Prince's single 'The most beautiful girl in the world': compensation for moral damages for infringement of copyright also confirmed.

Laura Bussoli - Senior Associate

The case is not recent, (it all started in 1995...), but a few days ago the Supreme Court gave its last word on the mount of damages due to Bruno Bergonzi and Michele Vicino from the heirs of the famous American pop star, Prince Rogers Nelson, better known as Prince, for having violated the latter's copyright with the famous song "The most beautiful girl in the world".

On January 25th 2021, the Supreme Court ruled on the appeal filed by Prince's heirs against the 2018 decision of the Rome Court of Appeal awarding the two Italian authors, in addition to economic damages (in Euro 956,608.00...), also moral damages, in the lower amount of Euro 40,000.00, for the "artistic frustration" suffered by the same authors as a result of the plagiarism of their original work.

But let's take a step back: in 1995 Bruno Bergonzi and Michele Vicino together with Edizioni Chappell s.r.l. - respectively authors and assignee of the exploitation rights of the song "Takin' me to paradise" - brought an action before the Court of Rome to ascertain the plagiarism of the above-mentioned musical work by Prince Rogers Nelson, Controversy Inc. and Fortissimo Gruppo Editoriale s.r.I., respectively author and assignee of the economic rights of the song distributed under the title "The most beautiful girl in the world", with the consequent sentence to pay compensation for economic and moral damages.

On January 30th 2003, the Court of Rome rejected the application of Bruno Bergonzi, Michele Vicino and Edizioni Chappell s.r.l..

However (although after 7 years...) the first Court's decision was overturned on appeal: the Court of Appeal ascertained the plagiarism, prohibited the diffusion of the song in the Italian State and condemned Prince and Controversy Inc. jointly and severally, to pay compensation for economic damages liquidated in the amount of Euro 956.608.00 to Bergonzi and Vicino. Fortissimo Gruppo Editoriale was instead condemned to pay compensation in the lower amount of Euro 6,888.40; in this judgment, the Court of Appeal rejected, however, the claim for compensation for damages for breach of moral rights of the Italian authors, deeming insufficient the allegations of evidence in support of such damage provided by the plaintiffs.

This ruling was appealed and with judgment no. 11225 of May 29th 2015, where the Supreme Court ruled on both the extension of the effects of the conviction limited to the Italian territory and on the non-recognition of the infringement of the moral copyright, considering that the latter should instead have been recognized .

In particular, the Supreme Court held that the reasoning of the Court of Appeal of Rome was apodictic when it assessed as insufficient the evidence put forward in support of the moral damage suffered by the authors in their documents, reiterating the well-known principle, therefore also applicable to the infringement of moral copyright, according to which, in the event of an ascertained infringement of the same, the damage suffered by the author must be considered in re ipsa and as such must be demonstrated only in its extent, without the plaintiff being required to prove anything else. According to the Supreme Court, the "artistic frustration" complained of and suffered by authors as a result of plagiarism is sufficient to justify the claim for compensation for the moral right.

In 2018, the Court of Appeal of Rome issued a judgment prohibiting Prince's heirs from any further reproduction of the song "The most beautiful girl in the world" and, on the basis of the referral of the Supreme Court, sentenced them, to pay the sum of EUR 40,000.00 each, calculated on an equitable basis, plus interest for moral compensation.

This seemed to be the end of the matter, but the heirs of the famous pop star challenged the decision again, complaining - as far as is relevant here - of the incorrect application of the rules on moral copyright: this last appeal was entirely rejected by the Supreme Court in its recent ruling, which confirmed the accuracy of the argument followed by the Court of Appeal in settling damages for breach of moral copyright.

The judgment, which definitively closes the case of The Most Beautiful Girl in the World, concerns not only the already widely recognized right of the judge to settle the damage, including moral damage, resulting from copyright infringement on an equitable basis, but above all. the sure connection that can and must exist - says the Court - between the extent of moral damage (and the relative compensation) and the space-time dimensions of the plagiaristic conduct, and therefore, ultimately, of diffusion and success of the infringing work.

