Oprah Sued for Plagiarism: Writer Charles Harris Says Star Read His Work on Talk Show
October 28, 2010
"NEW YORK (CBS) A Philadelphia writer is suing Oprah Winfrey for plagiarism, after she allegedly read on her talk show passages from a political booklet he penned, without permission. ......"
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This is a copyright case happen in New York, where the complainant Charles Harris filled a lawsuit clamming
the language and structure of the questions came out from Oprah Winfrey were exactly the same on his work "How American Elects Her Presidents" which he send some booklet to the show in years ago.
But however from the star 29-March-2011,
"A federal judge in Pennsylvania has tossed out an author's US$100 million lawsuit against Oprah Winfrey for violating the copyright in the political booklet, How America Elects Her Presidents... "
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"Which one of our presidents weighed the most ?"; "William Howard Taft at 327 pounds" Is the question and answer that use to argue in this copyright issue.
Winfrey told the judge to dismiss the lawsuit saying that Harris' lawyers should know that the fact of American presidents are not copyrightable. But the lawyers said compilation of facts based on the selection and arrangement can be copyrightable. However Winfrey pointed out that Harris didn't register his work as a compilation, and it lacked originality, among other things.
U.S. District Court Judge Jan DuBois agreed that Harris' work is ''not original,'' and that Winfrey's use of the Fat Taft fact, even if she did learn it from Harris' book, was not an infringement.
Lesson learned from the case:
1) The work must be "originally". In this case, the Harris' work is not creative enough as the questions are based on fact.
2) The infringement would not be consider if is based on fact.
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