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From: "Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: Ideas and copyright law
Date: Sun, 24 Nov 2024 23:37:21 -0000 (UTC)
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
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Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>On 2024-11-24 3:43 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

>>Two threads merge!

>>Arthur mentioned watching Sister Act. BTR1701 said ideas cannot be
>>copyrighted.

>>Sister Act was subject to a copyright infringement lawsuit. From IMDb's
>>helpfully uncited source,

>>	On June 10, 1993, Donna Douglas and her partner Curt Wilson in
>>	Associated Artists Entertainment, Inc., filed a $200 million
>>	lawsuit against Disney, Whoopi Goldberg, Bette Midler, their
>>	production companies, and Creative Artists Agency, claiming that
>>	this movie was plagiarized from the book "A Nun in the Closet",
>>	owned by the partners. Douglas and Wilson claimed that they had
>>	developed a screenplay for the book in 1985, and submitted it to
>>	Disney, Goldberg, and Midler three times in 1987 and 1988. They
>>	also claimed that the movie contained more than 100 similarities
>>	and plagiarisms from the book and screenplay. In 1994, Douglas
>>	and Wilson declined a $1 million offer to settle the case. The
>>	judge found in favor of Walt Disney Pictures and the other
>>	defendants. Wilson stated at the time, "They would have had to
>>	copy our stuff verbatim for us to prevail."

>Donna Douglas? As in Elly-May Clampett? Or some other Donna Douglas?

Same woman

Elly May was perpetually age 22 or so. The actress was in her 30s and
got away with playing a whole lot younger.