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A Manhattan federal district court decided in a complex case that the short-story 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' wasn't a posthumous work under the Copyright Act, even though the story's British author Ian Fleming died before the work was published. Legislator 1357 Ltd. v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. (MGM), 04 Civ. 3951(MGC). The late author's nieces sued claiming ownership of the 1993 renewal term in the story and infringement through the defendant's recent distribution of the film 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,' originally made under a rights assignment in the 1960s. The Copyright Act doesn't define 'posthumous work.' The movie studio argued that the story was one, whose renewal rights therefore vested in the book trust that Fleming set up to grant the TV and film rights that the studio subsequently obtained. But the district court stated: 'In addition to assigning the copyright and entering into contracts during his lifetime [for the story], Ian Fleming revised manuscripts for publication. ' The rights in the renewal term therefore vested in the trustees of the Will Trust as executors of Fleming's estate and not, as defendants contend, in the trustees of the Book Trust.' However, the court ruled, among other things, that MGM could pursue an equitable-estoppel defense due to the 'lengthy delay in filing this [2004] action, as well as defendants' good faith belief that plaintiffs viewed them as the owners of the film rights in the Work.'

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