Los Angeles – News Corp.’s (NYSE: NWS) Twentieth Century Fox movie
studio has filed a $12 million copyright infringement lawsuits against a
self-described struggling screenwriter who posted a number of movie scripts
online, TorrentFreak reported. Patricia (P.J.) McIlvaine uploaded some 100
scripts as a means of helping other screenwriters, including
"Aliens," "Wall Street" and "Deadpool," a film
owned by Fox that is still in development.
In its lawsuit, Fox claims that McIlvaine’s uploading of scripts "harm[s] the fans who do not want their enjoyment of a movie or television
show to be spoiled by knowing the story ahead of actually being able to watch
it."
Fox also sued a number of John Does,
seeking to identify the sources who provided McIlvaine with the scripts —
although McIlvaine maintains she merely re-uploaded scripts she found online.
"PJ
doesn’t have the kind of cash needed to hire an attorney," reads a post on
the blog Celluloid Blonde.
"Like I said, days she works a telephone line
selling flowers to make ends meet and nights she writes — fighting to bridge
that artist-who-does-art vs. artist-who-gets-paid-for-art gap. In between she
is caring for an elderly relative suffering from dementia. In between that she
is caring for an infant. She is going to need help."
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/23858re
(TorrentFreak)
http://tinyurl.com/28loycf
(Hollywood Reporter)
http://celluloidblonde.wordpress.com/2010/11/27/pj-mcilvaine-goliath/
Suing someone for posting the already written word is questionable in my opinion. One of the ways to find out if a writer has either intentionally or accidentally copied dialogue from a prior movie is to have the prior movie’s script, online.
If somebody is writing a script and wants to see if their dialogue is relatively “original”, they could put the sentences into google, put quotes around it, and see if it appears anywhere else.
This is actually useful for preventing politicians like Barack Obama and Joe Biden from stealing portions of other politicians speeches and claiming them as their own.
Obama may have gotten permission from the politician he “borrowed” portions of some speeches from, but he apparently did not credit his source.
By Fox suing this person, Fox may actually be creating a loophole for future literary theft, accidental or otherwise.
When I got my iPad, Movie Slate was the first thing that went on it. … You can also upload scripts to the ProPrompter Producer website.