Just curious, but, while you were on the phone with Prof. Rosenblatt, did you happen to ask her about the merits of the fair use claim with regards to "Bad Jews"?

Writer of this post -- "Rich Smith", which I assume is nom de plume -- why are you making such a big deal? I suspect that copyright holder or agent sends out dozens of letters a week to try to protect intellectual property rights. You're making such a big deal, as if it's attack on women or some bullshit.

It's about money not defense of white male fragility.

@3:

There's a difference? Given the Samuel French flack elected not to cite the other works his company represents in the letter, and only this one specifically, it certainly lends the appearance that this particular playwright took umbrage and demanded a response. So it could just as easily have been him bristling at his work being labeled as antipathetic towards women as it may have been about the ridiculously small amount of royalty income a four night run in a 50 seat theatre might have netted him.

This isn't really about money, as it's been mentioned many many times this likely falls within fair use and this production has little to no profits. Sad playwright is sad his work is being criticized.

It's probably not the playwrights, but their agents who have complained to Samuel French and set this in motion. It's part of the agent's job to have their antennae out for abuse of their client's work, and they're not very good at -- more to the point, do not care about -- distinguishing between abuse and fair use.

That said, @3, whether it's about money or politics (or both), it's still worth discussing. Why are you interested in dismissing this?

Thank you for including the [sic]. I find it delicious that SF hires people who don't know how to form a certain possessive.

Copyright issues aside, simply reciting text out of context doesn't take much imagination, intelligence, or talent. To the extent that this work is derivative of "patriarchal" plays, it's sort of anti-feminist.

@seandr you clearly haven't seen the production. It's one of the most skillfully crafted and performed pieces I've seen in ages. Pike's acting is powerfully affecting and creates lasting reverberations about misogyny in everyday life.

@8:

Except there was plenty of context, namely, that of the top 10 most produced plays in in the U.S. in 2015, there is a dearth not just of roles for women actors (who, based on my 30-plus years of experience in theatre comprise far more than 50% of the number of performers in the field), but that the text excerpted from those plays serves to illustrate the sheer insipidness of how the comparative handful of women's roles are written - by mostly male playwrights.

Let me guess: you didn't actually SEE the performance in-question, otherwise you would have been well aware of how the words were contextualized, but nevertheless you retain the privilege of commenting on a thing you don't know anything about.

@8, to the extent that you clearly haven't seen the show, your opinion of it is meaningless.

Er, any chance that YOU'RE the reason Samuel French thinks text from "Whipping Man" is used in the show?

"From his initial reading of my review, Lazarus claimed he didn’t know That'swhatshesaid used other properties owned by Samuel French, which include The Whipping Man by Matthew Lopez; 4,000 Miles by Amy Herzog; and Tribes by Nina Raine."

--Rich Smith, "Erin Pike and That'swhatshesaid Went on Despite Cease and Desist Order, Legal Ramifications Remain Uncertain," Stranger "Slog," Monday, Feb. 8, 7:42am.

@15

Thats actually a pretty solid point

Uhh... These C & D letters are themselves satire on the state of IP law.

I mean, that's the only way it makes sense to keep sending them, right? We're witnessing the birth of a new profession: legal performance art.

@--It's one of the most skillfully crafted and performed pieces I've seen in ages.

The men who wrote the original plays get the writing credits.

@Comte: there is a dearth not just of roles for women actors

Yes, I get the point. So why doesn't she write a great original play with great female roles?

To use an analogy from comedy, it's the difference between Lindsey West humorlessly bitching about "rape jokes", and Tina Fey (to take one of many possible examples) getting on stage and making people laugh.

Tuna Fey gets in stage and makes people laugh with rape jokes?

The framing itself ensures that, should this go to court, all of the "excerpts" would be found as fair use. However, like most issues with our completely fucked copyright system, there's huge disincentives for them to actually defend their work in court, as their defense would cost wheelbarrows full of money.

If it's as described, this C&D letter is frivolous. The copyright is on the play (and perhaps the original designs and staging of the play). There is no copyright, nor could there be, on the existence of the play, the fact that it has no female characters, or the fact that it is 72 pages long and that flipping through those 72 pages makes a "thwipp" noise.

As others have pointed out, it's a shame that there are no consequences to this sort of action by a publisher. While they could be made to pay fees if they brought an actual lawsuit, there's no downside to sending a C&D and seeing how the recipient responds.

@18:

Ms. Meaker has, does, and no doubt will continue to write those very plays. But, you've probably never seen any of them, so you wouldn't know that.

@15 makes a much better point than @18

@18 The whole point is original plays with great roles for women are being written, but not produced.

The men are getting credit for writing the plays and can continue to get compensation when those plays are produced, but commentary on a play (or many plays as a way to say something larger about the state of American theater) is not the same as production of a play.

Not having seen the play, it sounds like it's dealing with a very serious and important issue of representation (or lack thereof) and I applaud it for that. But I wonder how much the piece also holds accountable the ARTS ORGANIZATIONS/THEATRES around the country that made these plays the "10 Most Produced Plays" of last year. Above the playwrights, aren't these organizations the ones who are directly responsible for the lack of representation we see on our stages year after year?

Maybe they should update it to 73 pages flipped, to include the cease and desist order.

@26:

that'swhatshesaid doesn't address this directly, although I think one could make the case there is an implicit critique of those organizations, simply by virtue of the fact that they did, as you suggest, put these plays into the Top 10 Most Produced list. However, your point is entirely valid: there is an intrinsic relationship between what playwrights create and what gets produced. If playwrights see certain kinds of plays are getting lots of productions, it makes sense that at least some of them are going to continue to write that kind of material, because they want those production slots - and the resulting royalty checks.

"Is Samuel French legally justified in sending a cease and desist letter regarding material that is absent from the show?" Yes. Of course they are. You know who gets to decide the legal justification? A judge, not someone rendering an opinion which in no way matters other than as a possibly informative text on one of several possible outcomes of an actual legal opinion. Quit sidetracking the actual issues with these stupid inane observations presented with question marks. Unless you are in high school and working there as an intern. Then one couldn't have expected you to maybe think for three seconds about subject and object at hand.

@seatackled: Not that I can think of off the top of my head, but Kate McKinnon recently did a hilarious skit on SNL about being sexually assaulted by aliens.

I wish I could see what #15 said, since people seem to think it was a good point, but it was deleted.

@31: It was just one of those "my friend made $$$ from home" spambots, which as it happens, did indeed made a better point than Seandr did. :)

Every time assholes abuse IP law like this, a thousand people boot up their BitTorrent client.