Quote:
Originally Posted by neatoman
You realise there is a difference between inspiration/homage/parody or even ending up making something similar multiple times and literally doing the same exact thing again to the point using the same dialogue, right?
And this is still about a legal question here, not artistic merit. If he did not own the rights to the scripts he had written, was he even legally allowed to reuse them like this?
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Well it's been a long time since I took Business Law in college, but there is typically a "percent difference" ruling in copywrite law that tends to come into play. My understanding is that the U.S. government Office rules (i.e. Institutional Directives as a Public Administrator") are that there is no amount of "percent difference" that is allowed; yet if it goes to court a judge will likely evaluate the content for "percent difference" anyway.
Second, I'd guess that the storylines could fall under a "fair use" argument. Whether or not it would be a 100% cogent argument wouldn't matter when two companies are weighing the nonsense of going after each other over a "shrinking cartoon character story".
Lastly, use of the content either in Transformers or in TMNT infringes on the other I.P. or it's ability to make money. That is to say that basically nobody was going to abandon Transformers for TMNT because TMNT told the "shrinking cartoon character story" better.
It's a multi-faceted calculus. But I suppose in a simp-world or clown-world then yes someone could be sued over the "shrinking cartoon character story". But as to how far that would get is a crapshoot.