AboranTouristCouncil opened this issue on Dec 27, 2014 · 52 posts
moriador posted Sun, 28 December 2014 at 7:18 PM
Easy to prove, but then whatcha gonna do? Well, you can't sue. However, I'm guessing -- based on what you wrote -- that if you have the backing of the Guild, you can shame and embarrass a studio if you can prove it stole your idea, and that might well be enough to deter a reputable company from using an idea. ) Edit: And judging from the number of remakes and sequels being made by studios, they are in desperate need of skilled script writers. Last thing they want is for the Guild to sort of "blacklist" them. :)
My hubby wrote a novel last year, and even though he doesn't think it will sell because it serves a rather small niche audience, I still insisted that register the work with the US Copyright Office. There are lots of unscrupulous people in every industry who will try to take advantage of gullible and/or trusting individuals. It's just so much easier to deal with them if you've registered beforehand. Plus, if you ever find work that you've released on the web appearing on another server. if your takedown letter includes the registration number of your work, it generally disappears pretty quickly because you've shown that you're serious, can get a lawyer to defend you, and it will cost them if they don't take it down -- whereas if you don't have a registration number, it's showing them the exact opposite.
Actually you can sue... well, at least you can here in the United States. Some people sue whether they have a leg to stand on or not. But, the registration serves basically the same purpose as a copyright, which is to put a timestamp on the creation of your screenplay. you're not suing for actual copyright violation, you're suing for copyright infringement. You can't honestly tell me that if a company put out several films starring Harry Stone, an orphan boy learning sorcery by attending a wizarding school in North Carolina, that it wouldn't raise a red flag? Now, if that's where the similarity begins and ends, j.k. Rowling hasn't got a leg to stand on. on the other hand if the similarities run deeper than that, a court may see it differently. On the other hand, take Ghostbusters. Harvey Comics sued the film makers because the ghost in the logo design, looked too much like Fatso, one of the Ghostly Trio that appeared in the Casper comic books. They lost. The court ruled that there are only so many ways to depict a ghost and the logo ghost was generic enough that it didn't infringe upon Harvey's copyright.
You can initiate a suit, even if it doesn't have a chance of winning, but you run the risks of it being dismissed out of hand. Or being hit with a countersuit. And I am talking about the US. Again, you're conflating copyright with trademark. Harry Potter is certainly trademarked, as are the characters, the settings, the names, and so on. The story isn't, however, because you can't trademark "The Hero's Journey". LOL.
Copyright infringement and copyright violation are different words for exactly the same thing.
http://www2.kent.edu/is/security/peertopeer/federal-copyright-law.cfm
In the US, federal courts have jurisdiction over copyright infringement, and the federal court rules require registration with the US Copyright Office before you can even file a claim with them.
"B. Registration as a Prerequisite for Filing Suit
Copyright registration is a precondition for bringing an infringement
lawsuit. The Copyright Act provides that “no action for infringement
of the copyright in any United States work shall be instituted until. . .
registration of the copyright claim has been made in accordance
with this title.”33 Until recently, many courts referred to the lack
of a registration as a defect in subject matter jurisdiction, but
the Supreme Court has clarified that the statute’s registration
requirement is a claim-processing rule that does not restrict a
federal court’s subject matter jurisdiction.3" (on page 4 of PDF linked below)
And about when a work can be copyrighted or what is "original" (on page 3 of above linked PDF) [Emphasis mine]
"A. Original Work of Authorship
The touchstone of copyright protection is originality. Only “original”
works of authorship are protected by copyright.18 There is no
bright-line rule for what makes a work sufficiently original, though
the standard for proving originality is relatively low. Novelty is not
the standard; rather, a work must “possess some creative spark,
no matter how crude, humble or obvious it might be.”19 While
a compilation of unprotectable facts may possess the requisite
creativity if the compilation itself rises to the level of an original
work of authorship, courts reject the argument that the “sweat of
the brow” – the mere labor expended in compiling the facts – is
sufficient to give rise to copyright protection where originality in
the compilation is otherwise lacking.20 Thus, an alphabetical listing
of names, towns, and telephone numbers in a telephone directory
lacks the requisite creativity to be protected by copyright.21
Proving originality can be one of the more challenging aspects of
a copyright infringement lawsuit. Any potential plaintiff should
be thinking about the issue and, where the requisite originality is
missing, not file an infringement claim."
The PDF I linked to is a good source. (Internet is full of them.) But the actual status of any given work isn't set in stone until the court actually issues a judgment. You might think you're safe and find that you're not, or vice versa. It's not as clear cut as "did the guy rob the bank or not". :)
PoserPro 2014, PS CS5.5 Ext, Nikon D300. Win 8, i7-4770 @ 3.4 GHz, AMD Radeon 8570, 12 GB RAM.