On 22 March, US District Judge Leigh Martin May ruled that the lawsuit, filed in Atlanta, should proceed and could, if proven, warrant an injunction. The claim has been brought by a collective of 54 Sudanese people of refugee status in the US, who are accusing the screenwriters and producers of breaching copyright protection on recorded interviews in which the individuals spoke to the film's screenwriter about their persecution and experience of seeking asylum.
According to the judgement, the interviews constituted a creative process designed to elicit material for a fictional script and that 'likely includes enough creativity to render the interviews an original work of authorship.' May concluded that the group was not entitled to a declaratory judgment because they weren't able to register their copyrights, but wrote that shouldn't deprive the plaintiffs of all copyright protection. She ruled that the group's allegation of join work was sufficient to support a claim of infringement.
The Hollywood Reporter has described May's judgment as a 'remarkable' decision with the potential to 'impact the way that research is done for feature films based on true stories.'
Source: ABA Journal
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