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The story, written by Harper Lee, is widely regarded as semi-autobiographical - her father defended two black men accused of murder. After they were convicted, hanged and mutilated he never tried another criminal case. The character Dill was based upon Lee's childhood friend Truman Capote. There were other parallels as well.
Lee never wrote another novel again. Ms. Lee valued her privacy, and it has been rare for her name to surface in the news.
(CNN) -- Author Harper Lee has not published a novel in more than a half-century, but her words in federal court seek to protect the 87-year-old's best-known intellectual property, "To Kill a Mockingbird."
The Alabama writer has sued her hometown Monroe County Heritage Museum for trademark infringement, saying it is illegally using her fame for its own gain.
"The museum seeks to profit from the unauthorized use of the protected names and trademarks of 'Harper Lee' and 'To Kill a Mockingbird.' It is a substantial business that generated over $500,000 in revenue for 2011, the last year for which figures are available," said the lawsuit filed last week. "But its actual work does not touch upon history. Rather, its primary mission is to trade upon the fictional story, settings and characters that Harper Lee created."snip
The museum fully acknowledges its most famous resident. Its website is www.tokillamockingbird.com and says it "maintains and operates six historic sites in Monroe County, Ala., that collectively interpret the area's rich history," including "the literary legacy of (fellow author) Truman Capote and Harper Lee," who were childhood friends.
A gift shop -- called the Bird's Nest -- sells memorabilia, T-shirts, even cookware about the book, and the museum stages a "To Kill a Mockingbird" play each spring.
An attorney for the facility strongly denied Lee's allegations.
"Every single statement in the lawsuit is either false, meritless, or both," said Matthew Goforth, a Birmingham-based attorney hired for the museum. "It is sad that Harper Lee's greedy handlers have seen fit to attack the non-profit museum in her hometown that has been honoring her legacy and the town's rich history associated with that legacy for over 20 years. Unfortunately for Harper Lee, those handlers are doing nothing but squandering her money with this lawsuit. The museum is squarely within its rights to carry out its mission as it always has."
Lee in her lawsuit acknowledged the novel's impact in her community. "The town's desire to capitalize upon the fame of 'To Kill a Mockingbird ' is unmistakable: Monroeville's town logo features an image of a mockingbird and the cupola of the Old County Courthouse, which was the setting for the dramatic trial in 'To Kill a Mockingbird.'"
Her lawyers said they had earlier attempted to stop the museum from any unauthorized commercial use of the novel, and claimed it tried to block her federal registration of the "To Kill a Mockingbird" trademark.
"Historical facts belong to the world, but fiction and trademarks are protected by law," the lawsuit says.
Nelle Harper Lee -- her full name -- separately settled a lawsuit last month in which she claimed she was "duped" into signing over the copyright to her book six years ago. Her current lawsuit says the novel still sells about a million copies a year.
Well, clearly I'm not a lawyer. But (always the "but"), the museum's url, exhibits and activities all center around Harper Lee's works. Did they even ask her for permission or include her in their decisions about using her work? My money is on "no."
But, there are lawyers involved, so no telling. I just really hate to hear about this.
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6 comments:
They probably assumed she is already dead and will not bother with their enrichment scheme.
[your "snip" does not work]
The snip was just to show that I didn't copy and paste all the article there - it was to show that there was a gap. Not a link.
It is customary, in respect of readers' screen scrolling to put most of the post under cut; I thought your "snip" means just that.
Not sure that's customary, Tat. First time I've heard of it, and every similar usage I've encountered is as it is here. However, not worth arguing. Perhaps I'll put snip - rest of material not shown here or something like that so you'll be happy. ;)
More than customary - especially beneficial for readers who use RSS
I found out who to do it in Blogger:
http://www.craftaholicsanonymous.net/how-to-truncate-post-in-blogger
I thank you for your efforts, but I have used that particular effect plenty of times here already. Putting a page break would hide the rest of my post, which is not what I wanted. I just wanted to show that the quote I was using was not cut complete from the original source, which I linked to with all of the text I had cut from that page.
I did not want to cut the entire post, because some of the material not used I had covered in previous paragraphs I had written.
I used to use the "under the fold" technique a lot more in dialup days when I had a lot of pictures that I didn't want loading on the main page to slow overall loading times. If one wanted to see them, then by clicking the extended portion, then one could wait for the pics to load. I believe I have my widget customised with the text "Can you stand it" to signify clicking to open the extended portion.
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