Disturbia / Rear Window What's the difference? Hence, Spielberg being sued

The good folks over at Filmstalker have this tale and it is a very obvious likeness between the two movies (our review of Rear Window is here):

Steven Spielberg is one of a few people being sued over Disturbia, starring Shia LaBeouf. It stems from the films likeness to Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window.

According to the law suit, the film makers failed to get the appropriate rights to the book on which both appear to be based.

Disturbia was made by among others, Steven Spielberg's Dreamworks, Viacom Inc, and Universal Pictures. All three are named in the lawsuit, and are accused of copyright infringement and breach of contract.

Rear Window was originally based on the short story Murder from a Fixed Viewpoint, when Alfred Hitchcock and James Stewart made Rear Window they obtained the rights to the short story. The lawsuit claims that the makers of Disturbia did not.

What the defendants have been unwilling to do openly, legitimately and legally, (they) have done surreptitiously, by their back-door use of the 'Rear Window' story without paying compensation.

Reuters through Yahoo! News, say the lawsuit claims both films are essentially the same. And that there are similarities between the two films, and the short story. Both in characters involved and the plot.

In the Disturbia film the defendants purposefully employed immaterial variations or transparent rephrasing to produce essentially the same story as the Rear Window story

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