Idea Theft
Federal Court Dismisses Copyright Lawsuit Against Friends, Sex and the City, Other Shows
Elizabeth A. McNamara and Meenakshi KrishnanThe Court found that no lay observer could find any substantial similarities between the protectible material of Lee’s work and the four shows.
California Federal Court Grants Summary Judgment for Defendants in Ad Astra Copyright / Idea Theft Case
David Aronoff and Josh BornsteinPlaintiff alleged that Ad Astra infringed his copyright in and stole ideas from his unproduced spec screenplay entitled Cosmic Force. However, in granting summary judgment the Court ruled that these claims failed to raise genuine issues warranting a trial.
District Court of Colorado Adopts Meta-Film’s “Access Through an Intermediary” Test in Copyright Case
David Aronoff, Michael Beylkin, and Joshua BornsteinThe decision is the first case in the Tenth Circuit to adopt the “access through an intermediary” test of the highly influential and widely-cited decision Meta-Film Assocs v. MCA.