1 United States District Court Southern District of New
Case 1:11-cv-07087-JPO Document 34 Filed 12/18/12 Page 1 of 61 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK --------------------------------------------------------------X : EFFIE FILM, LLC, : Plaintiff, : : 11 Civ. 7087 (JPO) -against- : : AMENDED EVE POMERANCE, a/k/a EVE MOSSEK, : MEMORANDUM AND Defendant. : ORDER : ------------------------------------------------------------- X J. PAUL OETKEN, District Judge: This copyright case, involving a film and three screenplays, presents questions about the protection of historical fiction under American intellectual property law. Eve Pomerance owns a copyright in two screenplays about the dramatic and intertwined lives of John Ruskin, John Everett Millais, and Euphemia (“Effie”) Gray—two stars of the Victorian art world and the intriguing woman who was married to each of them. Emma Thompson has written a screenplay about the same historical figures; her screenplay has since been turned into a film that stars Thompson, Dakota Fanning, and Robbie Coltrane. In response to a threat of litigation, Effie Film sued for a declaration of non-infringement and, five months later, moved for judgment on the pleadings under Rule 12(c). For the reasons that follow, that motion is granted. I. Background A. Factual Background and Procedural Posture Victorian England, famed for its cultural achievements, high political drama, and sexual mores, remains a rich source of inspiration for historians and artists. For generations, authors, composers, dramatists, and scholars have been drawn to the story at the heart of this case—a story that involves two major figures of the Victorian art world, John Ruskin and John Everett 1 Case 1:11-cv-07087-JPO Document 34 Filed 12/18/12 Page 2 of 61 Millais, and a woman, Euphemia Gray, who married Millais after annulling her notoriously unhappy marriage to Ruskin on the scandalous ground of non-consummation.
[Show full text]