See v. Durang
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| See v. Durang | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Court | United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit |
| Full case name | John William SEE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Christopher DURANG and L.A. Stage Company, Defendants-Appellees |
| Argued | 7 June 1983 |
| Decided | 22 July 1983 |
| Citation | 711 F.2d 141 |
| Court membership | |
| Judges sitting | BROWNING, CHOY and FERGUSON |
| Case opinions | |
| Copying deleted or so disguised as to be unrecognizable is not copying. | |
| Keywords | |
| copyright infringement | |
See v. Durang (1983) was a case where the author of a play claimed that another playwright had based a second play on a draft script that the plaintiff had written, infringing on its copyright. The court refused to consider the process by which the second play had been created, but chose to simply compare the end results. The court found no infringement, coining the axiom, "Copying deleted or so disguised as to be unrecognizable is not copying."[1]
John William See wrote the play Fear of Acting. Christopher Durang wrote another play, The Actor's Nightmare. There is some similarity in the underlying idea of an inexperienced actor being thrust into a leading role - or in See's play into three different roles. Durang was alleged to have had access to a draft version of See's play. See complained of an infringement of his copyright in Fear of Acting to a district court.[2]
District court findings
The district court summarily dismissed the case on the basis that no reasonable person could find any substantial similarity between the two plays, apart from similarities that naturally followed from the situation and could therefore be ignored under the "scènes à faire" doctrine. The court found the two plays could not be found substantially similar in their expression of ideas. The district court refused to view the finished Fear of Acting, since it had not been alleged that the defendant copied from that version. See appealed this judgment.[2]