It's an interesting article.
There is an issue at the heart of it that runs deeper than copyright law.
Hollywood -- the industry as a whole trades in ideas -- that's the reason that you submit loglines to producers and not scripts -- no matter how well written the script, if they don't like the idea then the project isn't getting picked up.
In a very real sense they buy the idea -- because let's face it, the script can be fixed.
As screenwriters then, we are in the "ideas" business.
Only problem is that there is no legal protection for those ideas -- you can pitch to a producer, she/he can turn round and say "Actually we're already developing an idea just like that" which may or may not be true and they then take the idea and write the script themselves.
Now the truth of the matter is that however good the idea, it's in the script that the film is made.
So there is some legimacy in seeing the script as a different entity as the concept -- It is also true that there is no such thing as an original idea.
I had a situation five years back when I wrote a screenplay -- pitched the idea of it to an actor I wanted to work with in it -- only to be accused by her of stealing HER idea -- an idea that unbeknown to me, she had ptiched to my business partner whilst I was working on the screenplay!
Shit! She still believes to this day I ripped her off -- Of course if she knew me better, she'd know that I'm too arrogant to steal other people's ideas
I think, where I'm at with this is that I believe that a writer pitching an idea should be able to expect a degree of protection for their ideas -- and where there is a situation where a company is already developing a similiar project at the time of pitch, they should be able to back that up with evidence.
I think this would mean that companies would need a way of logging concepts they were working on, in the same way we log scripts with Library of Congress. It would need to be a confidential and private service -- but at least then these annoying lawsuits and accusations about "you stole my idea" would vanish.
Of course the real question is "Why would a company take the idea and not the script?"
And I think the lesson there is to make sure that the quality of the writing outshines the idea. If that's the case, all these isssues go away. It's easier and cheaper to buy a good script than to develop one from someone elses idea, because apart from at the low indie level, time to a producer is more valuable than money.