Case: Copyrights/Pleadings (S.D.N.Y.)

A federal district court in New York granted Good for You Productions LLC’s motion to dismiss a copyright holder’s infringement claim on the grounds that he failed to sufficiently allege substantial similarity or actual copying. The court found that the complaint offered no evidence of direct copying, and that the copyright holder’s allegations of access through unspecified third parties were too speculative. And the court held that the complaint failed to identify substantial similarities between two of HBO’s reality shows and protectable elements of the work at issue.