Well the big one I think of is Elliott Goldenthal vs. Tyler Bates over Bates' "borrowing" of material from Titus to use in 300. Goldenthal won and some have speculated that this had a chilling effect on his Hollywood career.
And wasn't Disney/James Horner sued for his borrowing of Powerhouse by Raymond Scott and Amacord by Nino Rota in Honey I Shrunk the Kids?
Well the big one I think of is Elliott Goldenthal vs. Tyler Bates over Bates' "borrowing" of material from Titus to use in 300. Goldenthal won and some have speculated that this had a chilling effect on his Hollywood career.
And wasn't Disney/James Horner sued for his borrowing of Powerhouse by Raymond Scott and Amacord by Nino Rota in Honey I Shrunk the Kids?
Chris
The Horner/Disney/Rota lawsuit is a myth that needs to die. Nino Rota is credited on the cue sheet. Don't recall if Powerhouse is. Danny Elfman was going to sue Disney (not Horner) because he claimed parts of Honey I Shrunk the Kids lifted from Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. Nothing came of it.
Based upon our review of the record, we cannot say that Joy and Theme from E.T. are so dissimilar that reasonable minds could not differ as to a lack of substantial similarity between them. Therefore, the district court erred in granting defendants' motion for summary judgment.
Reversed and remanded for proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion."
Based upon our review of the record, we cannot say that Joy and Theme from E.T. are so dissimilar that reasonable minds could not differ as to a lack of substantial similarity between them. Therefore, the district court erred in granting defendants' motion for summary judgment.
Reversed and remanded for proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion."
So, Baxter got the summary judgment against him reversed and the case was sent back to the district court. Here's the rest of the story:
There was another case where Hans Zimmer was sued by estate of Holst for using his MARS cue from The Planets for GLADIATOR. But I think remember it was dropped because of it being in public domain or something like that!
Slightly different but Michael Kamenskoye faced bankruptcy proceedings from HM Revenue & Customs several years before his death. He ended up avoiding being made bankrupt by reaching a compromise with his creditors out of court.
Jimmy Webb sued over the rejection of his score to "Love Story" (I don't know the details). Similarly Jarre sued over the replacement of his score to "White Squall", claiming Ridley Scott had refused to pay him his full fee.
If we're expanding this to concern other issues than 'plagiarism', one of the biggest court cases in the last few decades that has to do with film music is the bitter legal battle between Zimmer and Media Ventures co-founder Jay Rifkin. It's one of the reasons why Media Ventures eventually went under, before it re-surfaced as Remote Control (now not-so-remotely-controlled by Zimmer himself).
Not sure if it qualifies as interesting to any non-lawyers (or even any lawyers), but in law school I took a personal tax class and was pleasantly shocked to see Katia Popov's name pop up in a textbook case. Some of you may know her personally. She's a fantastic and prolific LA-based session violinist. Without getting too specific (though the case is public record), she successfully picked a fight with the IRS to determine whether her home was her place of business for purposes of certain deductions. I went home and grabbed one of the dozens of album musician lists she appears on (I think STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE), then brought it to show the professor. He blinked at me dumbfounded for a minute then laughed. Later I connected with Katia on Facebook and told her the story, and she had the same reaction.
There was also a lawsuit a few years ago from a composer named Daniel Kolton, who claimed he had written a number of cues to various series, including "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys", for LoDuca, but didn't get paid or something. I can't recall the exact details. I don't feel like looking it up.
