A man awaiting trial for making bomb threats against a U.S. attorney is passing some of his time behind bars by suing bestselling author Stephen King.
In a suit filed Dec. 27 in U.S. District Court, inmate James Richards asks for $10 million from the veteran horror and fantasy writer and his publisher for allegedly stealing the idea for the novel-turned-movie "The Green Mile" from him.
Simon and Schuster, parent company of the 1999 novel's publisher, Pocket Books, is also named in the suit. Richards wants the publisher to stop selling the book and asks that the film's producer, Warner Brothers Inc., stop broadcasting the film version, although the company is not named as a plaintiff.
Richards claims King lifted the plotline for the book, about a man with supernatural healing powers who is falsely accused of murder, from a manuscript he sent him 16 years ago. The 1999 film version starred Tom Hanks.
The inmate filed the suit from Norfolk Corrections Detention Center in Massachusetts, where he is waiting trial on charges of making bomb threats to Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan, according to a federal indictment.
In 2004, federal prosecutors sought a court-ordered psychiatric exam to have Richards determined incompetent to stand trial, according to court records. He passed and plans to represent himself, reportedly by launching an insanity defense in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts.
Representing himself in the civil suit against King, Richards alleges he completed the manuscript, "The Selling of the President — 2000," in Bangor, Maine, in 1988 and sent it to several publishers and King, allegedly his neighbor at the time.
"Plaintiff never heard anything from defendant King regarding the manuscript," the suit claims. "Plaintiff did not sell any rights to his manuscript to any of the book publishers to whom he sent his manuscript."
However, Richards claims, when he read "The Green Mile" "several weeks ago" behind bars, he noted huge similarities.
In King's book, the character John Coffey is "an African-American male who has extraordinary healing powers and who was falsely convicted of a crime in part due to confusion by law enforcement officials about his healing powers," the suit claims.
In Richards' manuscript, "the plaintiff introduces a character named 'John Coffey,' a native American who has extraordinary healing powers and who has trouble with the legal authorities because of those healing powers," according to the suit.
"Plaintiff contends that in the book, 'The Green Mile,' defendant King used the ideas contained in the plaintiff's manuscript ... without attribution or consent," the suit alleges.
Records from the U.S. Copyright Office show that Richards registered a manuscript entitled "The Selling of the President — 2000" in 1987. In 1992, the work was re-registered under the title, "Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only Psychotic," and was described as an autobiography.
"The plaintiff seems to have some credibility issues," said Adam Rothberg, a spokesman for Simon and Schuster. "We have every confidence that 'Green Mile' springs from the evergreen and ever-growing imagination of Stephen King."
Well, even if the idea came from this guy's manuscript, there are some problems:
1) The manuscript was allegedly sent to King in 1988, 12 years prior to Richards obtaining an official copyright. I wonder when King obtained his copyright for The Green Mile?
2) Plagiarism, at least requires that more than 80% of the original text was copied. I'm not sure of the exact copyright laws but, a vague similarity in content, won't be enough, even if King did get his inspiration for his book from that manuscript.
3) Richard's mental state has already been called into question.
"What one believes to be real, will be real in it's concequences"
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world"
01-18-2005 08:10 AM
