- A version that is abridged or supplemented may still fall within
the adaptation right
Sillitoe et al. v. McGraw-Hill Book Co. (U.K.) Ltd [1983] F.S.R. 545 (U.K.:
High Court)[The plaintiffs included the copyright owner of Bernard Shaw’s play Saint Joan.
The defendants marketed Coles’ Notes, condensed versions of various literary
works for the use of students. The plaintiff claimed that not only its reproduction
right but its adaptation right had been infringed. The Court agreed.]JUDGE MERVYN DAVIES:[W]hen one looks at the orange markings in the Saint Joan Notes[indicating alleged similarities
to the play of St Joan – Ed.] and then refers to the text of the original play, one sees that the
orange markings do render, in a kind of oratio obliqua, many of the phrases in the original. ...
Time and again one can see that the Notesrender a likeness of the phrasing of the original text.[I]t is said that the notes embody an “adaptation” of the original dramatic work. For present
purposes section 2(6) of the [Copyright Act 1956] defines an “adaptation” as being a version of
the dramatic work Saint Joanin which it is converted into a non-dramatic work. ... Looking at
p. 28, one sees the heading “Scene by scene summaries of the play.” There follows a three and a
half page summary of Scene 1 of the play. Then there are (pp. 32 to 33) one and three-quarter-
pages devoted to commentary and character under the headings “Commentary on Scene 1” and
“Characters in Scene 1.” ... Scenes [2,] 3, 4, 5, and 6 and the Epilogue are dealt with successively
in the same way. Each scene summary recounts or describes, and in some detail, the events and
conversations that are to be found in the corresponding scene in the play.These scene summaries run together, seem to me to constitute more than a synopsis of the
play.... After reading the text of Saint Joanand then the scene summaries, my view is that the
author of the scene summaries has, in writing these scene summaries, converted the play Saint
Joaninto a non-dramatic work; and has accordingly made an “adaptation” within section 2(5)(f).[Counsel] for the defendants contended that the scene summaries constituted a summary
intended as an aid to criticism and further do not constitute a separate non-dramatic work. ...
The question is whether or not Saint Joanhas been converted into a non-dramatic work. In my
view it has. The fact that the conversion is said to be part of a critical aid ... does not bear on
any question raised under section 2(5)(f). ...[I]t is true that one cannot point to any separate work as constituting a “non-dramatic work” ...
The alleged non-dramatic work, that is the scene summaries, is a part only of the entire Saint
Joan Notesand moreover, is not set out therein on successive pages, in that there are interspersed
the “commentary” and “character” writings that I have mentioned. But I do not see that the way
in which the converted work is used detracts from the fact that the play Saint Joanhas in fact
been converted.- The adaptation right may not extend to mere ideas taken from
the source work
Borden v. General Motors Corp., 28 F. Supp. 330 (U.S.: District Court,
New York, 1939)
92