Big Picture
Nicole Fascinates in Monaco Plus, Charlize heats up fight night in Vegas; Diane Kruger kills it in Cannes. Get all the latest pics!
MORE PHOTOS +Most Commented
- Morning Mail! Are Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes Headed for Splitsville? (1246)
- Morning Mail! What's the Drama Surrounding Whitney Houston Now?! (737)
- Snow White Smackdown: Is Kristen Stewart Really Hotter Than Charlize Theron?! (672)
- American Idol Recap: Who Was Better, Phillip or Jessica? (521)
- New Breaking Dawn Part 2 Posters Revealed! Are You Team Edward, Bella or Jacob? (392)
- American Idol Backstage Scoop: Phillip Phillips Calls Win "So Unreal" (301)
- American Idol Finale: Who Won the Whole Thing?! (239)
- Glee Recap: Graduation and a Gut-Wrenching Goodbye for a Fan-Favorite Couple (224)
- Morning Mail! Is Robert Pattinson's Post-Twilight Career Award-Worthy? (223)
- Snow White Gets Dirty? Kristen Stewart and the Huntsman Cast Read Fifty Shades of Grey! (219)
Top 10 Stories
- Mad Men Recap: What Price Is Too High for Jaguar?
- Game of Thrones Recap: Blood and Blackwater
- Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony Reunite on Stage in Las Vegas
- Keeping Up with the Kardashians Recap: Momager Dearest
- Ashley Judd's Hubby Wins Indy 500 for Third Time!
- Hot Guys of Summer TV Alert! Check Out the Biggest Hunks on the Small Screen
- Men in Black 3 Beats The Avengers, But Did Will Smith Sequel Lose to History?
- Celeb Weddings We'd Love to See This Summer
- Cannes 2012: Five Things We Learned From Kim Kardashian, Robert Pattinson, Brad Pitt and More!
- Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel Celebrate Engagement With Big Bash
Fashion Police
Brit-Brit's Braless! Plus, Nina Dobrev, Kate Upton and more. Rate all the highs and lows!
MORE PHOTOS +
Our Partners
Spielberg, LaBeouf Officially Not Rip-Off Artists
Paramount Pictures, Dreamworks
Put down the binoculars, there's nothing to see here.
At least not now, thanks to the judge who dismissed a lawsuit against the Disturbia team, ruling that the 2007 thriller was not a rip-off of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window.
Or at least it wasn't a big enough rip-off to be litigated.
The copyright suit was first filed against Spielberg, DreamWorks and Paramount for the Shia LaBeouf-starring flick back in 2008. It was launched by the estate of Shelton Abend, the man who bought the rights to the 1942 short story "It Had to Be Murder," upon which Rear Window was based—and upon which, his estate claimed, Disturbia was based.
Problem was, if the short story was in fact the source material, as the suit alleged, Spielberg & Co. forgot to pay for the rights. This week, however, a judge decided that the two stories were admittedly similar, but different enough not to warrant any further litigation.
So yeah, Shia—and specifically his teen heartthrobdom—seem to have saved the day.
"The main plots are similar only at a high, unprotectable level of generality," Judge Laura Taylor wrote in her ruling. "Where Disturbia is rife with subplots, the short story has none. The setting and mood of the short story are static and tense, whereas the setting and mood of Disturbia are more dynamic and peppered with humor and teen romance."
And you thought critics were harsh.
________
Enough about movies from the past. Check out Movies From the Future!
7 Comments
-
Show the next 1 - 0 of 7 comments
Now loading...