Can I base a book off a reality tv show?
Can I base a book off a reality tv show?
Hi - I couldn't find the exact question only similar. Can I base a fictional book and publish it that takes place on a reality show (or similar concept) that exists? Using none of the celebrities/hosts etc. For example big brother. If I don't call the show that but use elements like evictions etc, is that allowed? The book itself is a commentary on reality tv and something else (think black mirror type of thing) but I'm unsure where the line is on how similar the actual format can be?
Re: Can I base a book off a reality tv show?
Hi Hermie25 amd welcome to the forum,
There shouldn't be any problem with what you want to do. Reality TV show formats can be protected but that really only extends to other TV shows which try to copy them in major way. But the protection is far from well established. It lies mainly in the concept of a game show etc being a dramatic work, but in order to qualify for this category, there need to be scripts, and of course shows like Big Brother don't have much in the way of scripted content, even though there is an overall structure. One of the earliest cases on the subject concerned a talent show from the 1980s called Opportubnity Knocks. The show's creator and host Hughie Green sued the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation for copying the format of his show, but he lost both at first instance and in two later appeals. Details here: Hugh Green v Broadcasting Corp. of New Zealand [1989] UKPC 26 (18 July 1989). In that case, even various catchphrases weren't considered to be sufficiently original to earm copyright protection.
Since then there have a number of threats, mainly by Endemol the original producers of Big Brother, to sue other broadcasters for copying their shows, but none have ended up as a win for Endemol, as they were settled outside court.
More dramatic TV shows have more protection beacuse, in general, they are scripted, and this means that the protection they enjoy goes beyond a mere reproduction of the original idea in a similar context, that is to say, just in another TV drama. A recent example of this was the case of Shazam Productions Ltd v Only Fools The Dining Experience Ltd [2022] EWHC 1379 (IPEC) in which a restaurant was found to have infringed the copyright in elements of the Only Fools and Horses TV show when they held their 'dining experiences'.
But since your book would only feature a fictionalised version of a reality TV show there is very little chance that it would be held to infringe what little copyright protection the show has. And furthermore, even if an infringement claim could be made out, you would have the added defence that one of the purposes of your work was parody (see section 30A of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988).
There shouldn't be any problem with what you want to do. Reality TV show formats can be protected but that really only extends to other TV shows which try to copy them in major way. But the protection is far from well established. It lies mainly in the concept of a game show etc being a dramatic work, but in order to qualify for this category, there need to be scripts, and of course shows like Big Brother don't have much in the way of scripted content, even though there is an overall structure. One of the earliest cases on the subject concerned a talent show from the 1980s called Opportubnity Knocks. The show's creator and host Hughie Green sued the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation for copying the format of his show, but he lost both at first instance and in two later appeals. Details here: Hugh Green v Broadcasting Corp. of New Zealand [1989] UKPC 26 (18 July 1989). In that case, even various catchphrases weren't considered to be sufficiently original to earm copyright protection.
Since then there have a number of threats, mainly by Endemol the original producers of Big Brother, to sue other broadcasters for copying their shows, but none have ended up as a win for Endemol, as they were settled outside court.
More dramatic TV shows have more protection beacuse, in general, they are scripted, and this means that the protection they enjoy goes beyond a mere reproduction of the original idea in a similar context, that is to say, just in another TV drama. A recent example of this was the case of Shazam Productions Ltd v Only Fools The Dining Experience Ltd [2022] EWHC 1379 (IPEC) in which a restaurant was found to have infringed the copyright in elements of the Only Fools and Horses TV show when they held their 'dining experiences'.
But since your book would only feature a fictionalised version of a reality TV show there is very little chance that it would be held to infringe what little copyright protection the show has. And furthermore, even if an infringement claim could be made out, you would have the added defence that one of the purposes of your work was parody (see section 30A of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988).
Advice or comment provided here is not and does not purport to be legal advice as defined by s.12 of Legal Services Act 2007