REBECCA REYHER and RUTH GANNETT, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. CHILDREN'S TELEVISION WORKSHOP and TUESDAY PUBLICATIONS, INC., Defendants-Appellees, 533 F.2d 87

Summary

Appellants were the author and illustrator of a children's book, which was published with notice of copyright. Appellee corporation produced an educational children's television program and published a children's magazine. Appellee publications corporation published a monthly periodical. The complaint alleged that appellees infringed and were continuing to infringe appellants' copyright by publishing an illustrated story that appellants claimed was copied from their book without their knowledge or consent and that appellee corporation infringed their copyright by producing, performing, taping, and televising, without knowledge or authorization, a television skit. The court of appeals affirmed the district court's dismissal of appellants' complaint. The court held that although there were similarities between the two works as to non-copyrightable matter, there was no substantial similarity between the two works as to copyrightable matter contrary to the district court's factual finding....