COPYRIGHT NEWS

In the entertainment industry news one case that just recently closed, Plain Jane and one similar case that was just dropped, by a major corporation, show how two very similar cases can have different outcomes. The first case is one that has gotten little media attention and that is Tedesco v. Sandi Pepe et al. In this case a women who grew up in the entertainment industry, Tedesco, presented a twelve-page treatment for a TV show titled, Plain Jane, to Sandi Pepe. Pepe had been the head of Reality Show Development at Gersh. Later a show describe by judge Walter as, “… shockingly similar,” turned up on MTV. A case that is very similar is CBS “Big Brother” v. ABC “Glass House.” Reuters , reporting on Aug 17, 2012, tells the news that CBS has dropped the suit against ABC for ripping off, “Big Brother.” In an earlier blog posting I commented that the win CBS enjoyed in the, “Plain Jane,” case undermined their lawsuit against ABC. It seemed they could not have their cake and eat it too. Tedesco lost her bid with the legal action. She had very little money to spend in a legal assault against MTV and Sony, and her case never saw the level of lawyer-mounted battles the same way the ABC & CBS legal suit did. The articles and also judge Walter’s opinion on that case do not shine a lite on the facts of the case that describe the one-sidedness of the outcome.

In the Reuters article, CBS drops “Big Brother” lawsuit vs ABC’s “Glass House,” they describe the new path CBS will be taking in the court house against the former producers who worked for CBS and then went to work for ABC. Here again, what will save the producers, I predict, will be what is defined by the U.S. Copyright Office, as being copyrightable and therefore trade secrets or not.

Another interesting lawsuit to watch is the one in Baltimore between a logo artist and the NFL team, Ravens. Frederick Bouchat is seeking recognition for his work. This has been going for some time but due to new copyright infringement due to new photo displays the case has been injected with life.