[PhantomCat]

I heard one onetime where a woman tried to sue Bojangle's because she bit down on her piece of chicken into a geese pocket that burned her lip.

Seemes that video games are not immune either. The makers of Dead Rising(more zombies) were sued by the film makers of Dawn of the Dead (zombies in a shopping mall), stating that they stole the game idea from the movie. Game makers denied the charges and the court agreed that it was similar but not the same story.

Space Channel 5, video game makers was sued by the female singer from pop techno group, Delight, stating that they modeled their main character, Oh Lala, after her persona. The court disagreed with the singer and she ended up paying big money instead - I believe for the court cost and attorney fees of the video game company.

You are so right, the list goes on and on.
Look at what they tried to do to Michael Jackson...

[RollerCoasterMommy07]

It is crazy. Like the woman suing McDonalds for the hot coffee. Seriously in this new generation people can sue for not using their own common sense, and most of the time win. What happened to just suing people that you lent money to and they refuse to pay it back . I have been watching a lot of Judge Judy lately. The British shows are way behind than back home and nothing good ever comes on.

You know what's funny about the game makers suing the other game makers? You don't hear about movie producers/directers/writers suing other movie producers/directers/writers for copying their ideas or basic stories. Take for example the "Saw" people suing the people that did the knock off movie "Are You Scared Yet?" It was the same basic story. A serial killer takes people, puts them in crazy contraptions, and they have to try and get out. I wonder why that is?

[PhantomCat]

You're right, it is crazy. Did you know Dolly Parton has also gone to court because she was accused of stealing her movie hit song, "9 - 5?" She said she wrote the song on the set while filming the movie. The nuts who sued her lost. After their never-before-heard-of song was compared to hers. It was discovered they were only trying to make some quick money while trying to break into the music business, and had the nerve to later ask her to write a song with them. Dolly refused.

I had to take a copywrite class while in college and I found out some interesting facts.

You can't copywrite a name but you can copywrite a named product, a play, a movie, a book, etc. - finished works. There are many of these varieties with the same name. You can protect a business name or an invention with an international registered trademark so no one else can use it.

Works can fall into public domain 75 years after its author's death, where anyone can use it without seeking permission. You can go to Paris and take pictures of the Mona Lisa and used your own pictures freely, but you can't use a picture of the painting out of a magazine or from someone else's copywrited work.

You can't copywrite an idea but you can copywrite a fixed and tangible work - an invention, choreography, music, art, etc.

You can't directly copy an established work but you can create a parody - a very similar but different film, book, etc. There are a lot of parodies going on in the world today. Still, people have been successfully sued because their work was ruled to be too much like the original - a copy.

[RollerCoasterMommy07]

I had never heard of the Dolly Parton thing. That is crazy especially the fact that they had the nerve to ask her to write a song with them later. The Mona Lisa thing is pretty interesting.

As far as the paradies I remember when Coolio (I think that's how he spelled it) sued Wierd Al for his "Amish Paradise" song .

[PhantomCat]

Really?
Was the law suit successful?

[RollerCoasterMommy07]

I wasn't sure so I tried to look it up but on Wiki I got that there was just a misunderstanding on Coolios record people and Weird Al's. And that Coolio recieved a royalty check for the proceeds of the Amish Paradise song and never said another thing about it.