Fox Sues to Stop Film and TV Script Leaks

[Rac]

Twentieth Century Fox is taking aggressive steps to keep its movie and TV scripts off of the Internet.

The studio has filed a lawsuit alleging roughly $15 million in damages against a New York woman, Patricia McIlvaine, who is said to have put up roughly 100 scripts online without authorization.

On her personal website, McIlvaine describes herself as a "struggling screenwriter who sells flowers over the phone by day and writes scripts by night." She says she collected scripts that were already posted on the web and made a free online library of scripts in order to assist other screenwriters. She's already soliciting donations for a legal defense fund.

Why is the studio targeting her? Spoiler alert!

According to the complaint, McIlvaine's actions allegedly cause particular damage to films and TV shows that are still in development. The postings "interfere and trade off of the costly and carefully designed creative processes that produce finished works ready for public consumption. They harm the fans who do not want their enjoyment of a movie or television show to be spoiled by knowing the story ahead of actually being able to watch it."

Fox's lawsuit mentions various scripts including Aliens, Edward Scissorhands, Wall Street, and Glee. It also mentions the leak of the script for the X-Men sequel Deadpool, which isn't scheduled to be released until 2012.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blogs/thr-esq/fox-sues-stop-film-tv-49756

PJ is a struggling screenwriter who sells flowers over the phone by day and writes scripts by night. She has two produced credits. She is a recognizable presence on internet screenwriting bulletin boards ["Limama" on Done Deal]. She collected scripts she found [already] posted online and placed them in an online library on a Media Fire web page and made those scripts available to other screenwriters. Free of charge. As an educational tool.

•She doesn’t sell advertising.
•She doesn’t charge a membership fee.
•She doesn’t sell the material.
•She makes it available to other screenwriters for free.
•She posts scripts for educational purposes only.
•She only posts scripts already available on other sites online.

http://celluloidblonde.wordpress.com/2010/11/27/pj-mcilvaine-goliath/

Why didn't they just ask her to close down the mediafire account? She didn't leak the scripts. Plus, there are other several people like her who CHARGE for the scripts, or ask something in change. She just simply stored scripts into her account. I guess they just wanna make an example of her, but they could have picked a better target. Like any of those sites who want money for the scripts.

And why the hell does Fox mention old scripts like Aliens, Ed Scissorhands and Wall Street which have been available on the internet since ****ing end the 90s or something.

 

[dsfjr1190]

What's the point of complaining about scripts for old movies? Seriously, what the hell?

FOX says "They harm the fans who do not want their enjoyment of a movie or television show to be spoiled by knowing the story ahead of actually being able to watch it."

********. No one is forcing people to read scripts, people choose to. And if the script is good they'd still pay to see it anyway.

Sounds to me like they don't want the public to find out that some of their work sucks and decide not to fork over their cash.

 

[Figs]

If she's leaking scripts for unfinished films then she deserves to be sued or barred from Hollywood.

 

[Rac]

If she's leaking scripts for unfinished films then she deserves to be sued or barred from Hollywood.

She ain't leaking anything. The leaks come from the studios or the screenwriters themselves.

 

[Figs]

She ain't leaking anything. The leaks come from the studios or the screenwriters themselves.

She is posting them though, it mentioned the script for Deadpool. So maybe there are others above her leaking them originally, but shouldn't she know better then to post scripts for unfinished films?

 

[Rac]

She is posting them though, it mentioned the script for Deadpool. So maybe there are others above her leaking them originally, but shouldn't she know better then to post scripts for unfinished films?

She only collected scripts to her mediafire account, which she made open for public in her signature at the screenplay writing forum.

Three articles worth reading on the subject:

http://www.mypdfscripts.com/thelatest/concerning-the-15-million-script-trading-lawsuit
http://www.mypdfscripts.com/thelatest/concerning-the-15-million-script-trading-lawsuit-pt-2
http://www.mypdfscripts.com/thelate...t-trading-lawsuit-pt-3-the-don-murphy-edition