" We know of two companies, each of which within
the space of six months produced stories that were plainly
recognizable as adaptations of "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder,"
the second story in "The Return of Sherlock Holmes." Another company
released a picture that was simply Maupassant's "The Necklace" so
carelessly re-dressed that we wonder the editor did not recognize it
after reading the first paragraph of the synopsis.
The final test of whether a story really resembles another closely
enough to suggest intentional plagiarism is when the similarity
between the two is recognized immediately by people in many different
parts of the country--yet that is too late to help any one involved!
The short-stories of "O. Henry" have been so widely read that when a
new story appears that closely resembles one of his it is not long
before comparisons are made. Three or four years ago a certain company
made a two-part picture that so closely resembled O. Henry's "The
Reformation of Calliope" that after its release one of the present
writers received letters of inquiry from photoplaywrights in five
different cities commenting upon it, three of the letters being from
young writers who, recognizing the resemblance, asked if it were
"permissible to take the principal plot-idea of a copyrighted story
and, by changing it about slightly, make it into a salable photoplay.
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