Last fall, Victor Miller, who wrote the original screenplay for Friday the 13th, won a lawsuit that gave him the domestic rights to the slasher franchise under an old copyright law that grants authors rights to their original work after a period of 35 years. The case is still being appealed, but it was an important ruling within the Hollywood legal community, which was watching very closely, knowing just how much was at stake. See, until recently, screenwriters rarely used the law to their advantage, and it was mostly employed by musicians who were eager to control their back catalog. …