CBS Drops Lawsuit Over Copycat Reality Show After The Market Effectively Kills The Show First
from the about-time dept
A couple months back, we discussed CBS's lawsuit against ABC, in which it claimed that the latter's Glass House reality show infringed upon the former's Big Brother copyright in an apparent reality check to anyone that still thought copyright covered specific expression rather than an idea. At the time, we noted that the complaint appeared to reference what is essentially the basis for every horrible reality show ever. Once the judge in the case refused to order an injunction against ABC, CBS then did what it probably should have done in the first place and released a rather funny mock press release announcing a series of new fictitious shows clearly "borrowed" from ABC's line up.Sadly, the fun may be coming to a close, as The AV Club reports that CBS is dropping the suit:
CBS has dropped its lawsuit over ABC's Big Brother copycat, saying it was no longer interested in pursuing a case against a show no one is watching anyway. "The viewers have spoken and delivered the ultimate form of justice against The Glass House," CBS said in a statement, gloating over the low ratings for a series that likely would have escaped all viewer attention had CBS not made such a huge deal about it in the first place, and which certainly have less to do with "justice" than general apathy about watching another one of these things.Yes, they managed to avert disaster of Streisand-ic proportions. One wonders if The Glass House's demise might have been even further along at this point had CBS never even brought about the lawsuit to begin with. Either way, the statement from CBS is as snarky as their faux press release, which I'd suggest is the better method for competing compared with suing for demonstrably common reality show tropes. On the other hand, CBS isn't dropping out of the "sue over nonsense" business completely:
Nevertheless, the network also added that it will continue to pursue separate arbitration with the ex-Big Brother producers who allegedly stole "trade secrets" for use on Glass House, such as the top-secret strategy of using cameras to capture the arguments of extroverted strangers forced to share a living space, rather than having pleasant, shy people live comfortably in their own homes and then rendering them in pastels. That was their idea.Perhaps the next lawsuit we hear will involve ridiculously good-looking police forces solving crimes?
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Filed Under: big brother, copies, glass house
Companies: abc, cbs
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Singing, dancing, and talent competitions? Doctors? Lawyers? Classic fairy tale characters?
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So far they claim damages in the amount of hundreds of trillions has been caused.
Also Bridgestone is suing Michelin for infringing upon their rights by also having round tires so they claim.
Aquafina claims Dasani has infringed their rights by using their key ingredient water.
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Intergalactic frat boys if you will.
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Top-secret strategy?! It's how they promote the very premise of the show! It's in every damn intro and advert!
Top-secret... Is this satire that's flying over my head? I always hope it is, but I'm so often disappointed and it's just someone who's had waaay too much smoke blown up their asses at some mutual admiration society party...
Sigh. Satire is dead. A moment of silence, please.
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HA-ha!
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Disaster Averted
If this had gone to court and people found out that they have hidden cameras on a reality show...OMG!
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Internet growth
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CBS: "We stole it first!"
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Wait, really?
For that matter, why aren't George Orwell's descendants suing CBS?
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