Before you secure the rights to adapt an existing work you first must consider whether or not the work is part of a public domain. If the work is not, you first must obtain legal permission from both the copyright and rights holders, then formulate and sign an adaptation contract before proceeding with the adaptation.

When formulating an adaptation contract, you must consider multiple factors, including:

• The scope of the rights being granted
  • What parts of the original work you can change, how you can change them
• The exclusivity of the rights
  • Who is permitted to change the original work, can you collaborate with others?
• The amount of oversight required
  • How often may the original copyright holder review the work
• Reversion clauses
  • Under what conditions may the rights revert back to the original owner.