Are game shows copyrighted?

Just wondering. Because I really can't imagine a 5-day a week show done on 2-inch tape being sent in to the Library of Congress for copyright registration. Or maybe they could copyright the concept? Anyone with knowledge on this? And if a show only lasted for a short time, why would they bother?

 

A copyright is earned automatically whenever a “work” is created as long it is not derivative of other existing work. Whether or not something is “derivative” is up to the judge and jury. Registration is not necessary for copyright to exist. But if your work is worth something like when someone finds it appealing enough to copy it, or pirate it, you need to provide evidence of ownership. You’ll find a lot of resources online. Registration is one of the processes you will need to do to claim ownership but it’s not necessary for the right to exist. Game shows are copyrighted as soon as they are recorded. If there are scripts, etc written work, they are also copyrighted.

 

Games since the end of the 1960's definitely are. Sony is very notorious. They always block stuff like Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! on YouTube.

Also, ever since the Barker era of The Price Is Right was launched on Pluto TV, Fremantle has blocked episodes left and right. They didn't block the first 10 seasons (1972-1982), because no episodes from that era are included; fur coats were no longer offered in Season 11.

 

Then why are there notorious instances of famous TV or movies not being copyrighted and going into public domain? Night of the Living Dead, Little Shop of Horrors, some episodes of Dusty's Trails, etc.

 

Of course they are. They are very valuable intellectual property.

 

In the case of Night of the Living Dead, the film distributor inadvertently failed to include the copyright notice in the credits. At that time, United States copyright law held that public dissemination required copyright notice to maintain a copyright. That is no longer the law.

 

I don’t know specifically about those titles but copyrights do expire and also the copyright owners may choose not to enforce it for whatever reason.

 

U.S. copyright laws were revised around 1978 or so. Prior to that time, lack of a legal copyright notice voided legal copyright protection. The notice had to include the word "copyright" or the symbol ©️, the year and the name of the copyright owner. If any element was missing, this constituted "improper notice." Also, if a copyright notice appeared more than once with conflicting information (such as two different years on the opening and closing of the "Fractured Flickers" series) that also voided copyright protection.

Then, if a copyright wasn't renewed for a second term during its 28th year, it would lapse into public domain. I believe all of these stipulations I mentioned have changed with the various copyright law revisions over the years.

 

Makes sense. I know the Dusty's Trails Wiki says it was one of the last shows to fall into the public domain through these sorts of clerical errors. It also says it was not common after 1963. But I do think there are some older game shows that fell into public domain and have made it onto DVD collections.

The other complicated thing is how certain properties are potentially able to be reverted to the ownership of the original authors nowadays. James Cameron had something like that go on with Terminator, which led to them striking a deal to make Dark Fate. And I think other writers are trying to reclaim works, like Predator, under certain provisions of "newer" copyright law. It doesn't seem like the Predator lawsuit has had a news update since April.

‘Predator’ Screenwriters Suing Disney to Recapture Rights – The Hollywood Reporter

 

So if a game show aired and the network wiped all of the episodes, and someone turned up an off air recording or a a kinescope, some entity could claim copyright of something that up to that point didn't even exist? And show what as proof, air?

 

A little off topic, but there's a great story in Los Angeles about a casino owner who wanted to patent a new game called Pai Gow Poker. He hired an attorney and the lawyer said you cannot patent casino games.
The game spread and now its in almost every casino. He found out later that the lawyer was incorrect. The casino owner would have been earning over 1 million in royalities if he patented the game
Pai gow poker - Wikipedia

Also this LA Times Article
Casino Boss Can't Cash In on Game He Developed

 

While the recording of a game show episode is copyrighted, and the title of a game show can be trademarked, the mechanics of the game itself can’t generally be protected. So if you wanted to make your own game show that works just like Password or Wheel of Fortune, you could—you’d just have to name it something different.