Teddy Wayne is a freelance writer who posted a fictional story online about a rich kids’ party in NYC back in 2007. To his surprise, a “CSI:NY” episode in 2008 lifted almost the entire story with only minor changes. Attempts to get CBS to acknowledge this and recompense him failed:
A few weeks later I received a six-page, single-spaced letter from CBS’s Vice President, Assistant General Counsel. She dismissed my claims of infringement because copyright does not protect ideas, only the “expressive elements of those ideas.” Therefore, the concept of “privileged New York City youth attending clandestine parties where they engage in illegal drug use and revert to pursuits and conduct typical of kindergarteners†is not protectable; only the expressive elements, “such as dialogue and plot,†are. And what seemed to me disturbing coincidences were, according to her—here’s the phrase I learned—“random similarities.â€
And you thought corporations weren’t running the country?
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