Second Circuit Upholds Sorkin ‘To Kill Mockingbird’ Stage Rights

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a ruling allowing Aaron Sorkin's 2018 stage adaptation of Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird' to be performed in non-first-class and amateur productions without infringement from the owners of the 1990 stage adaptation. The court found that after Lee terminated the 1969 copyright grant to The Dramatic Publishing Company, the company lost its exclusive rights to block new adaptations, affirming that Lee regained the right to authorize new stage productions. The ruling rejected Dramatic's argument that the 1976 Copyright Act's derivative works exception preserved their exclusive license indefinitely, with judges stating that such an interpretation would contradict the law's plain language. This decision followed previous disputes, including a lawsuit over the faithfulness of Sorkin's script to the novel and an arbitration where Dramatic claimed exclusive rights to amateur performances. Ultimately, the court supported the producer Scott Rudin's company, Rudinplay, which commissioned Sorkin's adaptation and was later assigned rights to Atticus LLC, allowing broader staging of the play. The ruling emphasizes creators' rights to reclaim and license their works beyond prior exclusive arrangements.