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<b>Decision of Note</b> Film Owner Can't Claim Copyright Protection for Actor's Multiple Roles

To determine whether a defendant's work is substantially similar to a plaintiff's work in a copyright infringement case, courts generally first discard any unprotectable elements from the plaintiff's work. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York recently ruled that the use of one actor to play multiple roles in the plaintiff's 1949 comedy film <i>Kind Hearts and Coronets</i> wasn't a protectable element for proving infringement by the authors of a stage musical adapted from the film.

8 minute read April 28, 2011 at 11:46 AM
By
Stan Soocher
<b>Decision of Note</b> Film Owner Can't Claim Copyright Protection for Actor's Multiple Roles

To determine whether a defendant's work is substantially similar to a plaintiff's work in a copyright infringement case, courts generally first discard any unprotectable elements from the plaintiff's work.

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