Court: No copyright infringement by HBO’s ‘Six Feet Under’

SAN FRANCISCO
August 30, 2006 12:03pm

In an opinion that reads like a television critic’s review of a TV program, a federal court has rejected arguments that the HBO series “Six Feet Under” violated the copyright of a similar show.

While there seem to be similarities in plot between the cable TV series and the script for “The Funk Parlor,” the court says “an actual reading of the two works reveals greater, more significant differences and few real similarities at the levels of plot, characters, themes, mood, pace, dialogue, or sequence of events.”

Those differences, it says, make the HBO series an original work and not one violating the “Funk Parlor” copyright.

“Sophie, a devout and obsessive Catholic who plans to enter the convent, is a psychopathic killer,” note the judges of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Sophie is a key character of the “Funk Parlor” script.

“Unlike Sophie, Brenda (in the HBO shows) is not homicidal. Brenda, a massage therapist, is psychologically astute and expresses no interest in religion,” the ruling says.

The judges also parse the plots and other dramatic aspects of the two works in reaching their conclusion.