Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Wipeout Is Sued For Copyright Infringement

Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) has accused ABC for copyright infringement. TBS believes that ABC’s show “Wipeout” is exactly like several Japanese competition series. However, this has happened before. Success of a series usually results in lawsuits from other parties claiming to have stolen their TV show. TBS owns the Japanese copyright of several obstacle course series like “Takeshi’s Castle” or “Sasauke.” TBS’s lawsuit against ABC states that the show “Wipeout” has unlawfully copied the same type of “premise, format, sequence of events, introductory segment, tone, scene setups, narration, and dialogue” as several of other Japanese competition series. TBS has filed their lawsuit against ABC with the help of Larry Stein, a litigation attorney who has experience with “high-profile profit participation cases.” This is not Stein’s first lawsuit against ABC. Twice in the past Stein has filed lawsuits, one for “Home Improvement” and the other for “Who wants to be a Millionaire.”

1 comment:

William said...

These Japanese obstacle shows are insane. Spike TV used to air, I'm no sure if they do anymore, a show called Most Extreme Elimination Challenge. It basically was a spoof of one of those Japanese obstacle course shows, with americanized voice overs. The show was hilarious, but I wonder if there were any lawsuits against it. As for TBS and ABC, those shows are extremely lame. I can't believe either of those shows are making money off of them.