Despite having died forty years ago, pulp fiction author Cornell Woolrich is back in court. This prolific writer pounded out reams of pulp fiction stories, living to see a couple works scooped up by Hollywood–most famously, the short story that inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window.
In 1990, the original buyer of that short story sued the movie studio for copyright infringement, eventually winning his case in the U.S. Supreme Court. Earlier this week, the estate of that original buyer sued another Hollywood production for infringement.
“The lawsuit claims [Steven] Spielberg conceived and developed the idea for ‘Disturbia‘ from a desire ‘to remake the ‘Rear Window‘ film for a younger audience.'”
Like some anxious literary blogger, Woolrich churned out posts for a relentless industry; and then, after all that work, one particular piece inadvertently inspired a feature film and endless litigation. What does the future hold for bloggers, the pulp fiction scribblers of the 21st Century?