PIRATES OR BULLIES OR BOTH? INDEPENDENT FILMMAKER/DISTRIBUTOR AKS FOR YOUTUBE FAIRNESS REVIEW AND RETURN TO YOUTUBE OF SCENES FROM WILLIAM RICHERT’S ‘AREN’T YOU EVEN GONNA KISS ME GOODBYE’ AND ‘THE CHASE’ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 10, 2014 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA FROM: THE INVISIBLE STUDIO/WILLIAM RICHERT fcbfilms@hotmail 310.453.8415 TO: ALL THOSE FILMMAKERS AND VIDEO CREATORS WHOSE VIDEOS BEEN TAKEN DOWN/OUT BY YOUTUBE FOR THE WRONG REASONS, WITH REQUESTS FOR RETURN IGNORED “Major studio con-gloms are using corporate bully tactics to take down indie filmmakers movies from youtube without legal rights to do so, and with no real economic interest for themselves.” Says author-actor-director William Richert. “It appears that corporate ‘bundle-thieves’ are using blanket deals involving tens of thousands of titles and stars to remove them from any distribution platform but their own, ignoring underlying contracts to actors, filmmakers, investors or directors. “These blanket-distributors like NBC UNIVERSAL issue thousands of copyright strikes when they have no underlying contracts to do so, just as they have made hidden deals with unions like the WGAw for foreign royalties that don’t belong to them. I have a class-action court case in September on that issue, but it is connected today with this anti-artist anti-competition affront. “Inasmuch as the courts say these corporations are individuals, Universal deserves a sock in the jaw for offensive behavior, ” adds the director, who has been distributing his films since 1982. “Not only did they take down youtube videos they do not wholly-own or control, they took down almost 3 million youtube ‘unique visitor’ notices, and hundreds of good reviews and comments and even criticisms that were valuable and irreplaceable, dating back to 2006. “It is an outrage for a studio to snuff the works of others, mainly based on a kind of corporate meanness and power play. NBC UNIVERSAL does not use youtube to inform the public about its films, but indies need to and are glad to. “By removing years of postings from the internet, Not only do they destroy future opportunities and deprives fans like those of River Phoenix what I think of as my art form, these corporate con artists refuse to provide a complete accounting for my profit participation and deferred payment for the film they may have rights to, A NIGHT IN THE LIFE OF JIMMY REARDON, which has an entirely different soundtrack but which I also directed. This movie is missing thousands in foreign levies which have ended up in the Universal bank accounts.” FROM THE DESK OF WILLIAM RICHERT TO THE SCOUNDRELS AT NBC UNIVERSAL PICTURES WHO REMOVE AN ARTISTS WORK SO THAT AUDIENCES WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SEE IT -- A LETTER THAT IS NOT A SOCK IN THE JAW: Dear NBC UNIVERSAL PERSONHOOD: NBC UNIVERSAL has illegally demanded that youtube take down scenes from my film “AREN’T YOU EVEN GONNA KISS ME GOODBYE?” and youtube has removed these scenes before hearing my side of the facts. NBC UNIVERSAL does not own any rights to the motion picture AREN’T YOU EVEN GONNA KISS ME GOODBYE? It is not the same movie as the other, having a totally different sound track. Not only do I control the distribution rights to my separate and original movie, which I directed based on my original novel and original screenplay, with a different score and narration from the claimant’s film, but I have contractual ownership rights to the movie currently being distributed by NBC UNIVERSAL under the title A NIGHT IN THE LIFE OF JIMMY READON, which I also wrote and directed. NBC UNIVERSAL has refused to provide any accounting for their version of my film; I have a 25% profit participation and deferred six-figure payments which are not accounted for. I am presently engaged in legal actions in both State and Federal court with other writers and actors demanding a complete accounting of the foreign levies collected by SAG for NBC UNIVERSAL on this movie and others. Also I am part of a class action lawsuit against union studio collusion on foreign royalties from the WGA/DGA/SAG regarding my film. There will be a hearing on September 5 in Los Angeles. NBC UNIVERSAL can be regarded in common usage as absolute moneygrubbing mean turds for their actions, especially when there is no benefit to them for shutting down scenes from a 30 year old film they don’t own, when there was no charge for the films, they were free to see as art can be free – and promotions are free to promoters too, under business law. MORE: Without regard to actual ownership, or the right of directors to exhibit their own work freely and without interference, NBC UNIVERSAL has willfully concocted a bogus claim that I am showing my own films by false representation of copyright ownership, an “executive gangsta” tactic that major media corporations use routinely. Nowhere is my film for sale on youtube, it is sold elsewhere and shown on youtube so that the public can see some of what they are missing, since NBC UNIVERSAL isn’t selling it: they