Post date: January 14, 2002 — 9:15 a.m.
Harvard Law School third-year student Brian Devine has won first prize in the Los Angeles County Bar Association Entertainment Law Writing Competition of 2001 for his paper “‘Free as the Air’ – Rethinking the Law of Story Ideas.” Devine’s paper surveys the current law of story idea submission claims, and suggests some changes that would improve the law. This issue frequently arises when a movie becomes a commercial success and someone claims the studio stole the idea.
Devine will receive a $1,000 award and his paper will be published in the spring 2002 issue of COMM/ENT, the University of California Hastings Communications and Entertainment Law Journal.