THE PROTECTION OF BIOGRAPHICAL WORKS

Can we freely write, publish or tell the lives of famous people?

On this point the Court of Milan (IP Section) recently rendered a descision to settle a dispute between two authors (Antonio Prestigiacomo and Marcello Sorgi) on the life of the Sicilian Prince Raimondo Lanza di Trabia, the man who invented the soccer transfer market and who was Rita Hayworth's lover and a close friend of Onassis.

The Court ruled that in the case of biographical works of well-known personalities, the facts and events that affected them belong to the common patrimony and are not autonomously monopolizable by anyone. Copyright protection protects instead the formal choices, the stylistic and editorial techniques, created by an author.

The Court ruled that the text of plaintiff Antonio Prestigiacomo, "The Restless Prince. The life of Raimondo Lanza di Trabia "undoubtedly enjoys copyright protection both in terms of originality and novelty. As for the originality, Prestigiacomo’s Book is in fact configured as the personal result of the harmonization of real facts, also historical, and true facts, organized and stylistically reworked with a particular technique. The text is in fact the fruit of the alternation, in the narrative fabric, of interviews articulated in questions and answers, clearly identifiable by the presence of the quotation marks, made by the author to various characters who have had direct knowledge of the Prince.

However, the Court ruled that with respect to the identity of the main character and of many events narrated, there is a certain distance between the two stories, so to believe that they are autonomous creative works, belonging to different genres, each individually protected.

The work of Prestigiacomo cannnot in the end be considered plagiarized by that of Marcello Sorgi and that the biographical works of well-known personalities, but not with reference to the facts and the events that concerned them,are not monopolizable.

The Shape of Water accused of Plagiarism.

As the Academy Awards night apporaches, controversy grows around the films selected by the Jury.

"The shape of water", the film by Guillermo del Toro, nominated for 13 Academy Awards, is accused of plagiarism: the film would be based on the 1969 play 'Let Me Hear You Whisper' of the Pulitzer Prize Paul Zindel . The legal action against the film's director, producer and movie house was presented by David Zindel, the son and heir of the famous playwright, who blames them for not having "shamelessly copied the story, the elements and the characters" of his father's comedy, even using the same words.

 The word is now up to the Court, called to determine whether Zindel's allegations are founded. However, it is not the first time in Hollywood that there have been battles on accusations of plagiarism, especially in the presence of films of expected success.

The classic Western by Sergio Leone For a handful of dollars is one of the peaks of its kind, thanks to the incredible performance of Clint Eastwood, a tramp gunner who, during his wanderings, ends up in the middle of a conflict between two families in a small village on the border with Mexico. Unfortunately, the film is also an unauthorized remake of a film by Akira Kurosawa entitled Yojimbo. Kurosawa sent Leone a letter saying "Nice movie, but it was my Movie", and sued him asking for a percentage of the proceeds. The two agreed for a reimbursement of 100 thousand dollars and 15% of profits worldwide.

Another striking case was that of Terminator. Harlan Ellison is one of the most litigious authors in the American science fiction world, and there are now dozens of lawsuits against people accused of stealing his ideas. However, the lawsuit he filed against James Cameron for The Terminator was slightly different. Ellison wrote an episode of Beyond the Limits called Demon With a Glass Hand, which told the story of a robot soldier who, disguised as a human, is sent back in time. Orion Pictures decided to pay compensation before the case arrived in court, and Ellison earned money and was credited to the film.

Last we hanve to mention the case of "Coming to America” a movie starrign Eddie Murphy.

In 1982, the well-known screenwriter Art Buchwald wrote a treatment for Paramount entitled King for a day, in which the protagonist was a rich and arrogant African ruler who traveled to America. The protagonist should have been Eddie Murphy. Paramount bought the treatment and spent a few years in a vain attempt to find someone who wrote the screenplay before leaving the project in 1985. The rights returned to Buchwald, which sold them to Warner Brothers. Later Paramount made a film with Eddie Murphy who played the part of a rich and ignorant African ruler traveling to the United States. The film was titled The Prince Looking Wife. Buchwald was neither paid nor credited, so he sued but Paramount agreed privately with him for an unknown figure.