Case Title: Anna Pasternak v. Lara Prescott, In The High Court of Justice Business And Property Courts of England and Wales
Lara Prescott, a US author, has won a copyright case brought against her by Anna Pasternak, the great niece of Boris Pasternak, the author of Dr Zhivago.
Pasternak filed a claim in the High Court, alleging that seven chapters in Prescott's book The Secrets We Kept (Hutchinson) infringed on her copyright in Lara (William Collins). Prescott, she claimed, had copied a significant portion of her book's selection, structure, and arrangement of facts and incidents.
On October 25th, Justice Edwin Johnson dismissed the claims, except for one point concerning the proper acknowledgement of a few lines of a translation of a publicly available Russian judge's judgement.
Johnson stated that the sequence of events in each work "follows the same basic chronology" and that "some of the same details can be found in each work," adding that "none of these areas of similarity or overlap seem to me to come anywhere near establishing that the defendant copied the selection of events in the relevant chapters of Lara, or any part of that selection."
He cited case law that stated: "The need to prove copying entails demonstrating a design relationship between the defendant's and the claimant's works. It is, however, a mistake to believe that any nexus will suffice. Copyright law has never gone so far as to protect broad themes, styles, or ideas."
Pasternak's book is a true account of the real-life inspiration for the character of Lara in Dr Zhivago, who she claimed was the author's secret mistress and literary muse, Olga Ivinskaya. Prescott's novel incorporates the Cold War reaction to the publication of Dr Zhivago into its plot, describing how the CIA smuggled copies of Dr Zhivago into the Society Union after the communist regime banned it.
"I'm very pleased to have been vindicated by the English High Court," Prescott said. The court found no instances of infringement between my novel The Secrets We Kept and Anna Pasternak's book Lara: The Untold Love Story that Inspired Doctor Zhivago.
Throughout its nearly 150-page decision, the court forensically dissected and then dismantled Ms. Pasternak's claims that "The Secrets We Kept" infringed on the structure, selection, and arrangement of her book, concluding that no such infringement occurred."
"Above all, this decision validates my artistic integrity over the years I spent researching, writing, and editing my novel."
"Ms. Pasternak filed this lengthy and expensive lawsuit against me knowing that my publisher and I would be defending my work." I'm grateful to Penguin Random House for being such a steadfast publisher, and I'm glad the court saw through her unfounded claims.
"Unwarranted copyright litigation benefits no one; it merely threatens to erode the artistic freedoms we all cherish."
I'm relieved that I can now return to what matters most to me: my family and the completion of my second novel."
A Penguin Random House UK spokesperson said the publisher was "delighted" Prescott was successful in defending the copyright infringement claim.
"Penguin Random House UK has a long and proud history of supporting its authors, and we had no hesitation in standing by Ms. Prescott from the beginning," they said.
"This decision serves as a timely reminder that copyright law exists to protect authors' rights and creative expression while also allowing writers to draw on the historical record."
It forbids anyone from monopolising historical facts or sources."
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