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Gregory Peck as lawyer Atticus Finch in the 1962 film of To Kill a Mockingbird AP Photo
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Harper Lee sues agent's son-in-law over copyright of To Kill a Mockingbird

The 87-year-old author alleges her agent’s son-in-law took advantage of her declining health to get her to assign the book’s copyright to him.

HARPER LEE, WHO  wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “To Kill a Mockingbird,” filed a lawsuit on Friday to re-secure the copyright to it.

The lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan seeks unspecified damages from the son-in-law of Lee’s former literary agent and companies he allegedly created.

The lawsuit alleges the son-in-law, Samuel Pinkus, failed to properly protect the copyright of the book after his father-in-law, Eugene Winick — who had represented Lee as a literary agent since the book was published in 1960 through the firm McIntosh and Otis — became ill a decade ago.

The 87-year-old author alleges Pinkus took advantage of her declining hearing and eyesight seven years ago to get her to assign the book’s copyright to him and a company he controlled.

Lee, who lives in Alabama, has taken legal action to get the copyright reassigned but alleges Pinkus still received commissions.

“The transfer of ownership of an author’s copyright to her agent is incompatible with her agent’s duty of loyalty; it is a gross example of self-dealing,” the lawsuit says.

The former agent’s son-in-law didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.

“To Kill a Mockingbird” won the Pulitzer for fiction and is on the curriculum for the Junior Certificate. The film version won three Academy Awards.

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Associated Foreign Press
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