The Devil Wears Prada

Hannah Wilke

The Devil Wears Prada Review

Illegal possession and duplication
            “If you don’t have that ‘Harry Potter’ book by then, don’t even bother coming back.”

No hint of sarcasm.  No laughter.  Spoken in a threatening tone, the most important figure in the fashion publication industry issues an unethical request to the girl who would rather be anywhere but there. 
            Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep star in “The Devil Wears Prada”, 2006, written by Aline Brosh McKenna.  The plot centers in on Andy Sachs (Hathaway), a hopeful journalist who lands a job in New York City working for Miranda Priestly (Streep), the cynical editor of Runway Magazine.  Sachs, unaware of what the job entails, goes into work each day feeling pressured to do everything right.  The responsibilities Sachs has are never ending and though unhappy with her position, she strives to be the best.  About to quit, Sachs suddenly fulfils one of Priestley’s’ many gruesome demands. The impression Sachs leaves on Priestly is memorable, giving her the opportunity of a lifetime. 

“It’s Miranda Priestly we’re talking about,” Sachs said.  “There’s no plan B, there’s only plan A.” 

When Priestly demands a manuscript of the unpublished “Harry Potter” book, Sachs realizes this is a next to impossible request.  Violating media law, Sachs uses her resources to undermine an individual working on the book art to score a copy of the text.  A law Sachs undoubtedly breaks, is the illegal duplication of an unpublished work without permission.  A

copyright is “the body of law that protects the works created by writers, painters, photographers, performing artists, inventors, and others who create intellectual property.”

“We know everyone in publishing, it shouldn’t be a problem right?” Priesetly asks. 

Taking advantage of people to get the unpublished manuscript is a matter of copyright because the author of the piece has the right to be the first to publish it.  I feel that Priestly knows she is being unreasonable in her many demands.  She is accustomed to getting what she wants and isn’t afraid to ask, she seems to not have a filter.  Sachs was about to quit over this ridiculous scenario, but when she gets the manuscript her adrenaline went into overdrive and she duplicated it.  I think the moment caught her up and she didn’t stop to think about her actions.  This is indubitably wrong and the normal person would realize that even being in possession of the manuscript is a big no-no.

            An example of copyright violation of an unpublished work was when Gerald Ford’s memoirs were published in an article using his quotes that were from the unpublished manuscript.  It was only 300 words out of 2,2500 and the Nation considered it to be fair use.  The U.S. Supreme Court disagreed.  The 1976 law says, “The applicability of the fair use doctrine to unpublished works is narrowly limited since, although the work is unavailable, this is the result of a deliberate choice on the part of the copyright owner.  Under ordinary circumstances the copyright owner’s right of first publication would outweigh any needs of reproduction.”

Doing the right thing, and doing what is expected of you is a fine line to approach with caution. The tension in this film shows what type of people communicating with can be a strenuous and dangerous task.  “The Devil Wears Prada” should comfort those in professions with stable routines.  Its thrilling plot has the public relation officers on the edge of their seat thinking, “What would I do in this situation?” 

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