Opinion ID: 1486832
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Infringement

Text: The sequence of 57 scenes or the last 300 feet of reel 7 and the first 700 feet of reel 8 of Movie Crazy, constituting the Magician's Coat Sequence, are reproduced in the first 57 scenes and first 600 feet of the 4th reel of So's Your Uncle. In Movie Crazy, the star of the film attends a dinner dance given by a movie magnate's wife, having gained possession of an invitation by mistake. After being admitted, the star goes into the washroom and removes his coat. The coat falls and a magician hangs his coat on the hook just vacated. The star mistakenly puts on the magician's coat and returns to the dining room. He is introduced and is seated at the hostess' table and soon is dancing with her. Numerous comedy incidents begin to happen. He changes partners and the happenings continue  doves flutter, white mice crawl, eggs roll down the sleeves, all from the magician's coat when loosened. During the resulting melee, the magician enters and reproaches the star for stealing the coat. The star is discovered to be present without intended credentials and is literally thrown out. In So's Your Uncle, the leading character or star, disguised as his own uncle, two ladies and another man, go to a night club. While there, it becomes necessary for the star to appear as himself as well as his own uncle. Through the aid of a friend, a waiter in the club, he seeks a change of clothing. The waiter goes to the dressing room, takes a magician's coat and passes it to the star, who puts it on without knowing it to be a magician's coat. So clothed, he returns to the table in the character of himself. He dances with one of his table companions, and the comedy incidents occur, almost exactly as they do in Movie Crazy with practically the same results. The star leaves with his dancing partner and the waiter is blamed by the magician for the loss of his coat. The main contention of both Universal and Bruckman is that Lloyd's photoplay is not a proper subject for copyright, hence no action for infringement lies. Secondly, they contend that there has not been such an appropriation as to constitute infringement. Universal asserts that there was not an appropriation of a substantial and material part of copyrightable material; the gags and stage business of the Magician's Coat Sequence have no dramatic quality; they are a subordinate sequence of events; the copyright does not cover any particular sequence of combination of gags or stage business; the scenes are merely comedy accretion to the story and having no story structure, are not dramatic; and finally, they are but a mere subsection of a plot and, therefore, not susceptible of copyright protection. Bruckman contends that the comedy routine of Movie Crazy is not within the Copyright Act because it is commonplace; it is dissimilar in the two pictures; it is entertainment but not dramatic composition, and it is slapstick and not dramatic composition. He further contends that he is not liable as an infringer as he had nothing to do with the production, release or exhibition of So's Your Uncle. The pertinent parts of the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C.A. 1 et seq., are as follows: Section 1. Any person entitled thereto, upon complying with the provisions of this title, shall have the exclusive right: