Patricia McIlvaine Being Sued By Fox For $12 Million For Website That Aggregates Movie Scripts

Patricia McIlvaine is being sued by Twentieth Century Fox for creating a free online library of Hollywood movie scripts to help other screenwriters find examples of what a successful movie script looks like. According to TorrentFreak.com Twentieth Century Fox did not send P.J. McIlvaine a notice about her supposed wrong-doing either. They just sent private investigators to her house, gathered information, and sent her a $12 million lawsuit. Fox is seeking damages and injunctive relief for copyright infringement and contributory copyright infringement.

Fox claimed that P.J. “uploaded and made available to others via the Internet a script of Deadpool, the copyright to which is owned by Fox, and which is a script for a project still in development.” I agree with Fox in the sense that P.J. should not have uploaded unreleased material, but the $12 million fine being imposed on a single individual seems pretty severe. Fox wants $150,000 for each of the 79 movie scripts that McIlvaine uploaded.

“PJ doesn’t have the kind of cash needed to hire an attorney. Like I said, days she works a telephone line selling flowers to make ends meet and nights she writes — fighting to bridge that artist-who-does-art vs. artist-who-gets-paid-for-art gap,” stated a posting on the Celluloid Blonde blog. “In between she is caring for an elderly relative suffering from dementia. In between that she is caring for an infant. She is going to need help.”

[TorrentFreak]

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