don’t own it. NBC UNIVERSAL has its own “youtube” style sites to sell its movies. This is just another way to kill the competition. [ Most hurtful to fans of River Phoenix is that NBC UNIVERSAL “copyright strikes” “THE CHASE” with River Phoenix, when they have no rights to that scene and have never shown that scene commercially anywhere in the universe. It is simply not in the negative they have. And it isn’t apparently just some algorithm at NBC UNIVERSAL’S internal computer takedown system that excised my unique video: it must have been a living oxygen breathing person at the corporation who noticed that River Phoenix appeared in a six minute cut of a film that resembles A NIGHT IN THE LIFE OF JIMMY REARDON. I ask youtube to help me identify that particular individual scoundrel, as you told me my counter-claim would identify me. Youtube depends on the right to broadcast in the creations of thousands, even millions of artists not connected to NBC UNIVERSAL. My rights have been abrogated by an individual at NBC UNIVERSAL, and I should know who that is, so that he/she can be held individually accountable. Corporations who do damage can no longer hide a malfeasant en masse identity as the Supreme Court has ruled corporations are individuals. My cast and crew want to know which individual is snuffing our legal and artistic rights, along with the rights of many others who may have their legitimate content removed by threat of lawsuits. Youtube itself may be a victim of this abuse of power. It cannot be easy to monitor thousands of hours of video under a threat from a major corporation – or multiples of multiples of threats from the likes of UNIVERSAL with all the movies it lays claim to distributing over the past 80 years. Because of these “strikes” by youtube which just happened to me, I wonder how many other thousands of films have writer/actor/director contracts which are not being honored by NBC UNIVERSAL but are unjustly removed from youtube anyhow. Because of the near impossibility of confirming all this, youtube just pulls down the video. There must be a better way. Youtube has emerged as the premier place to show hardly seen or undiscovered cinematic works by independent artists and directors . Because of its vast reach and high quality, the exhibitor/broadcaster youtube provides is the life’s’ blood to many filmmakers unable to afford paid exhibition. Youtube profits too, when it shows video works like River Phoenix in the 4 minute cut of THE CHASE, existing nowhere else, hardly seen as yet, as rare as the cave paintings at Lascaux. I’ll bet youtube makes very little income from NBC UNIVERSAL, nor does NBC UNIVERSAL put youtube content on its own site; but NBC UNIVERSAL wants to knock out the competition on the internet has it as partially succeeded to do with indies in Hollywood, with the aid of the Hollywood unions. In practice, NBC UNIVERSAL is using youtube as its executor/executioner; in my own case, trying to eliminate a smaller competitor, defame his business, and make it impossible for the fans of the director and actors in the movie to see it in any form, in any place. Unlike the NBC UNIVERSAL movie, this film possesses a score by the legendary Elmer Bernstein and narration by William Richert (MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO) – neither of these crucial film elements exist anywhere outside my film, and the places we show or sell it. It is unfortunate that I have had no right to equal presentation of my case to youtube before the summary judgment and removal of my work. It is in no way solipsistic to state that when NBC UNIVERSAL used its corporate gorilla status against me or any legitimate content provider (that is, artist) – youtubes fans suffer collaterally. NBC UNIVERSAL not only exceeds its reach and authority in my case, but threatens the ability of artists globally to show their works without threats and intimidation. – with no verifiable income/profit loss to NBC UNIVERSAL whatsoever. Just mean. Largely because of Youtube this is the first time in history a level playing field can be reached among all “content” creators, where 200 million dollar features share the same screen with movies made on iphones, the only measuring stick the size of the talent, information and entertainment. Allowing NBC UNIVERSAL to legally (illegally) maneuver its corporate legal weight to crush the fragile independents, is not only anti-trust, anti-small business, it is a violation of the human right to artistic expression, and of small independent license ownership. The “strike” actions demanded by NBC Universal are ipso facto a corporate harassment with intent to harm. Youtube says that I can be sued in court for demanding my movies be restored to their rightful place. This is a right worth fighting for. Meanwhile I look forward to youtube’s soonest restoration of scenes from AREN’T YOU EVEN GONNA KISS ME GOODBYE?, along with the civil rights of the filmmaker. Sincerely, William Richert
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 04:14:18 +0000
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