Would-be filmmakers often see the ghostly reflection of their
own work in allegedly infringing films that actually get made. With
many such copyright claims, the devil is – figuratively
– in the details, but in the recent case of
Brown v. Twentieth Century Fox, the satanic
details were quite literal.
Last year, a film called Devil's
Due premiered. It was greeted by unappreciative reviews,
unenthusiastic audiences and then by a lawsuit. With a
whopping 18% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the critical
consensus was that the film was "derivative and mostly
uninspired." One viewer, Rhonda Kay Jackson Brown,
believed that she knew what the film was derivative of:
specifically, her self-published novel
Jackson Road and her adapted screenplay
Mother's Son. So she filed a pro se complaint
for copyright infringement in the Eastern District of Kentucky.
