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APPROPRIATE APPROPRIATION?
The lawyers at Paramount, who presumably are not fans of folks like Sherrie Levine, Richard Prince, and other appropriation-based artists, have launched a federal lawsuit against artist Christopher Moukarbel, who we blogged about recently. They are charging copyright infringement with regards to a 12-minute film he created and put up online which is based, apparently, on a copy of the screenplay for Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center. (Filmmaker‘s blog is cited in the Paramount filing.)
The Smoking Gun has all the details, including links to screenplay excerpts, which have been filed as exhibits, as well as a side-by-side comparison of Stone’s script and Mourkabel’s work. Undoubtedly the Paramount action will draw many to check out the script for World Trade Center and make their own conclusions about the work a couple of months before the film opens.
The damages requested in the suit are unspecified, and the clip has been removed from the artist’s website “at the request of Paramount Pictures.”
