The U.S. Supreme Court delivered a TKO to MGM Monday, giving the daughter of a deceased screenwriter a chance to prove in court that the critically acclaimed movie Raging Bull infringed the copyright of a screenplay written by her father.
At the center of the dispute is the iconic 1980 movie Raging Bull, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro, who played the role of champion boxer Jake LaMotta.
LaMotta worked with his longtime friend, writer Frank Petrella, to tell the story of the boxer's career. Their joint venture produced three copyrighted works, including a 1963 screenplay that is the center of this case.
In 1976, Petrella and LaMotta sold it to a Hollywood production company. The company was eventually bought out by MGM, and in 1980 Raging Bull came out. The film won two Academy Awards, including one to De Niro for best actor.
A year later Frank Petrella died, and in 1990 the Supreme Court ruled that a copyright cannot be renewed by its owner, here MGM, without the permission of the original copyright owner's heirs, here Petrella's daughter Paula.
After many years and many exchanges between Paula Petrella's lawyer and MGM, she finally sued the moviemaker in 2009 for copyright infringement. Under the statute she was limited to three years of damages, dating back to 2006. But two lower courts threw her case out, agreeing with MGM that she had waited too long to sue.
On Monday, the Supreme Court disagreed. Writing for the six-justice majority that included both liberals and conservatives, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted that MGM has marketed Raging Bull continuously since 1980. Marketing expanded to include DVD sales, which is something unimagined back when Petrella first sold the rights.
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