The Royal Court thought it could get away with sending a threatening lawyers letter to Richard Stirling, to prevent him from reading out a short section of a letter sent to him by its artistic director, Dominic Cooke.
Now, of course, they’re claiming that they were only fussing about not having been asked for permission to read out the letter – permission that would, of course, have been granted:
A spokesman for the Royal Court said this week: “It came to the attention of the Royal Court that Mr Stirling intended to read a personal letter that he had received from our artistic director, written in response to the submission of his play Seven Other Children. This reading was to have taken place at a performance of Seven Other Children at the New End theatre.
“Had Mr Stirling asked the Royal Court’s permission to do this, the Royal Court would have freely given it. We have no issue with Mr Stirling’s play itself, and we congratulate him on the New End Theatre’s decision to stage it.
“The Royal Court Theatre is simply asserting its right to protect the private correspondence of its artistic director. We wish Mr Stirling had contacted us beforehand to obtain permission, and all this could have been avoided.”
Mr Stirling, however, said this week that he had never intended to read out the entirety of Mr Cooke’s response. He had not contacted the Royal Court for permission, he said, “because I wasn’t certain how much I was going to quote”.
Uh huh.
Here’s the lawyers letter. See if you think that it indicates that “Had Mr Stirling asked the Royal Court’s permission to do this, the Royal Court would have freely given it”.
SJS/ACB/CP
1 May 2009
Dear Sir
Re: Breach of Copyright held by Royal Court Theatre
We are instructed on behalf of the Royal Court Theatre in relation to concerns that our client’s copyright has been and may continue to be breached in connection with the presentation of your play “Seven Other Children” at the New End Theatre between 5-16 May 2009.
Mr Dominic Cooke, the Artistic Director of our client, wrote to you on 27 February 2009. As you will appreciate, Mr Cooke’s letter is protected by copyright, such copyright being held by the Royal Court Theatre.
As such, any quotation from such letter, without our client’s express permission, is unlawful and constitutes breach of copyright. Where breach of copyright takes place, the party holding copyright is entitled to initiate proceedings against the party/parties responsible for such breach seeking an injunction, damages and payment of legal costs.
We understand that it may be intended to read out to the audience all or part of Mr Cook’s letter to you at the forthcoming performances of your play referred to above. You should note that the Royal Court Theatre does not consent to this and as such, if this proceeds to take place, it would constitute an unlawful action in breach of our client’s copyright.
Accordingly, kindly ensure that Mr Cooke’s letter is not quoted from either in full or in part.
Our concern is increased as a result of the content of a press release (copy enclosed) issued by the New End Theatre in connection with these forthcoming performances. In light of the matters indicated above, you will note that the New End Theatre has inappropriately and without permission quoted from Mr Cooke’s letter to you. It is to be presumed that this was with your consent as a result of you having made a quotation available to them.
Again, we request you as a matter of urgency to ensure no repeat of such action takes place and that the distribution of this or any similar press release containing any quotation from Mr Cooke’s letter ceases forthwith.
We are copying this letter to relevant individuals at the New End Theatre so that they are in no doubt as to our concerns.
We trust that you and the New End Theatre will conduct yourselves in an appropriate manner in accordance with the law and that it will not therefore become necessary for us to advise our client in connection with the initiation of any relevant proceedings in respect of breaches of our client’s copyright.
Yours faithfully
Simons Muirhead & Burton
c.c. Brian Daniels/Andrew Connolly/Lady Pamela Kalms/Ninon Jerome/New End Theatre
