Lake v. Columbia Broadcasting System

Decision Date05 January 1956
Docket NumberNo. 1725.,1725.
CourtU.S. District Court — Southern District of California
PartiesStuart N. LAKE, Plaintiff, v. COLUMBIA BROADCASTING SYSTEM, Inc., a corporation, et al., Defendants.

Jack L. Oatman, Wm. H. Macomber, San Diego, Cal., for plaintiff.

Lillick, Geary & McHose, Wm. A. C. Roethke, Lloyd E. Blanpied, Jr., Los Angeles, Cal., for defendants.

MATHES, District Judge.

This cause having come before the Court for hearing on defendants' motion filed May 2, 1955, to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, Fed.R.Civ.Proc. Rule 12(b), 28 U.S.C.; and the motion having been argued and submitted for decision; and it appearing to the Court:

(a) that plaintiff invokes the jurisdiction of this Court under 17 U.S.C. § 101, alleging that a radio program produced by defendants has infringed plaintiff's copyrighted book "Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshal";
(b) that copies of plaintiff's book and of the script of defendants' allegedly infringing radio program are attached as exhibits and incorporated by reference into the complaint;
(c) that upon this motion to dismiss the Court may assume validity of the copyright and, comparing the literary products incorporated into the complaint, determine as a matter of law whether or not the copyright has been infringed (see: Christianson v. West Publishing Co., 9 Cir., 1945, 149 F.2d 202, 203; Caruthers v. R.K.O. Radio Pictures, Inc., D.C.S.D.N.Y.1937, 20 F.Supp. 906; cf. Dezendorf v. Twentieth Century, 9 Cir., 1938, 99 F.2d 850);
(d) that plaintiff's book is declared in the preface to be an accurate historical biography based on a factual account of Wyatt Earp's career and "in no part a mythic tale" (Lake, "Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshal," p. viii, 1931; see also: id., p. ix);
(e) That historical facts and events in themselves are in the public domain and are not entitled to copyright protection (see: International News Service v. Associated Press, 1918, 248 U.S. 215, 234, 39 S. Ct. 68, 63 L.Ed. 211; Collins v. Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corp., 2 Cir., 1939, 106 F.2d 83, 86; Funkhouser v. Loew's, Inc., D.C.W.D.Mo. 1952, 108 F.Supp. 476, 496, affirmed on other grounds, 8 Cir., 1953, 208 F.2d 185, certiorari denied, 1954, 348 U.S. 843, 75 S.Ct. 64, 99 L.Ed. 664; Seltzer v. Sunbrock, D.C.S.D.Cal. 1938, 22 F.Supp. 621, 627; Caruthers v. R.K.O. Radio Pictures, supra, 20 F.Supp. at page 907);
(f) that when an author adds new and original material to matter already in the public domain, a copyright on the entire work is valid, but the author is entitled to protection only as to such added material (see: Dorsey v. Old Surety Life Ins. Co., 10 Cir., 1938, 98 F.2d 872, 873, 119 A.L.R. 1250; American Code Co. v. Bensinger, 2 Cir., 1922, 282 F. 829, 834; Shipman v. R.K.O. Radio Pictures, D.C.S.D.N.Y.1937, 20 F.Supp. 249, 250, affirmed on other grounds, 2 Cir., 1938, 100 F.2d 533);
(g) that defendants' radio program has used neither the word order nor the expression or literary style of the copyrighted book (cf. De Acosta v. Brown, 2 Cir., 1944, 146 F.2d 408, 410, certiorari denied Hearst Magazines v. De Acosta, 1945, 325 U.S. 862, 65 S.Ct. 1197, 89 L.Ed. 1983);
(h) that the only similarity between the radio program and the copyrighted book is in the sequence of the claimed historical events and in a few instances the content of the dialogue, although the wording of the conversations which purportedly took place among the characters included in the common incident depicted is not the same; and
(i)
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    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York
    • 25 d6 Junho d6 1966
    ...but are in the public domain, see, Collins v. Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corp., 106 F.2d 83, 86 (2 Cir. 1939); Lake v. Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc., 140 F.Supp. 707 (S.D.Calif.1956); Nimmer, Copyright 127-128 (1964); cf. Oxford Book Co. v. College Entrance Book Co., 98 F.2d 688, 691 (2 Ci......
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    ...certiorari denied Hearst Magazines v. DeAcosta, 325 U.S. 862, 65 S.Ct. 1197, 89 L.Ed. 1983 (Clara Barton); Lake v. Columbia Broadcasting System, D.C.S.D.Cal., 1956, 140 F.Supp. 707 (Wyatt Earp). However, the fictionalizing of events and incidents in the life of an historic figure is the aut......
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    • U.S. District Court — Central District of California
    • 14 d5 Agosto d5 2015
    ...Company and the screenplay (and certain reviews) of 3C,each incorporated by reference in the pleadings"); Lake v. Columbia Broad. Sys., Inc ., 140 F.Supp. 707, 708 (S.D.Cal.1956) (finding "that copies of plaintiff's book and of the script of defendants' allegedly infringing radio program [w......
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