Berkic v. Crichton’s Empirical Analysis
761 F.2d 1289 · 1985
Citation profile
43 federal appellate · 8 district · 1 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 95 later decisions — most recently March 2020 · most notably Yourish v. California Amplifier (1999), Williams v. Crichton (1996)
43 federal appellate · 8 district · 1 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Sid & Marty Krofft Television Productions, Inc. And Sid & Marty Krofft Productions, Inc. v. McDonald Corporation and Needham, Harper & Steers, Inc., Defendants- Sid & Marty Krofft Television Productions, Inc. And Sid & Marty Krofft Productions, Inc. v. McDonald Corporation and Needham, Harper & Steers, Inc., Defendants · Litchfield v. Spielberg · See v. Durang · Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp. v. MCA, Inc.
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 95 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“compares, not the basic plot ideas for stories, but the actual concrete elements that make up the total sequence of events and the relationships between the major characters.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“involve[d] a life struggle of kids fighting insurmountable dangers, because `[g]eneral plot ideas are not protected by copyright law....'”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Both deal with criminal organizations that murder healthy young people, then remove and sell their vital organs to wealthy people in need of organ transplants. To some extent, both works take their general story from the adventures of a young professional who courageously investigates, and finally exposes, the criminal organization. But this degree of similarity between the basic plots of two works cannot sustain a plaintiff's claim that the works are `substantially similar.'”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.