UPDATE/
I have been informed that the author of the Yahoo News article below was wildly premature in his reportage regarding the outcome of this legal action.
So while I stand by my own words, please accept my apologies for repeating Mr. Shirey's, uh, "premature adjudication."
/End UPDATE
For those of you keeping score at home, it appears that the "In Time" people have settled with Mr. Ellison.
From Yahoo News:
Harlan Ellison Just 'In Time' to Get Credit for the MovieThe article continues on like that in even greater detail , but the lesson it imparts in it's subtext is a simple and familiar one to regular readers of this blog: Pay the writer.
By Eric Shirey, Yahoo! Contributor Network
It looks like Harlan Ellison has won another lawsuit. The famous sci-fi author recently sued New Regency, director Andrew Niccol, and several unnamed John Does over plagiarism claims for the movie "In Time." Ellison settled for having his name added to the credits of the film. Whether they want to admit it or not, this may as well have been an admission of guilt for the movie's producing parties.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ellison filed the lawsuit back in September, claiming that "In Time" producers and director Niccol were committing copyright infringement. The Hugo Award-winning author alleged that "In Time" is based on one of his most popular short stories, "Repent, Harlequin! Said The Ticktockman." The tale was published in 1965. Ellison's suit claims it's "one of the most famous and widely published science fiction short stories of all time." Critic Richard Roeper even saw the similarities and stated that the movie was "based on a short story by the great Harlan Ellison" in his Fall Movie Preview.
The short story "Repent, Harlequin! Said The Ticktockman" and "In Time" really do have several similarities between them. The plot and setting of both are described as a "dystopian corporate future in which everyone is allotted a specific amount of time to live." In both the movie and the story, a government representative named the "Timekeeper" keeps track of how much time each citizen has to live.
...
It's just that simple.
See, I have it on good authority that Harlan Ellison doesn't just wander the Earth nailing writs to random strangers who might have plucked a line of two from one or another of his thousands of published works. He has far too many other, better things on which to spend the precious hours of his life. Rather, he is an old-fashioned gentleman who takes his craft seriously and is as implacable as the Hantavirus when he believes his work has been fucked over or ripped off.
And so, with his kind permission I am reprinting a short note penned by Mr. Ellison on this very subject in September of this year. It is as well-crafted and concise (no surprise) an explanation of the difference between a helping hand and a pickpocket's lift as I have read:
...
Yesterday, as I lay in bed, out of the blue I received a charming phone call, unsolicited, from a gentleman in Kentucky whose name is Mr. Wooten.
Apart from Mr. Wooten--otherwise unknown to me--having some years ago nicely sending me a "company chit" from the Ellison Coal Company from 'way back a hundred years ago, out of Harlan County, Kentucky, which he found by chance on e.bay or somesuch, because he thought it was a token that would make me smile--which it did--a tschotcke of small joy--I have no connection with the gentleman. Of any sort.
He asked me, "I've reread your story 'The Whimper of Whipped Dogs' and I'd like to take a go at writing an idea off it, sparked by your version. Do you mind?"
This is a trope, folks, pursuant to other prominent topics here currently. Pay attention.
I said to Mr. Wooten, instantly, "You have my blessing. Go for it. Absolutely. If you find the convenient space somewhere after the story, it would be nice if you kindly appended the phrase 'With acknowledgment to Harlan Ellison' or something similar. Nothing further need be worried about." I consider it true and proper and right for artist-to-artist crossover and feedback. That's what Art does. It soothes OTHER artists into reworking their imagination. I have no beef with that.
I am not a frivolous man when it comes to the creation of art. It is serious business, and takes what I have oft-quoted as "clean hands and composure."
Of the close onto two thousand creations that have flowed from me in 77 years, can you possibly calculate one-thousandth of the similar entities resembling mine that I have purposely NOT commented upon, toward which I've smiled and said, good on'ya, mate? Mr. Wooten's courteous request is one thing. Hands in my pocket are another.
If you pilfer a man's shovel, and he cannot get paid to dig the ditch, who is to call him a bad guy if he takes legal by-the-book steps to be compensated? Further, deponent sayeth not.
Which leaves me with nothing to add, except this:
With grateful acknowledgment to Harlan Ellison.
10 comments:
Yahoo called him a 'sci-fi' author.
*giggle*
How big a puppy shall he have when he reads that article? Larger than a shi-tzu, certainly.
I hadn't seen the movie, but as soon as I read a description of the plot, I thought "that sounds like 'Repent, Harlequin...'".
There are times I have found Ellison's public utterances egotistic and arrogant. I suppose he can make it stick, though.
I declared my independence from the cult of HE years ago, after reading, and otherwise witnessing what I felt was enough bombastic over the top HE histrionics to last a lifetime. Or several lifetimes.
But then I read something like this and dammit, I thought I was out but HE's pulling... me... back... in...
Continued health & long life to ya, Harlan.
But I still think Jeffty Is Five is maudlin & twee to the point of inducing nausea.
Has Mr. Ellison just given blanket permission to adopt, adapt, append and build-out on his entire body of work with the only requirement being an in-print acknowledgement?
WOWSERS!
I'm not sure if that's the most beneficent or most dangerous thing I've ever seen?
How does one mine that minefield?
A formal offer to serve as the ox for a tribe of maasai writers? The mind boggles.
I'll be very surprised if he settled for a mere screen credit, rather than a little folding money and the producer's right nut.
Drifty -
The day before In Time debuted, I was stuck in traffic somewhere and I turned on the radio, and out popped Terry Gross interviewing Andrew Nicoll. She gave her one-minute summary of the plot of the movie--and I immediately remembered the short story, but not the author--and then asked him where he got the idea.
He never mentioned the short story, she didn't follow up, and I turned off the radio with some anger and annoyance, which is what I usually do whenever NPR comes on. I made a small vow that I would not go see this movie because I was so certain that this guy had plaigerized the story. I also promptly forgot about my outrage and life went on.
Thank you for writing this, not only because it made me feel sane (I was right after all), but for the moral clarity on the issue at stake. It's funny how we in technology are so quick to protect IP when it is bits and bytes, but no so outraged when it is creative content.
Pay the writer,
Tengrain
That is so cool that you are corresponding with Harlan Ellison.
I count my snail mail correspondence with Bill Griffith, Gary Trudeau, and Berke Breathed as some of my most treasured possessions.
What about William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson? They did birth LOGANS'S RUN, after all, which hinges on the same exact premise. Harlan wasn't paid hush money for that one. Trust me, I'm all for "Pay the Writer" - the ACTUAL writers.
Logan's Run is a novel by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson. Published in 1967...
"'Repent, Harlequin!' ...[f]irst appearing in the science fiction magazine Galaxy in December 1965, it won the 1966 Hugo Award for best short story, and the 1965 Nebula Award. "Repent..." was written in 1965 in a single six-hour session as a submission to a Milford Writer's Workshop the following day.
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