MANHATTAN - A federal judge has refused both sides' requests for summary judgment in a case in which Dreamworks and Warner Bros. are accused of violating copyright by stealing the plot of a low-budget 1979 science fiction movie, "Parts: The Clonus Horror," for the 2005 release, "The Island." Both flicks involve a colony of clones who are raised to believe that if they win a lottery they will go to a wonderful place called "America" (in Clonus) or to "the Island," but who actually are raised so their organs can be harvested for the rich and powerful.
In both movies, two clones fall in love and take on the system. Judge Schira Scheindlin wrote that it's indisputable that Clonus Associates and Robert Fiveson own copyright in the old flick, but it's uncertain whether the two films are so similar as to be actionable, and there's also the possibility that the similar works were created independently.
