Friday, March 03, 2006

Eating him up

Armin Weiwes, sometimes billed as "a real-life German cannibal" is upset because his legal bid to block the movie version of his (alleged) gruesome crime has failed. The film features a cannibal called Hartwin, but there the differences end: the plot is almost identical to the real-life events (which, as you may recall, were documented on video by Weiwes). Director Martin Weisz said the film was merely inspired by real events - but that hasn't stopped them trying to get as much interest in the film from the public's fascination with the case. (And fascinated we are - I'm not sure if this is my third of fourth mention of same here.)
And speaking of things copyright (well, almost) - it will be interesting to see if Michael
Balgent and Richard Leigh are successful in their claim that author Dan Brown lifted ideas central to their work The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail for the Da Vinci Code. At what point does an idea or concept become copyrightable, if at all? And is there a difference between ideas and themes?

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