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From: ciaraldi@rochester.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.comics
Subject: Ghostbusters & Copyright
Message-ID: <4783@rochester.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 16-Dec-84 18:41:16 EST
Article-I.D.: rocheste.4783
Posted: Sun Dec 16 18:41:16 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 18-Dec-84 07:02:47 EST
Sender: ciaraldi@rochester.UUCP
Organization: U. of Rochester, CS Dept.
Lines: 31

From: Mike Ciaraldi  

How many of you haver seen _Nosferatu_, a silent film
made in Germany in the 1920's?
It is the same plot and characters as the book _Dracula_
by Bram Stoker.  In fact, in modern prints the vampire is
actually called "Dracula" I believe, but in the original he
was called "Orloff" or something.

Anyway, Stoker's estate sued for copyright infringement, 
and forced the movie out of the theaters.  For years
it was mentioned as having existed, but it could not be shown.
Now it does show up at SF conventions, etc., so I suppose
the copyright has finally run out.

Does this mean we will have to wait 50 years to see
_Ghostbusters_ again?


I am admittedly not a legal expert, but I would guess that
the Disney copyright infringement claim might be hard to
back up, since there have been many humorous ghost-exterminator
movies and stories over the years.

The Harvey claim is, I believe, for Trademark infringement,
and looks much stronger. I know that when I first saw the GB
logo the ghost looked awfully familiar...

Mike Ciaraldi
ciaraldi@rochester
seismo!rochester!ciaraldi