Thursday, December 01, 2016
Jury Finds 'Jersey Boys' Creators Liable for Copyright Infringment
Hollywood Reporter: Creators of Jersey Boys, the Tony-winning play about iconic pop group The Four Seasons, took at least part of their now-famous show from an unpublished autobiography of founding member Tommy DeVito, according to a jury verdict Monday.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
You wouldn’t think that a lawsuit about a musical whose music is 100% from a previously established group’s songs would be getting a IP lawsuit because of a book, but that’s not the world we live in. I would say this lawsuit sounds reasonable, except for that fact that the Jersey Boy’s fad has come and gone. It seems a little late to be filling a suet for a play that has already been a huge box office hit and even had a movie made of it. I understand the article said when the widow learned of the infringement she sued right away, but this, to me, seems improbable. Did Woodward not know of the similarities? Why did it take so long for his wife to find some IP infringement? I guess I am a little biased because I am a huge Frankie Valli fan and a Jersey Boy’s fan because of that, so I do not want to see any harm to the show. With that I’ll say it doesn’t matter how long after the infringement you file, if there is an infringement, there is an infringement. Lets just hope there was a secret agreement Woodward made with the writers. Also, wouldn't DeVito have known of the situation and either allowed it or not?
I kind of found this hard to believe when I first read this. It was only a few weeks ago that I read that Jersey Boys had closed. One of the things I found most puzzling was that the jury was able to conclude that 10% of the production’s success was because of the newfound book that served as inspiration. How in the world do you conclude that a show that was bringing in $30 million dollars a year, that $3,000,000 was because of this person’s book. Now, I have no disrespect for the case because it is important that people receive credit for their work. However, I will be interested to follow this story as it develops because there are so many branches that are to follow. For example, do grosses get redelivered to this accusing party if it rules in their favor? What about the film version of the story that was produced? How does that fit in?
Post a Comment