Elisabeth Hasselbeck Wins Plagiarism Lawsuit

Elisabeth Hasselbeck has won a lawsuit charging her with plagiarism, it was announced Monday.

The U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, where the lawsuit was filed, found no evidence that Hasselbeck had plagiarized a book by author Susan Hassett.

Hassett contended that Hasselbeck, who is a co-host on "The View," had plagiarized a book she had written in 2008 on coping with the digestive disorder celiac disease. Hasselbeck, who suffers from the disease, wrote a book of her own on the subject called "The G-Free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide" in 2009, prompting the lawsuit. Hassett said that she had mailed the book to Hasselbeck, only to see it plagiarized.

A previous suit by Haslett was dismissed by a federal judge last year, but she filed a different one when that effort fell through.

In a statement, Orin Snyder, Hasselbeck's lawyer from the firm Gibson Dunn, called the decision "a complete victory. It confirms that Elisabeth wrote her best-selling book "The G-Free Diet" based on her own personal experiences and did not copy a thing from the plaintiff. We are grateful that the federal court fully vindicated Elisabeth, seeing through this misguided lawsuit."

Comments

[BocaMom]

03:24 PM on 12/09/2010

Outside of Whoopi, Elisabeth Hasselbeck is the only smart one on The View.

[glojet]

05:26 PM on 12/09/2010

oh please. her only good moments were captured on survivor. anytime the woman opens her mouth about political issues she becomes a laughing stock...she is ignorant, bigoted and brainwashed by corporate-america/gop (yes they are one in the same)

[murphysgirl]

10:17 PM on 12/09/2010

Yeah right..she's the most obnoxious out of the group.

[jsgaetano]

12:37 PM on 12/09/2010

If at first you don't succeed, go shopping for far right activist judges.

[WSAY]

03:00 PM on 01/01/2011

The phrase "activist judge" is propaganda. It is always an "activist judge" when you lose.

[Kelly8]

08:44 AM on 12/09/2010

The decision:

The court recognizes that Hassett worked hard and under difficult circumstances to assemble the facts and ideas included in Living. Yet even if defendants appropriated some of these facts and ideas and incorporated them in a new work, they are not liable to Hassett.

This may appear unfair to Hassett. However, this perceived unfairness is not an unforeseen byproduct of the copyright law, but "is, rather, the essence of copyright and a constitutional requirement."
http://pacer.mad.uscourts.gov/dc/cgi-bin/recentops.pl?filename=wolf/pdf/hassett%20sj%20allowed%20order.pdf

[MiamiMama]

07:36 PM on 12/08/2010

This lady is a total loser. What is she doing on tv? What has she done to be a celebrity. She is an opinionated right winger that uses tv to preach her message. She is the reason I will not watch that show. I can't stand her.

[kellyann91]

09:23 PM on 12/08/2010

MiamiMama, you sound like the Grinch Who Stole Christmas! Please keep the hate to yourself, and congrats Elizabeth you go girl!!!!

[himaui]

11:03 PM on 12/08/2010

thank you, kellyann!
i'm not a republican, and elizabeth has made me cringe with various comments on the view. however, she is a smart lady, heart-centered, and very thoughtful w/her ideas. i admire her for being so steadfast w/her views when she is surrounded by 4 very strong opinions and personalities that easily dominate her. she has worked hard for where she is, hasn't taken the high road, and worked her tail off to get that job and keep it. i admire her as a young mom as i am a mom w/young kids and she gets it, and has good advice and insight to what millions of us face day in and day out. she's a human being doing her own thing, and pursuing her life purpose and passion. she has even gone against some republican actions and called them out when they've needed it. i don't agree w/her on much politically, but i certainly admire her for standing her ground, having conviction, and TRYING to talk w/dems and find solutions.

miamimama - we all lose when we don't try. your attitude just digs a deeper hole for us. if you were my fellow dem colleague in washington, i think i would have a harder time talking to you, then debating an issue w/elizabeth as my respective republican congresswoman - she wants to solve problems and sees when the line has been crossed.

[PolitiConservative]

12:27 PM on 12/09/2010

What is she doing on TV? She's giving her opinion, just like the other women on the show. Whoopi, Griffin, and Rosie are opinionated left-wingers who use TV to preach their message. So you don't watch the show (I don't either).

[JohnRawlsInOveralls]

04:28 PM on 12/08/2010

I skimmed the actual memorandum and order signed by the judge (31 pages). The allegations by Hassett were in essence that Hasselbeck copied the overall style and organization of her book, did some actual copying, and rephrased and recast other ideas in Hassett's book.

The court did not deny that this is what Hasselbeck did, but it did find and conclude that a rational factfinder would be compelled to conclude that no "substantial similarity" exists, when applying the appropriate legal standards. "[A]ny similarities arise out of elements of [Hassett's book] not protected by copyright law." The legal standards are several and technical, balancing the several interests involved in copyright law disputes.

Hassett will have the right to appeal. But to be clear, contrary to Hasselbeck's hired hands, the judgment does not exonerate her fully. She still copied elements and parts of Hassett's book. It's just that (according to the court) the law does not protect the elements and parts of her book that Hasselbeck copied or rephrased.

