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Media reports this week state that Emma Thompson is facing a copyright claim over her new film project “Effie”
The allegations have apparently been made by playwright Gregory Murphy, author of the play “The Countess”, which deals with the same subject matter. Thompson has now sought a declaration in a New York federal court that the script does not infringe Murphy’s copyright.
The story is a useful reminder that, both in the UK and the US, copyright does not protect ideas, but rather the expression of ideas. That does not necessarily mean copyright infringement must be textual (see Ravenscroft v Herbert where the substantial copying of incident, plot and characterisation was held to constitute infringement). However, copyright does not protect a general idea, or perhaps even a detailed ‘theme’ (see Baigent and Leigh v The Random House Group Ltd, a case relating to Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code).
Certainly, Murphy will need to show much more than the copying of a general storyline to make out a claim for copyright infringement.
The UK government is considering extending this power to depart from retained EU case law to additional lower courts and tribunals, namely the Court of Appeal in England and Wales and the High Court of Justice in England and Wales and their equivalents.
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Lord Justice Arnold has applied the guidance of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to the evidence before him, in the long standing trade mark dispute between Sky and Skykick.
The Hiscox Cyber Readiness report, a review of 3300 organisations, will be a stark warning for CEO’s of SME’s in the UK and in Europe.
How secure is your fitness tracker? (Not to mention your smartwatch, sleep tracker, smart shoe insoles and wearable Bluetooth keyboard). It’s something that many of us give little thought to, but perhaps we should be more concerned.
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