By Eriq Gardner
THR, Esq. | Article Link
Twentieth Century Fox is
taking aggressive steps to keep its movie and TV scripts off of the Internet.
The studio has filed a lawsuit alleging
roughly $15 million in damages against a New York woman, Patricia
McIlvaine, who is said to have put up roughly 100 scripts online without
authorization.
On her personal website, McIlvaine describes herself as a
"struggling screenwriter who sells flowers over the phone by day and
writes scripts by night." She says she collected scripts that were already
posted on the web and made a free online library of scripts in order to assist
other screenwriters. She's already soliciting donations for a legal defense
fund.
Why is the studio targeting her? Spoiler
alert!
According to the complaint, McIlvaine's actions allegedly cause
particular damage to films and TV shows that are still in development. The
postings "interfere and trade off of the costly and carefully designed
creative processes that produce finished works ready for public consumption.
They harm the fans who do not want their enjoyment of a movie or television
show to be spoiled by knowing the story ahead of actually being able to watch
it."
Fox's lawsuit mentions various scripts including
Aliens, Edward Scissorhands, Wall Street, and Glee.
It also mentions the leak of the script for the X-Men sequel Deadpool,
which isn't scheduled to be released until 2012.
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