Latosha Cooper's List: Legal Cases

"With respect to the various specific phrases and lines which Winstead alleged that our client took from the book, we demonstrated that many were misquoted, manipulated or not in the movie at all and that, in any event, they were non-copyrightable short phrases or unpredictable expressions used in the 'street' such as 'get the dope, cut the dope,' a rep for Reed Smith and 50 Cent told AllHipHop.com.
 

Courts find copyright infringement when an accused work is “substantially similar” to a preexisting work, as a result of copying by an infringer.  Often it is difficult for a plaintiff to prove actual copying, since there often are no witnesses to the actual act of copying.  In those cases, in order to show copying the plaintiff must be able to demonstrate that the accused party had “access” to the earlier work – in other words, an opportunity to see, hear or otherwise experience the infringed work. 

So a finding of copyright infringement requires both of these elements: substantial similarity and access/copying.  It stands to reason that mere access, without any substantial similarity, is not infringement.