Oprah Sued for Copyright Infringement

By Richard Amada on Oct 28, 2010 | In Literary, Cinema, TV, Radio

In what could be the first instance of an author not being pleased to have passages of his book referenced on the Oprah Winfrey Show, a Pennsylvania writer is suing TV celebrity Oprah Winfrey and her production company for what the writer says was Ms. Winfrey's unauthorized quoting of his work on her show — quoting which the author claims amounts to copyright infringement as well as tortious conversion under state law.

According to the complaint filed with the federal court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Charles Harris tried pitching his booklet, "How America Elects Her Presidents," back in 2008 when Ms. Winfrey was actively supporting the presidential campaign of Barack Obama.  Mr. Harris claims he sent copies of the book to the show but got no response indicating any interest.  Then, according to the complaint, Mr. Harris was caused "shock and dismay" when in 2009 he heard Ms. Winfrey reading verbatim passages of the booklet on her show.

Result: litigation.

Oh, and he's asking for either actual damages (whatever those might be) or statutory damages up to $150,000 per infringing use.

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