the documents -- or any of 91 million people, according to the 2010 US Census. Petrocelli's argument back is that those long odds don't matter because the Benays can't be ruled out. Aaron and Matthew have written scripts for notable Hollywood figures such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Ridley Scott, and Brian Grazer. They penned the upcoming San Francisco earthquake epic 1906 which Brad Bird is directing based on the novel and screenplay by James Dalessandro. This article was printed from http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/exclusiv\\... COMMENTS (44) Whomever is in the wrong on this one, there is a special place in Hell waiting for you. If you don't believe in Hell- it's being built specifically for this case. Stealing someone's idea should be punishable by be-heading. (And THEN, they should go to work on the little sh*t). Actually, ideas CAN be stolen and they're NOT "free as the wind". That's the point of this case, Benay v. Warner, and subsequent cases like Montz v. Pilgrim. California law provides for a legal remedy outside of copyright law via breach of implied contract claims. In other words, even if an idea has elements (like historical facts) that are not protectable under copyright law, if you disclose them for sale to another party and they use them without payment, you ARE entitled to recovery. Copyright infringement is exceedingly difficult to prove, except in cases of exact copying like pirated DVD's or lifted programming code. That's because in the business of Hollywood, the infringer can change the script just