When a musical opens on Broadway, what aspects of the production are covered by copyright’s protection of “dramatic works”? The script clearly is (although policing infringement is nigh impossible), but courts have yet to address whether the work of the director or designers should be afforded copyright protections. Nonetheless, within the close-knit professional New York theater community, rarely do artists significantly copy the work of others. This Comment argues that this is because the community has developed its own welfare-maximizing norms to address intellectual property. However, looking at larger cross-sections of American theater (such as all professional theaters independent of location or theaters of all professional statuses within a geographic area), these norms are less consistently followed.

This Comment defines two intellectual property norms in the professional New York theater community: one protecting the intent of playwrights and another protecting the work of directors and designers. The Comment then argues that, although these norms are less efficient in looser-knit theater communities, they are welfare maximizing within the professional New York theater community.

当一部音乐剧在百老汇上映时，“戏剧作品”的版权保护涵盖了制作的哪些方面？剧本显然是（虽然监管侵权几乎是不可能的），但法院尚未解决是否应为导演或设计师的作品提供版权保护。尽管如此，在关系密切的专业纽约剧院社区中，艺术家很少会大量复制他人的作品。该评论认为这是因为社区已经制定了自己的福利最大化规范来解决知识产权问题。然而，从更大的美国剧院横截面来看（例如所有独立于地点的专业剧院或在一个地理区域内具有所有专业地位的剧院），这些规范不太一致。

该评论定义了纽约专业戏剧界的两项知识产权规范：一项保护剧作家的意图，另一项保护导演和设计师的作品。评论然后认为，虽然这些规范在松散的剧院社区中效率较低，但它们在专业的纽约剧院社区中是福利最大化的。