According to this, CBS says ABC’s upcoming summer reality series, “Glass House,” is copying CBS’s “Big Brother” in a way that constitutes “a classic case of copyright infringement.”:
I didn’t think you could copyright an idea. I was under the impression that there were several, restaurant, singing, dating, home-fixing up and dance-themed reality shows that were indistinguishable from each other on the various broadcast and cable networks. Why would a faux Big Brother be an infringement?
Case law in the 1970’s established that one can copyright an idea. This is presumably because judges are maroons.
No one’s ever fixed it, because to explain both that it has happened and why it’s a bad idea usually gets a cease and desist letter from Spider Robinson for infringing on his short story “The Melancholy of Elephants.”
Wow… If reality shows start suing other reality shows for being the same reality show as their reality show… Where would it possibly end? Seems like nearly every one of these things is a rip-off of another one.