Hasselbeck still cashed in on Hassett's hard work.

[buckeroo]

05:34 PM on 12/08/2010

I guess every book about a medical condition written by another person regarding ones own experiences would be considered cashing in on another hard work. I have a feeling that because Hasselbeck is more well known than Hassett some attorney was seeking to make a little rewards with very little work by obtaining an out of court settlement. Recall that there are more people in law school studying to be attorneys than there are practicing attorneys

[JohnRawlsInOveralls]

06:32 PM on 12/08/2010

It was not resolved by an out-of-court settlement. It was resolved by summary judgment, and Ms. Hassett was representing herself. That is, the party doing the suing is not represented by counsel in the case and there was no out-of-court settlement.

Not every book about a medical condition written by another person is cashing in on someone else's prior work on the same subject. Think convergent evolution. And when you use someone else's book as a template for your own, instead of using your own creative juices to write something ex nihilo, that's a foul, whether recognized as an actionable grievance at law or not.

[jlyn]

02:43 PM on 12/09/2010

Superb summary. Unfortunately, I'm not an attorney (and I don't even play one on TV), but it appears as if Hasselbeck may have ultimately written her book after first being inspired to do so by reading Hassett's work. There's no way of proving that, but it just seems as if Hasselbeck's fingerprints are all over every aspect of Hassett's creative ideas even if she didn't literally steal them.

[onionboy]

03:01 PM on 12/08/2010

This lawsuit would have been over months ago, but her initial response to the suit was delayed while she looked up the word "plagiarism".

[americles]

01:04 PM on 12/08/2010

I like her. She's feisty. When Obama "retires" in 2012, the two of them should do a talk show a la Parker-Spitzer.

[EyesWideShut7]

05:25 AM on 12/08/2010

Says the guy with 0 fans..

[Chris3131]

10:26 AM on 12/08/2010

You can't disagree with liberals on here without getting your post deleted, but this is perfectly fine. I'm glad we have our priorities straight here.

[OC4Obama4Pres]

10:44 AM on 12/08/2010

That is a lie.

[businesshugs]

11:43 AM on 12/08/2010

liar

[gratonite]

06:11 PM on 12/07/2010

Hasselbeck's voice makes my ears bleed. She is the most shrill and agonizing thing. And what has she injected into her mug? Get a load of it...looks weird. Like a ventriloquist's dummy or something.

[TheKurgan9]

11:36 PM on 12/07/2010

Oh yeah her voice is more annoying than Joy Behar's...right...give me a break.

[OC4Obama4Pres]

11:01 AM on 12/08/2010

It is more annoying than Joy Behar's voice.

[Chris3131]

10:27 AM on 12/08/2010

Yeah, she's not as hot as Pelosi or Behar, right? Right???

[rustysc]

05:54 PM on 12/07/2010

Who cares?

[gnomic]

05:51 PM on 12/07/2010

The leed here should be that a court thinks Hasselbeck had an original thought.

[Marturia]

05:35 PM on 12/07/2010

Looks like Hasselbeck took some of the tips from Hassett's book and wrote them down in her own words. It might be a sign of lazy writing, but it isn't plagiarism. If that were plagiarism, most of the people who write romance novels would be in legal trouble.

[Kelly8]

05:40 PM on 12/07/2010

Then she should have given credit...she did not. Hasselbeck's book contained NO bibliography.

And it was more than just 'some' tips.

[Marturia]

06:19 PM on 12/07/2010

She probably should have done a lot of things...like written a better book. But she doesn't seem to have done anything illegal.

[RightWrite]

03:08 PM on 12/07/2010

Can't ya just hear the booing from the Lefties -- they hate when the Right wins anything.

[mmsuki]

05:06 PM on 12/07/2010

And vice-versa.

[lifeofthemind]

05:18 PM on 12/07/2010

the right will accept anyone these days

[MaineCon]

02:28 PM on 12/07/2010

Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Isn't that the good looking lady with the great legs who has to sit around with that coven of Whoopi and that other obnoxious redhead (can't recall her name) on the view?

[Max Shaw]

02:46 PM on 12/07/2010

Yep, the one who never has anything important or relevant to say.

[PolitiConservative]

12:30 PM on 12/09/2010

If that were true then she would not be so hated here. There must be something important or relevant that she has said.

[thinkingwomanmillstone]

03:39 PM on 12/07/2010

The one with Chatty Cathy ring in her back? Pull it and a Glenn Beck talking point comes out.

[Aloewishes]

01:15 PM on 12/07/2010

The Elizabeth Hassell back case Has not been settled. Sue Hassett has recieved NO notification on her case, from the judge.
There was an aticle on TMZ online yesterday that said the verdict was announced Friday. And Huffington Post said the verdict was announced Monday 12/6. So who is BS who?

[gopgal]

02:40 PM on 12/07/2010

Well good grief, if TMZ says it, it must be so...........................give me a break.

[Kelly8]

03:49 PM on 12/07/2010

Ummmm, GOPgal - It really does pain me to correct you again - but you pretty much made Aloewishes' point. Please pause before you post.