Price v. Fox Entertainment Group, Inc.
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
499 F. Supp. 2d 382, 2007 WL 241389 (2007)
- Written by Eric Miller, JD
Facts
In 2001 David Price (plaintiff) and Ernando Ashoka Thomas (plaintiff) copyrighted a screenplay called Dodgeball: The Movie. In 2004 Fox Entertainment Group, Inc. (Fox) (defendant) released Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story. Both stories involved dodgeball competitions in which misfits or underdogs were pitted against bullies. However, Price and Thomas’s screenplay was centered on a town in which dodgeball was a prominent sport that the main characters grew up playing, whereas the main characters in Underdog Story become aware of dodgeball through a magazine highlighting obscure sports. The romantic relationships portrayed in the works also reflected significant differences. Price and Thomas brought a copyright-infringement action against Fox in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Fox moved for summary judgment on the issue of striking similarity between the two works and to preclude expert witness testimony on the issue.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Scheindlin, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 830,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,400 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
