Posted on 07/02/2009 8:54:12 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
New York, NY (CNS) - A book that has been dubbed "The Catcher in the Rye" sequel has been banned. A Manhattan federal judge rules that the new novel infringes author JD Salinger's copyrights.
The reclusive author of the 1951 classic filed the lawsuit against Swedish author Fredrik Colting for his new novel "60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye."
Salinger's legal team contends that the new book is a "rip-off" and the main character, a Mr. C, is an "infringement" on Salinger's main character, Holden Caulfied."
U.S. District Judge Deborah Batts ruled that Colting, 33, who wrote under the pen name John David California, violated copyright.
She said that he had "taken well more from 'Catch,' in both substance and style, than is necessary for the alleged transformative purpose of criticizing Salinger and his attitudes and behavior."
She rejected the defense argument that the book is a critical parody that had the effect of transforming the original work.
Judge Batts issued a preliminary injunction that indefinitely bars the publication, advertising or distribution of the book in the U.S. The book was already published in the U.K.
Colting's novel features a 76-year-old Mr C, who the author admitted is based on the classic novel's Caulfield, escaping from a retirement home and head to New York.
How about:
And Now The Right Hand of Darkness
The Baskervilles Litter
Can't decide, either New Brave New World or Brave New New World
The problem is that Salinger created the characters. They belong to him. They are, to use the legal term, his “intellectual property”.
“A Tale of Three Cities”
“War and Pizza”
“The Chartreuse Badge of Courage”
I look at my post, I see I'm not clear. I don't mean that he isn't entitled, because you are correct, they are his IP, but why have there been so many other extensions of novels published that have not been contested? Is it, as we're wondering, simply that Salinger is still alive, the other books have been published after the author has passed, whomever would hold the rights, protector of the estate, etc., hasn't bothered to challenge? Perhaps they received some kind of royalty, do we know this at all?
With “Scarlett” the estate of Margaret Mitchell approved, for a financial sum, the creation of a sequel to “Gone with the Wind”. They did so again with the more recent “Rhett Butler’s People”.
Fredrik Colting was never granted permission to write a sequel to “Catcher in the Rye”.
Aha, okay -- I wasn't aware, thank you.
I was gonna’ write, “The Book of Mormon” or “Science and Health,” but I didn’t want to piss anyone off.
So I won’t.
This is all funny; but I agree with you. When you create the characters, you don’t want someone else making them behave in ways you don’t choose.
This doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy the humor of this stuff!!
I’ve used an assignment wherein the kids write the “...and then...” to de Maupassant’s “The Necklace.”
Guess I’m in deep kimchee!!
Moby Larry
IvanMoe
The House of the Seven Satellite Dishes
The Mediocre Gatsby
Raspberry Finn
A Tale of Two Kitties
It may have to do with works in the public domain. The Edgar Rice Burroughs has fought lawsuits since the 1970s to keep Tarzan from going public domain. They went so far as to trademark a literary character (which is bad precedent and invalid but it went through).
Certainly there would be a market for more King of the Apes books.
Yet you can write all of the Huck Finn and Poe mystery sequels that you want and butcher Shakespeare to your English teacher’s malcontent.
LOL.
Yea, copyright infringement is the same thing as book banning.
Didn’t stop Mohammed from rewriting the Bible.
I don’t think that the Kirk & Spock fan fiction writers (who imagine a sexual relationship between the two) had approval either but that didn’t stop them.
Yes, Mohammed wrote it (although he claims it was handed to him).
“Braver New World”
Or how about the tried and true:
“Brave New World II”
Seventy-five years after the death of the author, the work becomes public domain.
Whether or not the author is living makes a difference because there is a thing in the civilized world called COPYRIGHT, that makes the book, poem, composition, etc. the intellectual property of the author for all his life and for 75 years after his death.
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