Wayans brothers rip off Bugs Bunny

[Redsland]

Or in baseball parlance:

1. OPS
2. WHIP
3. BB/9
4. PTBNL
5. CS
6. 7/31
7. DFA

[cincinnati chili]

I'm guessing that the copyright must have expired on that episode..... If the copyright expires, I think it becomes public domain.

I guarantee you the copyright didn't expire. Copyright terms are something ridiculous now like 80 years beyond the life of the author. One of Sonny Bono's last big political acts (before doing a face plant into a tree) was getting Congress to extend the copyright act to some interminable length. Media companies had their nose up Congress' rear ends, and this was the product. There was a Supreme Court case (Eldred v. Ashcroft) about this and the "pro public domain" people lost.

Getting back to M2's point. The copyright holder has an automatic copyright to all "derivative" works. The question becomes whether this is a derivative work, and I don't know the case law well enough to know the standard. I would guess that a single reminiscent scene or two wouldn't matter.

One factor a court will consider is whether consumers will choose to go see this movie instead of buying bugs bunny dvds. That's just one factor, but obviously, it's unlikely.

[macro]

What is a Bugs Bunny?

[Larry Schuler]

Little Man is not a rip off. It is a film that takes a popular premise and gives it a unique spin. Every movie ever made or told has done this. Star Wars is a Western in space, The Matrix is an allegory for the story of Jesus Christ, The Magnificent Seven is the Seven Samurai. There are no copyrights on archetypes or popular story premises.

As far as reproducing the shaving scene verbatim, that is an obvious homage/reference to the Bugs Bunny cartoon- not grand theft cinema. Films reference other films all the time. If anything it's a compliment from one director or writer to another.

[cincinnati chili]

Little Man is not a rip off. It is a film that takes a popular premise and gives it a unique spin. Every movie ever made or told has done this. Star Wars is a Western in space, The Matrix is an allegory for the story of Jesus Christ, The Magnificent Seven is the Seven Samurai. There are no copyrights on archetypes or popular story premises.

As far as reproducing the shaving scene verbatim, that is an obvious homage/reference to the Bugs Bunny cartoon- not grand theft cinema. Films reference other films all the time. If anything it's a compliment from one director or writer to another.

I think more courts would agree with your first paragraph, rather than your second paragraph. An homage can still constitute unfair competition and as well as a violation of the Copyright Act. The key is that a new work has to be substantially "transformative." I haven't seen the Wayans movie, but if it's really a scene produced verbatim, that's a derivative work rather than a transformative work, and it would need to be licensed by the Copyright owner.

Here's some fair use factors, not all relevant to film. In particular, check out the "Dr. Seuss" case. Even though it was satirical, the court still found it to lacked enough transformation to be a unique work.

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyrigh...pter9/9-c.html

[Outshined_One]

It's been said that there are only seven stories, and all others are versions of these:

#1 - Cinderella - Unrecognised virtue at last recognised. It's the same story as the Tortoise and the Hare. Cinderella doesn't have to be a girl, nor does it even have to be a love story. What is essential is that the good is despised, but is recognised in the end, something that we all want to believe.

#2 - Achilles - The Fatal Flaw, that is the groundwork for practically all classical tragedy, although it can be made comedy too, as in the old standard Aldwych farce. Lennox Robinson's The Whiteheaded Boy is the Fatal Flaw In reverse.

#3 - Faust- The Debt that Must be Paid, the fate that catches up with all of us sooner or later. This is found in all its purity as the chase in O'Neill's The Emperor Jones. And in a completely different mood, what else is the Cherry Orchard?

#4 - Tristan - that standard triangular plot of two women and one man, or two men and one woman. The Constant Nymph, or almost any French farce.

#5 - Circe - The Spider and the Fly. Othello. The Barretts of Wimpole Street, if you want to change the sex. And if you don't believe me about Othello (the real plot of which is not the triangle and only incidentally jealousy) try casting it with a good Desdemona but a poor Iago.

#6 - Romeo and Juliet - Boy meets Girl, Boy loses Girl, Boy either finds or does not find Girl: it doesn't matter which.

#7 - Orpheus - The Gift taken Away. This may take two forms: either the tragedy of the loss itself, as in Juno and the Paycock, or it may be about the search that follows the loss, as in Jason and the Golden Fleece.


http://www.cus.cam.ac.uk/~blf10/stories.html

He said eight on that site. :

I'm creeping really close to the edge with a list like this. I spent most of my academic life studying literature and mythology...so things like this tend to send me close to flying off the handle due to massive over-generalizations, ignorance of the vast majority of the world, and various other reasons.

But I'll restrain myself.

[StillFunkyB]

Then there was the 2005 Johnny Knoxville vehicle, The Ringer, which was surprisingly similar to the 2004 South Park episode in which Cartman participated in the Special Olympics.

I like nuts

[RFS62]

He said eight on that site. :

I'm creeping really close to the edge with a list like this. I spent most of my academic life studying literature and mythology...so things like this tend to send me close to flying off the handle due to massive over-generalizations, ignorance of the vast majority of the world, and various other reasons.

But I'll restrain myself.

Don't restrain yourself. Let it out. It's been said that there are only six different things that can happen to you when you restrain yourself like that.....

[GAC]

Not that I expect much from the guys who brought the world "White Chicks," but the new Wayans brothers movie is a direct lift from a 1954 Bugs Bunny cartoon called "Baby Buggy Bunny" in which a tiny criminal called Baby-Faced Finster plants himself on Bugs' doorstep and hilarity ensues. They've even listed the classic scene where the tiny criminal is shaving with a stogie in his mouth and sporting a tattoo on his bicep.

I've got no intentions of watching the full movie, but the advertising trailer makes it clear that the movie is a thefted idea from that cartoon. Here's my question, how has such a clear ripoff made it to the point where it's about to be released?

Very obvious rip-off. Especially the scene where he is standing in the mirror shaving.

"Of course you know that this means war!"

[Red Leader]

Don't restrain yourself. Let it out. It's been said that there are only six different things that can happen to you when you restrain yourself like that.....

Nuh-uh, it's seven.

[minus5]

Here you go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvP-fhfd-fI

The original.

Mr Wayans, you are no Buggs Bunny.

[TeamSelig]

.

[Benny-Distefano]

The last original idea was on January 23, 1827.

Jebediah Sampson decided he'd til the farm in columns rather than in rows.

It has been all downhill from there...

[MartyFan]

And Warner stole it from Little Rascals for the Bugs Bunny version