Why Hollywood should be afraid of the iPad (video)
Wed Mar 17, 2010 @ 02:32PM PSTBy Eriq Gardner
In fact, the introduction of this device could interfere with with one of Hollywood's biggest cash cows -- adapting literary works for the big screen.
For years, studios have made trillions of dollars from such franchises as "Harry Potter," "The Da Vinci Code" and "Twilight." Typically, this happens after studios license film rights to underlying source material directly from an author. Book publishers usually don't pose much of an obstacle to licensing these works. Studios will often obtain a release from a publisher, but it's usually almost an afterthought.
Perhaps not anymore.
One problem: Authors may need these rights for film adaptation deals.
"This potentially could become a real conflict between the publishing world and Hollywood," says Matt Galsor, a transactional attorney at Greenberg Glusker. "The authors with less clout may be forced to accept broad and possibly vague language defining 'enhanced' editions, which may overlap with the rights studios traditionally expect as part of the movie rights. If this were to happen, the studios might think it's necessary to obtain a broader than usual publisher's release, and the publisher may use this as leverage to get a piece of the author's movie deal."