New Yorker article

This may be of interest to some on this listserv:

Tad Friend, "Postcard from Hollywood; Copy Cats," The New Yorker, Sept. 14, 1998, at 51.

The author, writing for a general audience, does a fine job of explaining why most plaintiffs alleging copyright infringement lose in their suits against Hollywood --- usually on the grounds that what was taken comprised uncopyrightable ideas and scenes a faire.

However, the author goes on to make the statement that there "are a mere seven basic stories" underlying all movies, "or, as the Supreme Court of California once determined in an excess of hairsplitting, thirty-six" (page 57).

Does anyone know which California case is being referred to here? Case cite? Although obviously not under the federal copyright act, it probably concerned the common-law theft/misappropriation of author's works, a recurring topic on this listserv.

Thanks. --Alan Kabat (Washington, D.C.)

            <alankabat[_at_]aol.com> Received on Sun Sep 20 1998 - 22:54:09 GMT