Williams v. Crichton
| Decision Date | 22 May 1996 |
| Docket Number | D,No. 1233,1233 |
| Citation | 84 F.3d 581 |
| Parties | 1996 Copr.L.Dec. P 27,532, 38 U.S.P.Q.2d 1810 Geoffrey T. WILLIAMS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Michael CRICHTON; Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.; Random House, Inc.; Universal City Studios, Inc.; MCA, Inc.; Amblin Entertainment, Inc.; Steven Spielberg; David Koepp, Defendants-Appellees. ocket 94-7951. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Jerome R. Halperin, New York City (Guy S. Halperin, Kyle Mallary Halperin, Halperin Klein & Halperin, of counsel), for Plaintiff-Appellant.
Richard Dannay, New York City (David O. Carson, Schwab Goldberg Price & Dannay, of counsel), for Defendants-Appellees.
Before OAKES, WINTER and CALABRESI, Circuit Judges.
Geoffrey T. Williams ("Williams") appeals a summary judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Lawrence M. McKenna, Judge, entered August 25, 1994, in favor of Appellees Michael Crichton, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., Random House, Inc., Universal City Studios, Inc., MCA, Inc., Amblin Entertainment, Inc., Steven Spielberg, and David Koepp, on Williams's claim of copyright infringement. 860 F.Supp. 158 (S.D.N.Y.1994). Williams asserts that the district court erred in concluding that Williams's works and the Appellees' works were not substantially similar. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the judgment of the district court.
This is an action for copyright infringement under the Copyright Act of 1976, as amended, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101 et seq. (1994), and for an accounting of profits. Williams claims that the Appellees' novel and movie Jurassic Park (together, the "Jurassic Park works") infringe upon children's stories that he authored and copyrighted. In reviewing the facts underlying this summary judgment motion, we construe the evidence in the light most favorable to Williams, the non-moving party. Delaware & Hudson Ry. Co. v. Consolidated Rail Corp., 902 F.2d 174, 177 (2d Cir.1990), cert. denied, 500 U.S. 928, 111 S.Ct. 2041, 114 L.Ed.2d 125 (1991).
Between 1985 and 1988, Williams created and published four original copyrighted works of fiction for children: (1) Dinosaur World, published in 1985 ("Book I"); (2) Lost in Dinosaur World, published in 1987 ("Book II"); (3) Explorers in Dinosaur World, published in 1988 ("Book III"); and (4) Saber Tooth: A Dinosaur World Adventure, published in 1988 ("Book IV") (together, "Dinosaur World books"). Williams or his agent applied for and was issued a Certificate of Registration by the Register of Copyrights for Book I in December 1988 (registration number TX-1-966-153); Book II in August 1993 (TX-3-598-943); Book III in March 1988 (TX-2-294-611); and Book IV in November 1988 (TX-2-541-662).
Each of the four books is an adventure story for children that takes place in "Dinosaur World," described in Williams's brief as "an imaginary present day man-made animal park for dinosaurs and other pre-historic animals where ordinary people... can, in presumed safety, visit, tour and observe the creatures in a natural but hi-tech controlled habitat." Books I and IV are simple stories of children visiting and touring Dinosaur World. Williams concedes that these two books, read alone or together, are not infringed upon by the Jurassic Park works, though there are a few similarities. 1 We will focus, then, on the similarities between Books II and III and the Jurassic Park works. As a determination of substantial similarity requires a "detailed examination of the works themselves," Walker v. Time Life Films, Inc., 784 F.2d 44, 49 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 476 U.S. 1159, 106 S.Ct. 2278, 90 L.Ed.2d 721 (1986), we will summarize each work at issue.
Lost in Dinosaur World is thirty pages long. The story opens with the McDunn family preparing for a trip to Dinosaur World. Young Tim is "dressed for adventure," though his mother reminds him, Tim, his sister Mary, and Mr. and Mrs. McDunn pile into the car and set off for Dinosaur World.
From this opening scene, a mood of adventure and perhaps even danger is created. Tim brings a survival kit along with him, and Mr. McDunn comments upon Tim's desire to see the "scariest animal in the park," the allosaur. The setting of Dinosaur World enhances the mood. It is described as a place with
tall pines rising overhead, along with exotic ferns, ginkgo and monkey puzzle trees; giant pterosaurs and pteranodons circling in the blue sky, their eerie, high-pitched squeals carrying across the distance; roars, grunts and growls coming from deep in the forest, made by who-knows-what-kind of wild creatures; rumblings and puffs of grey smoke and steam curling from the top of a small volcano.
