The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to hear the copyright dispute over an early screenplay of Raging Bull.
Frank Petrella's daughter, Paula Petrella, contends that Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and MGM Holdings Inc infringed upon a 1963 screenplay that the Robert Deniro-led film is based, Reuters reports.
Fox was named a defendant due to it distributing MGM movies on DVD.
Petrella claims that MGM is infringing by still selling the movie after she renewed the copyright on the screenplay back in 1991.
Both a federal district judge and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco have ruled that MGM is right in its argument. The film company has argued that Petrella took too long to make claims on the copyright. Plus, MGM says that boxer Jake LaMotta agreed to give the studio the rights to his story.
So Petrella has moved on to the U.S. Supreme Court for a chance at victory against MGM, The Huffington Post notes. The court agreed to hear it and seven other cases for its next session.
The lower courts said in their rulings, Petrella "was aware of her potential claim (as was MGM) since 1991, when her attorney filed renewal applications... She did not filer her lawsuit until 18 years later, in January 2009."
image: Amazon