🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <67632@sgi.sgi.com>, karsh@trifolium.esd.sgi.com (Bruce Karsh) wrote:
> In article <3231@awdprime.UUCP>, tif@doorstop.austin.ibm.com (Paul
> Chamberlain/32767) wrote:
>> 
>> Does reading a story
>> then writing a new one
>> with the same plot
>> (with no copied text)
>> infringe on copyright?
>
>     Yes.

Oh, come on, Bruce; you're wrong and you know it! Copyright, as it pertains
to written works and films, and as defined by several thousand cases (known
as precedents) say you're wrong and I'll offer just a few examples:

Akira Kurosawa (sp?) directed a bunch of films starring Toshiro Mifune as a
samurai (The Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Zatoichi, Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo, . . .)
Clint Eastwood starred in several movies as a gunslinger (Fistful of Dollars,
High Plains Drifter, . . .) The Clint Eastwood films were direct "rip-offs"
(to use a term I'm sure you'll like) of the Kurosawa films; or was it the
other way around? Did anyone sue anyone over those films? I don't think so.

"Star Wars", by what's-his-name Lucas, "borrowed" more than a few ideas from
Kurosawa's (?) film "The Hidden Fortress" and again, no suits.

The movies "Breathless" (I think that was the one) and "DOA" were both
re-made. Same exact (!) plot, almost identical characters, just shifted a few
years forward. Suits? I'm almost certain not.

Why no suits? Because no copyrights were infringed upon. You're wrong,
Bruce.

AdamM
-- 
"Well I say that some like it hot, but I do not; I don't  | Adam S. Moskowitz
long for the cold. You see I like it in between, that's   | adamm@necis.nec.com
what I mean."                                             | ...!uunet!harvard!\
"Some Like It Hot", by Carla Sciaky                       |  necntc!necis!adamm