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?

Filed Under: big brother, copies, glass house
Companies: abc, cbs

CBS Mocks Its Own Failed Copyright Lawsuit By Sarcastically Announcing New 'Completely Original' Show 'Dancing On The Stars'

from the the-snark-is-strong-with-this-one dept

A few weeks back, we wrote about a silly lawsuit from CBS, arguing that it could basically hold the copyright on some of the most basic concepts in reality TV. CBS was suing ABC, because ABC was about to put on Glass House, which was similar to CBS's Big Brother. Of course, this is the nature of TV and most people deal with it. You can't copyright an idea (or so we're told) but that doesn't seem to stop big companies from pretending otherwise. Here, at least, the judge wasn't convinced. He refused to issue an injunction blocking the showing of Glass House, and noted that it certainly looked like the ideas were different:

"I think is very likely to induce quite different behavior than one would expect to see in the 'Big Brother' show."

CBS had put out a statement saying that it would keep fighting the lawsuit, but apparently it decided on another way to fight this as well: by snarky press release. In something that honestly reads like it was meant for April Fool's Day (and caused many people to wonder if CBS's system had been hacked), the company put out a mocking and sarcastic press release supposedly announcing a "groundbreaking and completely original new reality program" called Dancing on the Stars. Here's the full press release:

CBS ANNOUNCES DEVELOPMENT OF “DANCING ON THE STARS,” AN EXCITING AND COMPLETELY ORIGINAL REALITY PROGRAM THAT OWES ITS CONCEPT AND EXECUTION TO NOBODY AT ALL

Los Angeles, June 20, 2012 – Subsequent to recent developments in the creative and legal community, CBS Television today felt it was appropriate to reveal the upcoming launch of an exciting, groundbreaking and completely original new reality program for the CBS Television Network.

The dazzling new show, DANCING ON THE STARS, will be broadcast live from the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, and will feature moderately famous and sort of well-known people you almost recognize competing for big prizes by dancing on the graves of some of Hollywood’s most iconic and well-beloved stars of stage and screen.

The cemetery, the first in Hollywood, was founded in 1899 and now houses the remains of Andrew “Fatty” Arbuckle, producer Cecil B. DeMille, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Paul Muni, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, George Harrison of the Beatles and Dee Dee Ramone of the Ramones, among many other great stars of stage, screen and the music business. The company noted that permission to broadcast from the location is pending, and that if efforts in that regard are unsuccessful, approaches will be made to Westwood Village Memorial Park, where equally scintillating luminaries are interred.

“This very creative enterprise will bring a new sense of energy and fun that’s totally unlike anything anywhere else, honest,” said a CBS spokesperson, who also revealed that the Company has been working with a secret team for several months on the creation of the series, which was completely developed by the people at CBS independent of any other programming on the air. “Given the current creative and legal environment in the reality programming business, we’re sure nobody will have any problem with this title or our upcoming half-hour comedy for primetime, POSTMODERN FAMILY.”

“After all,” the spokesperson added, “people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”

Yeah, that last sentence might push this one a bit far over the top, don't you think? This is the kind of response that people have and joke about internally. They don't release it to the world. I will grant you that it's amusing, but it also seems pretty petulant for a company having lost the basic argument in its lawsuit. If it really is going to fight on with this lawsuit, perhaps so publicly mocking the judge who ruled against you isn't such a good idea.

Filed Under: big brother, glass house, reality tv, television
Companies: abc, cbs

Can You Copyright The Most Basic Concepts Of Reality TV?

from the apparently-someone-is-trying dept

Remember that old joke about how copyright law is only supposed to protect the specific expression and not the idea? Yeah... that was a good one. It seems that every day we hear yet another story about people and companies trying to claim much more than "the expression" when claiming copyright control over something. Take for example, this threat from CBS against ABC, claiming that ABC's in-production reality show, called Glass House, violates the copyrights CBS holds in its reality show, Big Brother:

CBS is the exclusive U.S. licensee of Big Brother, which it has been broadcasting since 2000. Big Brother is a reality television series in which a group of people live together in a large house, isolated from the outside world. The contestants are filmed continuously. Each cycle of the series begins with 12-14 contestants, and over the course of three months, contestants survive periodic evictions. Through interactive features, viewers are able to have input into aspects of the show, such as challenges in which the participants compete. The last contestant standing wins. Like other valuable creative works, Big Brother is protected by copyright law, and anyon creating substantially similar work without authorization -- as appears to be the case with ABC in this instance -- is liable for copyright infringement.

Reading through that description, it appears to describe the basics of pretty much every reality TV show ever. That is, it's a bunch of basic ideas that are used widely, usually with some variation here and there, but it's a pretty simple -- and totally unprotectable -- formula. Of course, as the article linked above notes, similar lawsuits have ended in settlement, and I wouldn't be surprised to see ABC cave and settle here as well, even if it seems to have a pretty strong case that everything it's doing is perfectly legit. But, really, when's the last time you saw Disney fight against anyone overclaiming copyright? Yeah, it's not likely to start now. So, we're back to telling old jokes...

Filed Under: big brother, glass house, idea/expression, reality television
Companies: abc, cbs