Judge Rules 'We Are Marshall' Didn't Violate Anything But Sports Movie Cliches

By Eriq Gardner

A federal judge has ruled that Warner Bros. Pictures and Thunder Road Prods didn't violate any copyright when producing the film "We are Marshall."

The plaintiffs in the case were two documentary filmmakers, Deborah Novak and John Witek, who collaborated on the 2000 documentary "Ashes to Glory," which told the story of the Marshall football team after a 1970 plane crash killed most of its members. In the lawsuit, they argued that the defendants became interested in developing a film based on the Marshall story and contacted the two about optioning the rights to "Ashes of Glory." The parties failed to reach an agreement on the financial terms and conditions and the defendants went ahead with the project.

In his ruling, California district judge Gary Feess calls the events surrounding the Marshall football team "matters of public record which cannot be copyrighted" and dismisses a breach-of-contract claim on grounds the plaintiffs "clearly understood that they had no agreement" to breach.

The full decision after the jump:

 

Here's a copy of the decision.

The case, where the defendants admitted to seeing the plaintiff's work and opening up negotiations to license it, just goes to show how tough it is to win on these claims.

Comments

[ceoholla]

What this case really shows is how corrupt the hollywood studios are and how they have the court system and judges in their back pockets. The copyright laws are so obsolete that it is ridiculous. If a company can view your work,admit that they viewed the work, enter into negotiations and then, subsequently, produce your piece with a few changes, the entire creative process is in jeopardy.
This process needs to be fixed...and it will be fixed....stay tuned...

[Eric Wade]

@ceoholla are you forgetting that the subject matter is public record, true events, real people, news?

I can see where you're coming from if its works of fiction and / or life story with rights secured.

But it ain't.