, promotional literature are all copyrighted). Sound recordings made (in the USA) prior to 1972 are not protected by US federal copyright law, but may be protected under various state copyright laws for another 50 years or so.

The identification and measurement of copyright infringement (not to mention defenses and potential damages) is quite complicated, and would involve a factual inquiry of how "original" your contributions are, how similar they are to the earlier works, whether the earlier parts were protectable (or, for example, merely "stock" elements or ideas), what proportion of the earlier works are used, how they are used, whether a license was requested or made available, and so forth.

On the other hand, it would not be a copyright infringement to merely "sell tickets" to a performance, but could violate state or federal advertising and consumer-protection laws if you do not have rights to use the name.

Finally, it may be easily proven as a trademark infringement if you were to use a recognized portion of the name of the show (i.e., "The Wonderful World of Oz", "The Wizard of Oz"), or the name of any recognizable character including, "Toto", "Tin Man", "Cowardly Lion", "Emerald City", "Aunti Em," "Glinda", "Nome King", "Wicked Witch", or "Munchkin", either in relation to the show, or on any souvenir goods or printed materials, without permission from Turner Entertainment Co.