Disney’s Win in ‘Pirates’ Copyright Suit Reversed by Ninth Cir.

A copyright suit alleging that Walt Disney Co. ripped off a screenplay for the first “Pirates of the Caribbean” film was revived by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Wednesday.

There were enough similarities between the screenplay and the movie for copyright claims brought by writers Arthur Lee Alfred II and Ezequiel Martinez Jr. and producer Tova Laiter to survive Disney’s motion to dismiss, the Ninth Circuit said. The ruling is in line with the court’s June decision reviving claims over the film “The Shape of Water,” which implied that early dismissals of copyright infringement claims based ...