Re: Mystery Solved on old Film,The Good, The Bad, & the Ugly!!!

Greg Scholl Wrote:
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> I sent the raw footage on
> DVD to Jerry Day who said he thought it looked
> familiar, and indeed had a VHS video called "A
> Forties Memories" with the identical scenes. I
> checked WB Video's website and there it is now on
> DVD for $24.95. I emailed Bill Brown and he tells
> me the photographer Billie Bowen had been deceased
> and the film was given to a friend who then
> allowed WB to transfer the film to video and
> market it. I suspect that friend eventually died
> and the film was sold as home movies, which it is,
> and then I bought it.

> Sorry if anyone was misled by these postings. I
> did not know this was something already on the
> market, and it is not my intent to infringe on
> someone's copyright.

[practicing law on the internet]

Actually, because you most likely* own the copyright to the original 16mm film, you could put out a product without infringing Bill's copyright on his production. (The fact that someone sold a product incorporating the loaned (e.g. licensed) footage doesn't not confer any sort of copyright on the original.)

Whether that makes financial sense is another matter.

* - In the absence of any written agreement separating ownership of the copyright from ownership of the original footage, the owner of the original owns the copyright.

[/practicing law on the internet]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/2010 11:38AM by John Craft.