Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2008 | 11:44 a.m.
Rita Rudner and Jay Leno got the last laugh: The comics have settled their year-old lawsuit in federal court, putting an end to “joke books” that collected and repackaged thousands of jokes without the comedians’ permission.
Rudner and Leno announced they will donate all proceeds charity, as promised when the suit was filed.
Rudner called her jokes "verbal children," and said Judy Brown had “kidnapped them” in an
interview last year with The Sun’s John Katsilometes.
Rudner, currently headlining at Harrah’s, Las Vegas, told The Sun she became aware that Brown’s reps might be plucking jokes from her act while she was still headlining at New York-New York. "I was signing autographs after my show one night and a woman came up and said, 'I work for Judy Brown and I am so excited! You have so much new material!' "
The lawsuit, filed Nov. 29, 2006, in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, alleged that Brown and her publishers violated federal copyright and trademark statutes by engaging in wholesale and unauthorized reproduction of the plaintiffs' original material.
Under the settlement, Brown's publishers pledged to immediately cease the distribution, manufacture and sale of Brown's joke books -- including "The Comedy Thesaurus," "Joke Stew," "Squeaky Clean Comedy" and "Mom -- This Joke's for You" -- and to pay compensation to the plaintiff comedians. Brown also agreed to a monetary settlement, apologized for her actions, and pledged to never again copy any of the plaintiffs' jokes without express permission to do so.
Other plaintiff-comics involved in the lawsuit include Jimmy Brogan, Diane Nichols, Sue Pascoe (widow of comedian Ronnie Shakes), Kathleen Madigan and Bob Ettinger.
“I thought it was important to make it clear that jokes are protected like any other art form,” Leno said in a press release. “ On behalf of many other hardworking comedians, I'm very glad we've been able to stop this practice once and for all.”
Ba-dum-bum!
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