Page:Penguin Books v. New Christian Church of Full Endeavor.pdf/35

 are a verbatim reproduction of the entire 488-page Workbook and verbatim reproductions of complete sections of the Course in a series of pamphlets. The scope of the infringement here is thus far greater.

, 41 F. Supp. 296 (S.D. Cal. 1941), cited by Defendants for support, is also easily distinguished. In, the plaintiff, who claimed that his book, "A Dweller on Two Planets," was a factual account dictated by a spirit from another planet, was estopped, because of the claim of fact, from asserting an infringement claim on defendant, who wrote a text involving the same subject matter. at 299. There was "no plagiarism or copying of words and phrases as such, but only slight similarity of experiences [between the two works]." Here, again, by contrast, Defendants are not alleged to have appropriated merely the ideas contained in the Course, but to have reproduced substantial sections of it verbatim. Moreover, "A Dweller on Two Planets" appears to have been written as a historical account, and presumably its style would have been descriptive, not prescriptive. at 297 (preface of book refers to it as a "history"). In addition, and perhaps more significantly, the decision is criticized and even mocked in the Nimmer treatise, which "wonders whether the  court would have invoked the same defense against Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on the