sqbr | Maybe it's because I have a headache

There's a missing ) at the end of your first link.

Hmmph. I put it there, but lj didn't recognise it as part of the link. I've edited the html to hopefully work now, thanks.

And in any case, the short story appears to have, as is so often the case, very little to do with the actual movie. (Basic concept - man deaging, and the name of the character)

As we all know, Benjamin Button is actually based on Forrest Gump :-)

Good point. I'd still expect the article to mention it's existence though.

I haven't seen the film or read the book, but assuming the adaptation takes some liberties, it would be very easy for the film to resemble a previously-existing screenplay that's entirely unrelated. Whether or not the woman has a case is a different matter - somebody files a claim like this every time a movie in America is successful.

I'm wondering on the possibilities then of a suit from the point of the original author on the moron trying to claim moneys now that a movie has been successfully made.

Now that would be funny :)

Original short story 1921. So that's out of copyright in USA. Though whether it was in 94 I don't know.

yeah, but one frivolous law suit deserves another to show them how stupid they are.

And I beleive it's at most 50 years copyright, so it would have been out of copyright in '71. Unless there was a renewal.

If there wasn't, then the story is public domain, and regardless of similarities to a '94 story of a similar nature, they can claim (and have) that the inspiration is the '21 story that may have been the inspiration of the '94 story also.

Yay for copyrights...

There's always enough copyright to include 1928 because that's when Mickey Mouse was created.

Currently the Sonny Bono act extended copyright another 20 years, to 70 years after authors death, or 120 years for corporate ownership. This currently makes anything from 1923 on copyright, so long as a legitimate copyright existed in 1998 when the act was created.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonny_Bono_Copyright_Term_Extension_Act

Copyright arguments aside, I'm pretty sure F. Scott Fitzgerald is dead :)

Yes, I'm sure you're aware of that whole brain thing that doesn't work too good when not feeling 100%. Supplement 'author' with 'author's estate', as even if he died the day after publishing it, he still has copyright rights.

Yeah, I get you, I was just being annoying :)

That's a very good point. Still, I think the original short story's existence is worth at least mentioning, if only to say those aspects of the story aren't what in dispute.

Speed Racer was purrrdy.

Speed and Trixie are also eye candy.

yes, but not for those suffering headaches or that are likely to get them from lots of brightness

If I hadn't have had had a headache I'm sure I would agree :)

Agreed (though the headache-prone do have my sympathies). I personally found that the shaped bokeh in many scenes to be particularly fascinating.

"An Italian office worker has claimed megalomania and believes somebody actually read a story she wrote in 1994"

I've just come up with the best way to make a living: write crap short stories on absolutely every topic I can think of, mail them off to hollywood, and then demand royalties for every movie made henceforth.

PURE GENIUS :)