PennTags Feed for /tag/hays

The Devil's Advocate Will H. Hays and the Campaign to Make Movies Respectable

Citation: Vaughn, Stephen, The Devil's Advocate Will H. Hays and the Campaign to Make Movies Respectable. Indiana Magazine of History 101.2 (2005): 66 pars. 2 Dec. 2008 .

This article explains how William Hays attempted to find a common ground between tradition and modernity in the movie industry. After various sex scandals in Hollywood, the image of Hollywood was becoming tarnished as people began to think these behaviors would corrupt the "weak minded" in America. As a result, the MPPDA hired Hays to clean up the film industry. His code integrated ideas from the 10 commandments and applied them to all aspects of film.

While Hays tried to make the film industry more moral and upstanding, his code hindered the creativity of many people in the movie industry, including Howard Hughes. The Oulaw had many scenes that ended up on the cutting room floor due to the code. Hughes fought tirelessly against the MPPDA and Hays to keep certain scenes because he pleaded that without them, the film would not portray the same meaning. Because of the severe restrictions, Hughes had to come up with a special bra for Jane Russell to wear to prevent too much cleavage being shown in addition to the rape scene being re-shot.

Review: Untitled

Citation: Vaughn, Stephen JSTOR: Film Quarterly Vol. 49, No. 2 (Winter, 1995-1996), pp. 58-59

This article talks about the financial and social consequences of the production code, as written in a book by Gregory D. Black. In his book he writes how a movie Idiot's Delight and many other movies needed to be severely changed to fit into PCA standards. He later describes how Hays and other social morality groups used the power of boycott to bend Hollywood to adhering to the social and moral restrictions of the code. Since the Great Depression was an eminent threat on movie production in Hollywood, the threat of boycott was enough to make many studios follow the production code.

This resource explains how other movies were hurt by the implementation of the Hays Code and how the studios were not in a position to change it. While Hughes was able to argue for certain scenes in The Outlaw, other producers were less fortunate. Many films were shut down, or cut so badly that they were unrecognizable. Hollywood wanted to make films that would offend the least amount of people, especially people overseas. This hurt many American films, like The Outlaw that did not pass the censorship of the PCA right away, if at all.

Hays and Macdonald v Sony

Hays and Macdonald v Sony 847 F.2d 412; 1988 U.S. App.

This was one of the few cases I could find that specifically dealt with the academic exception at a high school level.

Hays and MacDonald were two high school business teachers who developed a handbook for a word processor that the high school owned. They distributed the handbook to the staff and students of the high school. When the high school purchased new word processors from Sony, the school gave the handbook to Sony asking them to adapt it for the new word processors. Sony did so by taking large parts of the document and copying it into the new handbook. Sony then gave it back to the school at no charge. When Hays and MacDonald found out about the new handbooks they sued Sony for copyright infringement arguing that they owned the rights to the handbook. The District Court found for Sony. Hays and MacDonald tried to appeal the decision but they filed their appeal to late. The Appeals Court thus denied their appeal and they lost their case. However in issuing the denial the Appeals Court discussed the case in more depth, exploring the issues as if the case had been heard. They argued that that since Sony didn’t make any direct profits from the handbook there would have been no damages to be awarded based on the arguments made by the plaintiffs. However the court did say that it appeared that Hays and MacDonald were the rightful owners of copyright and so might have been entitled to an injunction. They also discussed the nature of the work for hire clause of the 1976 Copyright Act. They said that although it appears to have eliminated the academic exception there seems to have been no intent by Congress to do so and therefore if another case came before this Appeals Circuit they might be inclined to uphold the academic exception.

This case relates very well to Mauro v Allentown. Both occur at the high school level, and both deal with teachers preparing works beyond the basic scope of the classroom. The fact that this case ended with a denial of appeal makes drawing any concrete conclusions from it more difficult, but it does appear that if Mr. Mauro did proceed with his case his might be able to receive an injunction to prevent the high school from performing his work without his permission.