March 6, 2013 | Arts / Entertainment

Universal Studios fights 'Fifty Shades' porn parody

Universal Studios is hoping to stop Fifty Shades of Grey: A XXX Adaptation by Smash Pictures from ever seeing the light of day.

Last November, the company filed suit against Smash Pictures. It claimed that the porn parody infringed on Universal's copyright and trademark rights.

"By lifting exact dialogue, characters, events, story and style from the Fifty Shades trilogy, Smash Pictures ensured that the first XXX adaptation was, in fact, as close as possible to the original works," said the lawsuit.

Smash Pictures has now submitted its own position in a counterclaim.

"On information and belief, as much as 89% of the content of the allegedly copyrighted materials grew out of a multi-part series of fan fiction called Masters of the Universe based on Stephenie Myer's (sic) Twilight novels," it argued. "On information and belief, this content was published online between 2009 and 2011 in various venues, including fanfiction.net and the personal  website of Ericka (sic) Leonard [aka E L James]. On information and belief, much or all of this material was placed in the public domain."

Attorney Steven Lauridsen said that Smash Pictures is asking the court to declare the federal copyright registrations for the three Fifty Shades of Grey books invalid and unenforceable.

A decision on the case could be rendered this month. Let the nipple clamps of justice be applied!

'Fifty Shades' Porn Parody Countersuit Claims Books Are In Public Domain [The Hollywood Reporter]