Maybe it's because I have a headache

[alias_sqbr]

But doesn't this kinda invalidate this ?

EDIT: Not if the "original" aspects of the movie were stolen. Still, I would think the ABC article might at least mention the original short story.

In related news: "Speed racer" is a riot of colour, and I mean "riot" in the "violent smashing things" sense. Ow.

Comments

[ariaflame.livejournal.com]

Original short story 1921. So that's out of copyright in USA. Though whether it was in 94 I don't know.

[firvulag.livejournal.com]

yeah, but one frivolous law suit deserves another to show them how stupid they are.

And I beleive it's at most 50 years copyright, so it would have been out of copyright in '71. Unless there was a renewal.

If there wasn't, then the story is public domain, and regardless of similarities to a '94 story of a similar nature, they can claim (and have) that the inspiration is the '21 story that may have been the inspiration of the '94 story also.

Yay for copyrights...

[distantcam.livejournal.com]

There's always enough copyright to include 1928 because that's when Mickey Mouse was created.

Currently the Sonny Bono act extended copyright another 20 years, to 70 years after authors death, or 120 years for corporate ownership. This currently makes anything from 1923 on copyright, so long as a legitimate copyright existed in 1998 when the act was created.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonny_Bono_Copyright_Term_Extension_Act