Each SDC employment contract contains property rights protections for staging and/or choreography. These provisions assert that: Directors and Choreographers own their work; a Director’s or Choreographer’s work may only be used or licensed provided that compensation is paid; Directors and Choreographers have the right to copyright their work.

The minimum terms of SDC employment contracts do not prohibit producers from making changes to productions without permission from the Director or Choreographer unless specific language in a rider to the SDC contract prohibits such changes.