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Italian Writer Claims She Owns The Rights To The Benjamin Button Story

from the someone-check-with-f.-scott-fitzgerald dept

Wed, Feb 4th 2009 9:57am — Mike Masnick

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.

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Filed Under: benjamin button, copyright, ideas, stories

25 Comments

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Dex, 4 Feb 2009 @ 10:25am

I smell a 2nd lawsuit...
Perhaps the Fitzgerald estate should sue this woman for stealing his story?
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Feb 2009 @ 10:27am

I thought it was based on a Star Trek Voyager episode...that was based on a Buck Rogers episode.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Feb 2009 @ 10:32am

No, no, no.

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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Anonymous Coward, 4 Feb 2009 @ 10:37am

Everyone knows that Mork from Ork aged backwards and that is where the idea came from.
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Esahc (profile), 4 Feb 2009 @ 10:38am

Orkan
I thought he was just Orkan
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Esahc (profile), 4 Feb 2009 @ 10:41am

Re:
Damn it, beat me to it.
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I am..., 4 Feb 2009 @ 10:44am

I own the copyright to the King Arthur story...
... seriously... I am Merlin... reborn... I'm not kidding I really am. I psychic tarot card reader told me, it MUST be true!

So give me my royalties!
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RD, 4 Feb 2009 @ 10:48am

Oh please
Piers Anthony, Chronos, the "Incarnations of Immortality" series, circa late-80's. Similar mechanism, main character ages in reverse time to everyone else, so he lives backwards. This is hardly a new idea. The IDEA cant be stolen, just the IMPLEMENTATION. Did her story have a man named Benjamin Button? Did her character experience the SAME things as in the movie? The SAME set pieces, characters he interacts with, time, date, etc? Because just a "similar idea" isnt enough with all the prior art, sorry. Fitz got there before everyone else, suck it up.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Feb 2009 @ 10:58am

Re: Oh please
Never-ending story (book, not movie) had a reference to a whole race of people for whom the whole "reverse aging" thing was standard fare...
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bikey (profile), 4 Feb 2009 @ 11:12am

wrote and copyrighted?
Just a detail, but you don't 'write and copyright'. As soon as an idea is in fixed form, it is automatically subject to copyright. The US, alone in the world, requires registration before you can start an infringement action, but this does not 'create the copyright', it just gives you documentation necessary to file an action. Come on guys, this is basic.
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LostSailor, 4 Feb 2009 @ 11:13am

Public Domain
If Fitzgerald's story was publishing in 1921, it is likely in the public domain already, and wouldn't have to be licensed by the film-makers.
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SuperSparky, 4 Feb 2009 @ 11:34am

Re: Public Domain
Only if the Copyright was not renewed. Which you could do even before the time was extended for Disney's sake.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Feb 2009 @ 11:34am

You owe me...
I own the rights to the concept of posting comments on web sites. Pay up suckas!
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sam moshe, 4 Feb 2009 @ 11:49am

Ha!
Oh yeah, well, I've patented the idea of coming up with a stupid lawsuit and suing someone over it. So there. You're all infringers, bitches!
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Mike (profile), 4 Feb 2009 @ 12:00pm

Re: wrote and copyrighted?
Just a detail, but you don't 'write and copyright'.

To be clear, she wrote and *registered* the copyright.
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Yakko Warner, 4 Feb 2009 @ 12:10pm

Re: Re:
Yeah, me too. Shazbot.
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LostSailor, 4 Feb 2009 @ 3:25pm

Re: Re: Public Domain
Actually, since this was first published in 1921, it would have been eligible for one renewal after the first 28 year period, but even then, would not have been eligible for further extension even under the 1976 copyright act (falling short by a year or so). I'm pretty sure this is in the public domain and no rights would have to have been secured by the filmmakers.
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DanC, 4 Feb 2009 @ 3:36pm

Re: Re: Re: Public Domain
Correct. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was collected with other short stories into the book Tales of the Jazz Age, is in the public domain, and available on Project Gutenberg.
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Mike (profile), 4 Feb 2009 @ 4:34pm

Re: Public Domain
If Fitzgerald's story was publishing in 1921, it is likely in the public domain already, and wouldn't have to be licensed by the film-makers.

The story *was* licensed, though I'm not sure why.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Feb 2009 @ 6:24pm

What's up with these crazy Italians ?
Something in the water ?
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bikey (profile), 4 Feb 2009 @ 7:55pm

Re: Re: Public Domain
Renewal was only relevant when the term was 28 years. After 1976, it was 50 years, and then and then and then, but renewals no longer relevant.
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bikey (profile), 4 Feb 2009 @ 7:57pm

Re: Re: wrote and copyrighted?
There's no such thing as 'registering' the copyright (except to bring an action) outside the US and after 1989.
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eleete, 4 Feb 2009 @ 8:30pm

Derivative Transformative ?
http://i.thefairest.info/funniest_thumbs/QaDdYu.jpeg
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John (profile), 4 Feb 2009 @ 9:33pm

Not again
A story like this comes up every time a popular movie comes out. How many movies were "written" by people who either want to blackmail the studio to give them money or they want attention.
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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Isaac K (profile), 5 Feb 2009 @ 9:47am

Yeah. Original.
Bckwards aging was also the concept behind Merlin, I believe, where he was born old and hence had wisdom beyond his "years."
This is all bunk.
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