White Wolf and author Nancy A. Collins sue Sony over Underworld

[tetsujin28]

Yes, but that can't be copyrighted, anymore than can, say, the idea of a flavour of ice cream. Said ice cream can't have the same name, but it could be the same.

 

[John Crichton]

I'm sure there's classics like "Everyone is wearing black leather" and "the vampires have fangs".

Frankly the trailer doens't look that hot to me. *shruG*

I'm interested because it rounds out a month where the only movies I am interested in are Once Upon a Time in Mexico & Matchstick Men. After that I believe the only decent release in October is Kill Bill volume one. Bubba Ho-Tep doesn't count because it's a limited release that most folks won't be able to see.

* runs off to start a new thread *

 

[Mark Chance]

Yes, but that can't be copyrighted, anymore than can, say, the idea of a flavour of ice cream. Said ice cream can't have the same name, but it could be the same.

Admittedly. Shakespeare's bad move being born before copyright laws. Of course, since the Bard ripped off other authors for much of his work....

Of course, the truth is that WW ripped off that awful Howling sequel in which (shocked gasp) werewolves were fighting vampires. And then, of course, there was the actual Wolfman versus Frankenstein versus Dracula movie before that.

Keeping in mind that I know nothing about the case other than what I've read here, it all still sounds like just so much cry-babying.

 

[John Crichton]

And, if it does vibe like R & J, isn't a tad ironic that Collins, the allegedly wronged author, is basically accusing Sony of being unoriginal?

Hmmmm *smacksmack*

Does taste a bit like irony....

 

[Ranger REG]

I predict Sonny gonna turn tail and settle, even before the court can determine if there is an actual infringement.

 

[jdavis]

man feel the hate for White Wolf here...... Gee what if say the movie has clans of vampires and tribes of werewolves in it? would that make for a frivolous suit? what if one of the tribes was called Get of Fenris? would it still be frivolous? Maybe we should oh say wait till any of us have actually seen the movie before we crucify White Wolf for clogging up the court system with silly litigation? It's way way to early for any of us to make a judgement on this but you know what sometimes there are lawsuits that are justified and copyright infringement is a major problem in the movie industry, most of the time it just gets caught in the script phase before the movie is actually made. We have no clue what points were in question and furthermore we cannot even speculate on them without actually seeing the movie in question or getting a copy of the actual suit and a copy of the actual script.

 

[John Crichton]

man feel the hate for White Wolf here...... Gee what if say the movie has clans of vampires and tribes of werewolves in it? would that make for a frivolous suit? what if one of the tribes was called Get of Fenris? would it still be frivolous? Maybe we should oh say wait till any of us have actually seen the movie before we crucify White Wolf for clogging up the court system with silly litigation? It's way way to early for any of us to make a judgement on this but you know what sometimes there are lawsuits that are justified and copyright infringement is a major problem in the movie industry, most of the time it just gets caught in the script phase before the movie is actually made. We have no clue what points were in question and furthermore we cannot even speculate on them without actually seeing the movie in question or getting a copy of the actual suit and a copy of the actual script.

I wonder if the WW folks have seen the movie since it hasn't come out yet and there haven't been all that many screenings for it from what I understand. I have no contempt for either side. If Sony is in the wrong, so be it - if not - the same applies. I just want to see the movie.

 

[Welverin]

Gee what if say the movie has clans of vampires?

Like Blade did?

What I wonder is why now two weeks before it opens? Did it actually take them this long to get eveything ready and make sure it was legitimate, or is just an attempt to get something from Sony with the threat of delaying the pening through legal means?

 

[DMScott]

What I wonder is why now two weeks before it opens? Did it actually take them this long to get eveything ready and make sure it was legitimate, or is just an attempt to get something from Sony with the threat of delaying the pening through legal means?

Almost certainly the latter - filing now gives the best chance of a quick settlement before it gets anywhere near a court. That's an honoured legal tradition.

Unless it basically copies out of the clanbooks and such, this is a suit that should go nowhere - the basic setup of the WoD isn't exactly original. Whether it will go nowhere depends on the lawyers involved, of course.

 

[jdavis]

Like Blade did?

What I wonder is why now two weeks before it opens? Did it actually take them this long to get eveything ready and make sure it was legitimate, or is just an attempt to get something from Sony with the threat of delaying the pening through legal means?

Well were the vampire clans fighting werewolf tribes in Blade? The point here wasn't to point out the clan thing but to point out that we don't have one single actual clue as to what all these claimed points of copyright infringement are, we can speculate all we like but for all we know the points of infringement could be from extremely vague to obviously blatent. We just don't have any information except a three paragraph press release from White Wolf. A lot of people have condemned them as launching a frivolous suit here without actually knowing what the suit is about, we just don't know if it's frivolous or not and won't know until we can see the movie or the actual lawsuit papers.

As far as why now, well that's been talked about in the other thread on the topic (getting harder to keep track of who said what where). For us to make a judgement on the "why now?" question we would have to know when White Wolf first found out there might be infringement, then they would have to review the material with a lawyer (did Sony send them the script on request or allow them to screen the movie?) and prepare a detailed lawsuit. If they just caught on when the first TV commercials started airing then this is a pretty quick turnaround to get the suit out there. It's obvious they had to of reviewed the movie in some manner if they have "17 counts of copyright infringement" and "over 60 points of unique similarity", that's not just saying "hey they got vampires fighting werewolfs, lets sue" that's a detailed list that could only of been made after reviewing the movie (or the screenplay).