Showtime Prevails in ‘Penny Dreadful’ Character Copyright Appeal

Showtime Networks Inc. again escaped claims that its “Penny Dreadful” series infringed the copyrights of a writer who claims she originally created characters portrayed on the program.

None of the show’s characters are “‘strikingly similar’ to their alleged counterparts” from Anna Biani’s works, nor are the similarities so extensive to preclude the possibility of independent creation, Judge Jacqueline H. Nguyen of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit wrote in a Monday opinion.

Biani sued Showtime in 2023, alleging it infringed several characters she’d created and written about as a member of an online role-playing forum, ...