p2pnet - rss feed: Rampant thievery in Hollywood
p2p news / p2pnet: You’re all PIRATE SCUM!!!!
That’s what the movie and record label cartels tell their customers.
But, "While Hollywood loudly complains about piracy, some say the industry is turning a blind eye to rampant thievery within its own ranks," says MSNBC.
"A growing number of lawsuits accuse the studios of stealing screenplays."
What? Hollywood the Pure? Yup.
"They simply exclude the writer - the person that brought them this valuable property - develop it themselves and then hide behind copyright," the story has Los Angeles lawyer John Marder saying.
"They say, ‘Hey your ideas weren’t protected, whether we stole them or not you have no claim’."
US federal copyright law doesn’t cover ideas, the story states, "only the specific expression of an idea. That means by simply changing a few things in someone’s script, someone else can make it different enough to legally call it their own."
BUT ——- "in a recent case involving the Miramax movie ‘Rounders’ a California appeals court ruled that, while a stolen screenplay isn’t always copyright infringement, it can be a breach of contract," says MSNBC, adding:
"A similar case involving the script for ‘The Last Samurai’ has also been filed, and a wave of similar stolen screenplay suits may not be far behind."
Also See:
MSNBC - Hollywood’s new piracy problem: stolen scripts, May 30, 2006
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May 31st, 2006 at 4:35 pm
Oh man, now my whole concept of Hollywoods integrity has been dashed………
Rick
May 31st, 2006 at 6:06 pm
Perhaps this is an obvious thing and I have been a bit dim about picking up on it. It occurs to me that the reason hollywood and organized music are so overzealous about DRM and “piracy” as they call it is that they simply make the natural assumption that everyone is as greedy and underhanded as they are.
Note to the media cabal: Most of your customers are not the thieving opportunistic scammers you are.
May 31st, 2006 at 9:50 pm
What’s all the fuss about? If the mpaa is prepared to pay people to steal evidence stealing scripts is nothing. What’s more worrying is that the Department of Justice doesn’t give a damn unless there’s a career opportunity in it like their last anti trust investigator who is now at a music publishing organisation