Re: Lolita's copyright

On Thu, Jun 24, 1999, Peter Hirtle <pbh6[_at_]cornell.edu> wrote:
>
> Last October I posted to the list a message about a suit charging an
> Italian author who had written a novel telling Lolita's story from
> the point of view of Lolita with copyright infringement. The message
> prompted some discussion about what is a derivative work, what is a
> transformative work, and how the extended copyright term might limit
> creativity.
>
> To bring the story to a close, the NY Times reported on 17 June that
> the case had been settled out of court (see "Pact Reached on U.S.
> Edition of 'Lolita' Retelling"). Foxrock Inc., the publisher who took
> up the book after Farrar, Straus & Giroux in the face of the lawsuit
> decided to cancel plans to publish "Lo's Diary," and Nabokov's son,
> Dmitri, have reached an agreement to allow the book to be published in
> October. Under the agreement, Mr. Nabokov will write a preface and
> Ms. Pera will write an afterword to the book, and each will receive 5
> percent of the royalties from the English-language version of the book.
>
> The Times noted:
>
> "Courts have established that parodies and critical essays are protected
> uses of existing texts. A book that is clearly a sequel or a prequel to
> an existing book under copyright protection, on the other hand, would
> need permission to go forward. Less clear is a case like this one, in
> which Ms. Pera took Nabokov's work and completely reimagined it,
> telling the same story from the girl's point of view. At issue is
> whether a book is considered ''derivative,'' essentially piggybacking
> on an existing text, or ''transformative,'' taking something existing
> and turning it into an independent work with a new purpose, sensibility
> or mode of expression."
>
> The paper added:
>
> "The issue is extremely complicated for publishers because their
> interests can cut both ways. On the one hand, they and their authors
> want protection for works they have already created. On the other,
> they benefit from as much artistic freedom as possible and the widest
> latitude for creating new works."

Does anyone know which lawyer/firm represented Nabokov's heirs?

Monique Van Remortel
<mvr[_at_]istar.ca> Received on Mon Jun 28 1999 - 14:37:00 GMT