YOU THIEF! How Dare you!! Angelina Jolie Sued for Copyright Infringement of ‘The Land of Blood and Honey’

Folks, there are three legal issues raised in this lawsuit, all of which I have discussed in the past on prior cases.

Issue #1 – Whether indeed Angelina Jolie has infringed (i.e. stolen)  the copyright of James Braddock as alleged. A parallel case to read for my analysis on copyright infringement where authors are concerned, is the Fela! Broadway lawsuit. If the allegations here are true, how so very bold of Jolie.

Issue #2: The Plaintiff applies for an Injunction, through a motion, to stop Angelina Jolie from releasing ‘The Land of Blood and Honey.’ The court denies this motion. A parallel case is the Hangover lawsuit which we saw earlier this year. In that case, I break down what injunction means. So, do revisit the case.

Issue #3: Ex parte motion. ‘Ex parte motion’ is a fancy legal language we trial lawyers use to get immediate relief in court, in behalf of our clients. It is essentially an emergency motion (written legal documents that contain argument advancing a party’s interest) where we ask the court to rule immediately to prevent a harm from occurring or stop one currently occurring. Here, the court did not believe the Plaintiff made a case for why an Ex parte motion should have been granted. The court considered it significant that the Plaintiff had knowledge of the alleged copyright infringement but sat on his right to sue until recently; in addition to filing an ex parte motion just weeks before the release.

Also relevant, by the way, is the language of “”immediate and irreparable harm would result.” When your lawyer files an ex parte motion on your behalf, he/she  must meet the “”immediate and irreparable harm would result” requirement, among other factors/arguments that can be made to prevail on the motion.

Read on.
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A Croatian journalist’s lawsuit against Angelina Jolie for allegedly stealing his book to create her directorial debut won’t interfere with the December 23rd release of In the Land of Blood and Honey.

James Braddock, the plaintiff, has withdrawn his motion for a temporary restraining order after the film’s distributor impressed the judge with arguments about why the motion for temporary injunctive relief was defective.

Braddock claims that Jolie’s film infringes the copyright on his 2007 book, The Soul Shattering. Both works tell the tale of a female character who is imprisoned and subject to much abuse in war-torn Bosnia in the early 1990s. Braddock also claims he discussed his work in detail with the film’s Bosnian producer before Jolie’s movie was made.

Last week, Braddock filed an ex parte motion for a temporary restraining order to prevent the film’s release, which set off the defendants, including distributor FilmDistrict, to lodge an objection.

It was noted that Braddock had represented that he knew about the making of the film since early 2010. But instead of filing a lawsuit back then, Braddock had waited to sue until a few mere weeks before the film’s theatrical debut.

U.S. District Judge Robert Dow, Jr. in Illinois said in a hearing last week that there were valid concerns about the timing of the lawsuit and suggested that the late filing would be a consideration when examining equities, harm and the public interest. The judge also noted that the plaintiff hadn’t yet shown that “immediate and irreparable harm would result” from the film’s release and hadn’t yet demonstrated that the opposing parties had been noticed . . .”

THR, Esq. has the full story.

Poster design by Robert Russell

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Cheers,

Uduak