After the family arrives at Dinosaur World, they buy tickets and receive a map and a radio guide that can answer questions about the animals in the park. They discuss whether to visit the Nursery or proceed directly to the T-Rex Express, a train shaped like a tyrannosaurus rex that tours Dinosaur World. Tim is eager to board the T-Rex Express, but the other McDunns want to go to the Nursery. As Tim's father says, "Tim, it won't take but a few minutes, and I'm sure there'll be plenty of exciting things for you to do today." The narration continues: "Little did Mr. McDunn know how true that was."
While discussing the day's plans, the family is surprised to see a brachiosaur, "the biggest land animal that ever lived," eating leaves from the tops of the trees. The family then enters the Nursery, a "warm and humid" glass-roofed building, and views protoceratops hatchlings and eggs.
Next, the McDunns proceed to the T-Rex Express. Tim purchases a "Supertour" ticket, allowing him to ride the train through each of the geologic periods in which dinosaurs lived: the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous eras. The rest of the family purchases tickets only for the Triassic era.
During the trip through the Triassic period, the train passes by the shore of the Dinosaur Sea where it is approached by a shrieking, twenty-five foot nothosaur. Several train passengers scream as the nothosaur comes "closer and closer, until Tim could hear him breathe and see water dripping from his needle-sharp teeth." When the nothosaur suddenly slips back into the sea, Tim is left "a little frightened and wondering how much excitement the rest of the trip would bring."
At the end of the Triassic tour, Tim's family disembarks, his father warning This is your first trip here, so be very careful not to lose your guide. Whatever you need to know, just ask. And remember, no matter what happens, don't get off the train.
Watching his family disappear from sight, Tim "couldn't help feeling just a little lonesome as he continued his adventure."
The tour continues into the Jurassic period. As Tim leans out the train window to get a better view of several diplodocus wading in a swamp, he "did something that would change his whole day": he knocked the radio guide out of the window. "It clattered down the embankment by the side of the tracks and came to rest almost under the tail of a huge stegosaur...." Tim climbs out of the train to retrieve the guide, taking the opportunity to touch the "thick and wrinkled" skin of the stegosaur, that rattled its tail "ominously" at the intrusion, but then continued eating a plant.
As Tim picks up the guide, he hears the T-Rex Express leave the area without him. "Without any warning, ... he was alone--lost in the middle of Dinosaur World." As Tim stands alone on the train tracks, with several dinosaurs staring at him and distant roars sounding in the distance, the radio guide sputters back to life, and warns Hearing the warning, Tim begins to think about the allosaur, an animal "that stood over twenty feet tall, had teeth like steak knives and a disposition like a bucket of rattlesnakes."
Walking on his own, Tim encounters a lost baby parasaurolophus, a duckbill dinosaur. Tim feeds it, and the dinosaur follows him through the park. An allosaur then emerges from the trees and chases Tim and the baby dinosaur. Tim "could feel the allosaur's breath hot on his neck." Tim and the baby dinosaur escape into the Dinosaur Sea, just ahead of the allosaur which "was furious at seeing his dinner just out of reach."
After the baby dinosaur is safely returned to its mother, another roaring dinosaur comes out of the distance: the T-Rex Express, returning to take Tim back to his parents.
Explorers in Dinosaur World, also thirty pages long, is intended for children approximately eleven years old. The story centers on two siblings, Peter and Wendy. Peter, a dinosaur enthusiast, is dismayed when his sister wins a radio station contest to spend a weekend previewing "Dinosaur World's newest attraction--Pangaea--the island of mystery in the middle of Dinosaur Sea." By promising to do Wendy's chores for a year, Peter convinces Wendy to let him accompany her on the trip.
When they arrive at Dinosaur World, Peter and Wendy are met by their guide for the weekend, Jake DuMel, a designer of Pangaea. The trio sets off for the boat dock and Jake explains the tasks of all the uniformed workers they see on the way:
It takes a lot of people to run a place this big. Engineers for the T-Rex Express trains, guides for group tours ... keepers who help in the Nursery feeding the baby dinosaurs, gardeners to take care of all the plants and flowers and a staff of scientists who spend time studying the animals.
Pangaea, about a half-mile from the mainland, appears "ghostly and mysterious." As he loads the boat, Jake checks the...
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