Filming a cinematic version of a book requires permission from the author, who naturally holds the copyright to his work. The court in Leeuwarden (the Netherlands) recently heard a case in which a filmmaker had apparently played fast and loose with the author’s rights. The story goes like this.
Van Rhijn wrote two books about a dramatic divorce. De Jong submitted a proposal to acquire the film rights. They were unable to reach an agreement. Van Rhijn then sold the film rights to NL Film. However, NL Film pulled the plug on the project when it turned out that De Jong would be shooting a film based on his own script: ”Janey, kind van de rekening”. A divorce drama. The script closely resembled the books, and NL Film felt that the Netherlands was too small a market to support two divorce films.
Van Rhijn considered himself to be the injured party and took De Jong to court. He accused De Jong of copyright violation. The judge noted a significant number of similarities: ”The name of the best friend of the main character in the book […], who is called Siep, closely resembles the name of the best friend of the main character in the film script, which is Syb.” 36 more examples were identified. De Jong noted several differences, but the court ruled that the overall similarity was too significant to consider the script an independent creation by De Jong. De Jong used copyrighted characteristics and had therefore committed copyright violation. De Jong was unhappy with the ruling. His website states: “Janey, kind van de rekening has been postponed indefinitely by a miscarriage of justice! […] It is sad to see that you can be declared an outlaw in the Netherlands and are not protected by law.” Too bad that the film has been cancelled for the time being – it’s clear that the filmmaker has a keen sense of the dramatic.
Daniël Haije, entertainment lawyer
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Filming a cinematic version of a book requires permission from the author, who naturally holds the copyright to his work. The court in Leeuwarden (the Netherlands) recently heard a case in which a filmmaker had apparently played fast and loose with the author’s rights. The story goes like this.
Van Rhijn wrote two books about a dramatic divorce. De Jong submitted a proposal to acquire the film rights. They were unable to reach an agreement. Van Rhijn then sold the film rights to NL Film. However, NL Film pulled the plug on the project when it turned out that De Jong would be shooting a film based on his own script: ”Janey, kind van de rekening”. A divorce drama. The script closely resembled the books, and NL Film felt that the Netherlands was too small a market to support two divorce films.
Van Rhijn considered himself to be the injured party and took De Jong to court. He accused De Jong of copyright violation. The judge noted a significant number of similarities: ”The name of the best friend of the main character in the book […], who is called Siep, closely resembles the name of the best friend of the main character in the film script, which is Syb.” 36 more examples were identified. De Jong noted several differences, but the court ruled that the overall similarity was too significant to consider the script an independent creation by De Jong. De Jong used copyrighted characteristics and had therefore committed copyright violation. De Jong was unhappy with the ruling. His website states: “Janey, kind van de rekening has been postponed indefinitely by a miscarriage of justice! […] It is sad to see that you can be declared an outlaw in the Netherlands and are not protected by law.” Too bad that the film has been cancelled for the time being – it’s clear that the filmmaker has a keen sense of the dramatic.
Daniël Haije, entertainment lawyer