'Catcher' Ruling Will Discourage Other Would-Be Parodies, Lawyer Says
A federal judge has enjoined publication of a sequel to The Catcher in the Rye, saying the new book is an unauthorized infringement of the copyright held by the original novel’s author, J.D. Salinger.
U.S. District Judge Deborah Batts of Manhattan issued the injunction yesterday, rejecting claims that the new book, 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye, was transformative and thus a fair use of Salinger’s original book, the New York Law Journal reports. She said the new book simply rehashed themes of the original and was not a parody.
The new book features a 76-year-old man known as “Mr. C” who wanders the streets of New York after escaping from a nursing home. He returns to many of the same places visited by Holden Caufield in Catcher and uses many of the same phrases as Holden, Batts wrote in her opinion (PDF).
“For example, like Holden, Mr. C. is a frequent liar, constantly complains, is out of shape, has trouble maneuvering in the dark, combs his hair with his hand to one side, wears the same red hunting cap, is obsessed with whether birds migrate in the winter, and likes the feeling of standing still in museums,” Batts said. “He also loves to use the words ‘goddam,’ ‘phony,’ ‘crumby,’ ‘lousy,’ ‘hell’ and ‘bastard,’ as well as the phrase ‘kills me,’ but does not like the word ‘grand.’ “
Lawyer Alan Friedman, a litigation partner with Katten Muchin Rosenman, says the ruling is important because fair use boundaries are not set in stone. In an e-mail forwarded to the ABA Journal by a publicist, Friedman points out that the holder of the copyright to Gone With the Wind was unable to prevent publication of The Wind Done Gone because it was found to be a true parody of the original novel.
Batts’ ruling yesterday will discourage other authors from attempting to profit from copyrighted works, according to Friedman. “Surely, there is significant money to be made publishing a novel about a young James Bond, an old Huckleberry Finn or of dozens of other brand-name characters, and that is before counting the movie rights,” said Friedman, who is the former general counsel to Miramax Film Corp. “Judge Batts’ decision should make the specter of fighting over ‘parodies’ including such characters’ work and many like it, more remote.”
60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye is written by an author identified as J.D. California, who is actually Swedish author Fredrik Colting. He commented on the ruling in an e-mail sent to the New York Times, saying he would appeal.
“I am pretty blown away by the judge’s decision,” Colting said. “Call me an ignorant Swede, but the last thing I thought possible in the U.S. was that you banned books.”
