Calling one of the adult movie adaptations of the British novel "a rip-off plain and simple," Universal's lawsuit seeks to stop sales of copycat porn movies and to recoup any profits they earn.
"Fifty Shades of Grey" by E.L. James and its two sequels have sold more than 40 million copies since first being published in 2011. Universal bought the rights for a film adaptation earlier this year for a reported $5 million.
The suit was filed jointly in federal court in California on Tuesday by Universal and James's British company which owns the copyright to the novels.
The lawsuit said that Los Angeles-based based Smash Pictures had produced a movie called "Fifty Shades of Grey: a XXX Adaptation" which lifted "exact dialogue, characters, events, story, and style from the 'Fifty Shades' trilogy."
"The first XXX adaptation is not a parody, and it does not comment on, criticize, or ridicule the originals. It is a rip-off, plain and simple," the lawsuit added.

If you took all the cares I give about this and put them in an electron microscope you still wouldn't see any.

The advantage of the book was that you could buy it for the Kindle and no one would know that you were reading it. Though while it might be a best seller it might not do so well at the cinema.

By all accounts, it was nothing more than titillation and poorly written to boot. Perfect for the adult film industry.