Barry v. Hughes

The question is whether the defendants were plagiarists of the plaintiff, Barry’s, story. The theory is that Mackay saw it, and made it the basis of his play, which the defendants bought and used for one incident of their film. Several questions arise: (1) whether Mackay copied Barry’s story at all; (2) if he did, whether the defendants are chargeable with his use of it; (3) if Mackay copied it, and they followed him, whether they took more than Barry’s “idea”, as contrasted with its expression. It has been held that one who copies from a plagiarist is himself necessarily a plagiarist,…