copyright intellectual-property
Movie to a book and copyright
<p>Scenario: a movie is made a couple of decades ago. The movie is NOT based on a book/literary work. Also, NO novelization is made of the movie. Hence, there is no literary work associated with the movie other than the script itself.</p>

<p>Now, assume some author, NOT associated with the movie, comes along and decides to write a book as follows. In the literary work, let's say the characters from the movie are changed, the setting is changed, and the story is flipped (for example, instead of aliens invading earth, the humans invade alien territory). The book does NOT use the script of the movie (so no word for word copying) except if there is an argument in the movie, there is an argument in the book (mimicking the plot point).</p>

<p>Question: Can the author above create a book that follows the movie's plot points without infringing on copyright or facing some other legal injunction?</p>

<p>The right to make a <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative_work" rel="nofollow noreferrer">derivative</a> work, such a a "book of the film", is a right that belongs to the copyright holder and anyone they give permission to. Making an unauthorised derivative work is a Prima facie breach. </p>

<p>However, the affirmative defence of <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use" rel="nofollow noreferrer">fair use</a> is available if you are in the USA.  For derivative works, the degree of <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformativeness" rel="nofollow noreferrer">transformitiveness</a> is a critical factor.</p>

<p>Further, a work <em>inspired</em> by another copyright work but which does not actually copy anything is <em>not</em> a derivative work. It is its own work. Ideas are not subject to copyright.</p>
