Musical Show Rights?

This isn't me venting. This is me pointing out to those of whom might be reading and be on the fence about copyrights. It's one of those issues that affects us all, and to present information which is incorrect (just do it anyway) is to offer bad information and those less informed could just walk away thinking it IS ok. Offering an alternative - and correct - set of information can influence people who don't know better to do the right thing. The thing that causes people to say, "ah it'll be alright" is that they think no one cares or that it hurts no one. It does: it affects people who's livelihoods depend on the income source; it affects people's ability to sell their own work at fair prices (replicas can often be sold at cheaper prices); it affects the consumer because often they get ripped off (replicas can be shoddier qualities - see the Muppet replica scandals reported on Muppet Central.com for examples); it affects general trust within a certain industry by consumers; it encourages others to steal or misunderstand their responsibilites; it reduces the copyright owner's ability to have control over how their product is used; it often leads to missed income for artists (ie. if a stolen work is used online, and the web series becomes popular, the writer gets cut out of the income)... etc etc. There's a reason why writers in Hollywood had a big strike, and it's because they were getting undercut. I have no trouble recognising that various artists have various policies; but telling someone not to bother or to outright ignore copyrights is also to ignore those very choices and decisions an artist makes on how their work is used. You may appreciate it when someone takes all your effort and hard slog and uses it for their own without credit, without permission, and without payment. I personally, along with many of my colleagues and friends, do not want to see our hard work and income disappear because someone can't be assed being creative themselves or picking a different work for which they can find permission to use. Your thing about the car is a bad example: there is a third option and that is to call the council/whoever runs the meters and explain that the machine is broken. If you receive a fine, you can protest the fine in a court and present the phone call as evidence that you reported a broken machine. (No guarantee you'd get off, but hey, that's one way you could have solved the issue) With the copyrights, there is also another two options, as mentioned above: create your own work, or pick another. Something the OP might want to consider if they can't find the relevant copyright owner. Puppets and patterns at Puppets in Melbourne