pj mcilvaine & goliath

— by max adams

The day PJ McIlvaine was —

Supposed to be celebrating the baptism of a child, two strangers knocked on her door and informed her, in front of her children, 20th Century Fox was suing her for 15 million dollars. Two hours later, after grilling her with questions for two solid hours, they left her stunned and crying in her living room staring at a business card that stated they were “private investigators.”

This was the first contact PJ had from 20th Century Fox regarding a Media Fire online script library she created — and was the day 20th Century Fox filed a law suit against PJ in federal court for fifteen million dollars.

PJ is a struggling screenwriter who sells flowers over the phone by day and writes scripts by night. She has two produced credits. She is a recognizable presence on internet screenwriting bulletin boards [“Limama” on Done Deal]. She collected scripts she found [already] posted online and placed them in an online library on a Media Fire web page and made those scripts available to other screenwriters. Free of charge. As an educational tool.

•She doesn’t sell advertising.

•She doesn’t charge a membership fee.

•She doesn’t sell the material.

•She makes it available to other screenwriters for free.

•She posts scripts for educational purposes only.

•She only posts scripts already available on other sites online.

PJ doesn’t have the kind of cash needed to hire an attorney. Like I said, days she works a telephone line selling flowers to make ends meet and nights she writes — fighting to bridge that artist-who-does-art vs. artist-who-gets-paid-for-art gap. In between she is caring for an elderly relative suffering from dementia. In between that she is caring for an infant. She is going to need help. If you can help, please send a small gift donation via :::PayPal::: to pjscriptcooperative@gmail.com — people are putting together a small fund to help PJ retain an attorney.

*special thanks to everyone who has contributed to pj’s legal fund already you know who you are and you rock

•Web-script $uit

•Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation v. Patricia McIlvaine et al

•Concerning the $15 Million Script-Trading Lawsuit

*update 11.28: i am adding interesting links as they appear on the net, *note, i can only go so fast though they are piling up faster than i can put them up on a blog —

*update 11.29: note to press, celluloid blonde is the personal blog of :::screenwriter max adams:::, not pj mcilvaine, fact check already it is right up there at the top of the blog sheesh

•The Content Beast

•Corona Coming Attractions

•Torrent Freak

•Torrent Lawyer

•Tech-Bubble

•Links Daily

•Reddit

•Daily Mail

•P2P

•TG Daily

•Digital Media Wire

•Tech Dirt

•Collider

•Hollywood Reporter

•Screen Crave

•Digg

•Cinema Blend

•Consumerist

•Reuters

•MSNBC

•Comic Book Movie

•Spin Off Online

•Moviefone

•USA Today

•The Single Screenwriter

*other interesting and possibly related news:

•Cnet *u.s. seizes sites…

•NYTimes *u.s shuts down websites…