Today I was drafting a contract reserving rights to film a movie based on someone's life and I came across a concise article in Slate (Mar. 1, 2007, http://www.slate.com/id/2081488/ ) that reported that NBC is making a movie on the life of Pfc. Jessica Lynch without her consent. It correctly distinguished life rights from literary rights (rights to make a movie based on someone's writing--usually a novel).

I once found out that a producer of a true crime documentary television show had contacted an agency client duo without my knowledge and sweet talked them into being interviewed for a one-hour television show. They informed my clients that this movie would be made with or without their consent because it was public information. They agreed to interview them and reference the clients' book (not coincidentally, the show, Murder in Paradise, was the same name as my clients' book). I was, of course, unhappy with the outcome. I could not earn money for my client. From a legal perspective, I did not disagree with their contention so long as they did not take phrases from my client's work. There are some unwritten rules however, and traditionally things like literary rights of non-fiction and life rights become commodities in The Business because they ensure that the natural allies are partners in marketing or at the very least cooperative in the endeavor. When I think back on this, I remember walking away with a cynical feeling that the conveyance of tv movies and to some extent books in their depiction of battered, raped and murdered girls is to a great extent entertainment that the victim and their family would have no interest in disseminating. It's a cheap and classless move for NBC in this case--at least it would seem that way, unless, in their depiction they could convince the viewer that this is truly newsworthy.