Italian Writer Claims She Owns The Rights To The Benjamin Button Story
from the someone-check-with-f.-scott-fitzgerald dept
Following the story of multiple authors all claiming credit for creating Hannah Montana, a few folks have sent in the news that an Italian writer claims that she actually wrote a story that was the basis for the hit movie, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." The woman claims she wrote and copyrighted (but never published) a short story in 1994. That should strike quite a few people as odd, as most people know that the movie is very loosely based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story that goes by the same name as the movie... which was published in 1921. You would think that if the filmmakers really wanted to make a movie based on this unknown Italian office-worker's story, it would have been a hell of a lot cheaper than paying for the rights to the Fitzgerald story. Again, though, like the Hannah Montana case, the basic conceit of the story (someone aging backwards) is hardly that original, and is an idea that lots of people have had over time. It seems pretty silly to claim ownership of it.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: benjamin button, copyright, ideas, stories
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I smell a 2nd lawsuit...
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Based on Merlin in Le Morte d'Arthur (1485). The estate of Sir Thomas Malory should take notice.
And of course, if anyone ever figures out where the Arthurian legends originate, someone else will be up to sue everyone else...
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Re:
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Orkan
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I own the copyright to the King Arthur story...
So give me my royalties!
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Oh please
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Re: Oh please
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wrote and copyrighted?
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Re: wrote and copyrighted?
To be clear, she wrote and *registered* the copyright.
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Re: Re: wrote and copyrighted?
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Public Domain
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Re: Public Domain
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Re: Re: Public Domain
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Re: Re: Public Domain
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Re: Public Domain
The story *was* licensed, though I'm not sure why.
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You owe me...
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Ha!
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Something in the water ?
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Derivative Transformative ?
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Not again
I forget the name of the previous movie, but something like 10 people came forward to say they came up with the idea and should be paid, when the movie was written by a single screenwriter, based on his own book!
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Yeah. Original.
This is all bunk.
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