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I looked at the PDF file, and I can tell you from experience, that the lawyers for Chris Rock, HBO, Liddell and Roadside are all laughing their asses off right now.

You summed it up nicely here:

"In other words, would "I want to do a superhero movie... and the guy flies... and he wears tight clothes and fights really well" be a pitch that would lead to a claim that would be allowed to go far in a lawsuit against Marvel for infringement?"

The business of copyrighting ideas is tricky, but the business of trying to say 'that you were the first person who had an idea about how different people might have different genetics, which gives them different hair, is non-existent.' All I have to say is, good luck Regina!

I hope they countersue.

I don't think you can copyright a doc idea, at least that's what I've been told. I did a short doc called "Stringers" a few years back and there's now a TV show ("Stringers L.A.") that is basically, my doc only as a TV show and I've been told that's the way the cookie crumbles.

I also just found out you can't copyright a film title as "The Violent Kind," the film I'm co-producing right now, shares a title with some other film from a few years back.

Yeah, you can't copyright an idea. The details and the specifics, yes...but not the idea.

There's no way you get a screening and sit down with Chris Rock without having some familiarity with how the business works. And how it works is you do some due diligence beforehand to see what projects similar to yours are out there and what things Rock is working on.

So only amateur or ignorant fool walks into that meeting not already knowing Rock is considering the same thing for himself.

I'll grant you he might have though "Hey, we need to go to India too!" but it's not enough grounds to hold legal water. There are probably 3 times as many lawsuit preliminary filings made in LA as there are scripts submitted to the WGA for registering and most are equally moronic. Having read a few, that's probably an unfair insult to actual morons.

For $200 I could get an attorney to file a lawsuit against a water company claiming they market a defective and deadly product. Afterall, every single person who has ever ingested water has died (one of my mom's favorite examples of bad scientific analysis for her high school biology students). It's a really dead entertainment news cycle otherwise we wouldn't be talking about this. But until Liz Taylor dies on the operating table...

If "My Nappy Roots" wins, the guy who did the estate of the guy who did the first World War 2 documentary is going to be filing a lot of paperwork.

"the estate of the guy"

jeez. no more typey typey after wine.

Sorry, I have yet to read the full filing. At what point would they cite legal precedent? Not saying it’s right or I agree but couldn’t they go the path of reality tv and cite format and content elements? I can’t recall any specific cases but I’ve heard about some fairly extensive settlements involving people who claim their show was lifted.

I think the problem w/this case is that the elements are so rudimentary. How could you do a doc on Black hair and not include a scientific/medical expert, a segment on weaves/different types of fake hair, comedic fodder and the Gheri curl? Oh and the huge industry that Black hair and skin products is.

As a topic in and off itself I would say it could be possible to rip off a doc but I’d think it’d have to be fairly specific to the end product, style and technique used, not just the element. Like doing a doc on water conservation and convincing some plant treatment exec to do some interview underwater in like one of those moon walking air suits that then winds up in some other life cycle doc (not the best example, I know). I would think the proof would be that whatever elements that wouldn’t reasonably have been considered w/out viewing. But then, I don’t know if that wouldn’t fall under something like stop motion animation? Or, if any suits against a doc kinda fall under whatever happens with nightly news reports???

You can't copyright an idea. ANY idea, documentary or fiction. To be subject to copyright you must have an original work of authorship that is fixed in a tangible form. You can copyright a film or a script. You cannot copyright an idea.

If there was a special relationship of confidence between the idea-originator and the idea-stealer, you may have a claim on other grounds. But not copyright.

Maybe there's more that it seems going on here, but otherwise, this is going to be thrown out.

Just look at the list of similarities--they aren't suing over an idea, they are suing over the incredible similarity of Rock's product to their own. C'mon--both featured a trip to the same Indian temple to focus on the "Tonsure ceremony," yet that isn't setting off any flags?

I'd say they definitely have a case.

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