Isis Litigation, Svensk Filmindustri, and the Bergman titles

[Michael Kerpan]

Having looked through the materials I can find online (not just IL's version of the facts), I now tend to side with Isis Litigation (contrary to my initial gut reaction). SFI's parent corporation has indeed behaved with extreme contumely.

Too bad Criterion and Janus seem to be in the cross-fire, however.

[Barmy]

Yay. Pippi Longstocking Blu-rays!

[kaujot]

I can't get the Variety article to load. What the fuck is going on?

[Tom Hagen]

There's a bounty on Bergman! What a complete and total clusterfuck.

Having looked through the materials I can find online (not just IL's version of the facts), I now tend to side with Isis Litigation (contrary to my initial gut reaction). SFI's parent corporation has indeed behaved with extreme contumely.

I don't practice IP or contract law, but to my eye, this ruling does seem pretty legit.

And this goes without saying, but if anyone is planning on buying Bergman films, do it now before the Criterion/MGM/etc. licenses expire and these clowns do god knows what with the titles.

[Matt]

I can't get the Variety article to load. What the fuck is going on?

Is your computer plugged in? Are you using Microsoft Excel as your browser?

[Michael Kerpan]

And this goes without saying, but if anyone is planning on buying Bergman films, do it now before the Criterion/MGM/etc. licenses expire and these clowns do god knows what with the titles.

I can not imagine that anything that a Colorado state court judge orders will affect the intellectual property rights of the films outside the USA. But the rights issues within the borders of the US could get pretty badly muddled.

[kaujot]

I can't get the Variety article to load. What the fuck is going on?

Is your computer plugged in? Are you using Microsoft Excel as your browser?

I dunno what happened, but for a good 20 minutes or so, Variety just wouldn't load. Any other web page loaded, but Variety wouldn't. Anyway, it's loading now.

(I have used Excel to play games.)

[canti10]

that worries me, our chances of seeing Face to Face, Summer with Monika, The Magician and Summer Interlude are shattered. God only knows what they plan to do with those rights!

[arsonfilms]

that worries me, our chances of seeing Face to Face, Summer with Monika, The Magician and Summer Interlude are shattered. God only knows what they plan to do with those rights!

Lets cool down, I don't think the consensus is that our chances are shattered. The potential is there to have a legally complicated muddle, but I still think that part of what Isis acquired were the licensing contracts already in existence. I'd be curious to hear if anyone from Criterion has any input on the matter, but lets not give up on everything quite so hastily.

[anton]

just a note, please use SF as a short form for AB Svensk Filmindustri to avoid mixups. SFI is the common short form of Svenska Filminsitutet (Swedish Film Institute), which is a foundation formed and financed mostly by the swedish government.

[Michael Kerpan]

just a note, please use SF as a short form for AB Svensk Filmindustri to avoid mixups. SFI is the common short form of Svenska Filminsitutet (Swedish Film Institute), which is a foundation formed and financed mostly by the swedish government.

Thanks for the clarification

Maybe using AB-SF would be even safer. ;~}

[Tom Hagen]

that worries me, our chances of seeing Face to Face, Summer with Monika, The Magician and Summer Interlude are shattered. God only knows what they plan to do with those rights!

And I think Face to Face is a Paramount title or something. It's not on the big litigation booty prize list in any event. This probably does complicate things for the early '50s Bergman titles, and the cool later nuggets like Faro Document and After the Rehearsal. Hopefully these guys will be happy with nice royalties checks from Criterion.

I am just paranoid that someone like Facets will win a bidding war, license the Bergman catalogue, shoot their wad paying for the rights, and then re-issue editions from transfers of beta tapes recovered from sources behind the iron curtain.

[colinr0380]

Their site's better designed than Criterion's

They obviously have not been introduced to Helvetica yet!

I suppose at least now we might think of the Early Bergman set in the context of "thank goodness it was released" rather than "Oh no! Not more Bergman!"

[domino harvey]

We know they've been working on Summer With Monika and the Magician, which they wouldn't have started without securing DVD rights. So if something's been in the works, it's safe. It's the titles they may have been sitting on that we should be worried about

[piano player]

We know they've been working on Summer With Monika and the Magician, which they wouldn't have started without securing DVD rights. So if something's been in the works, it's safe. It's the titles they may have been sitting on that we should be worried about

I may be entering thin ice...but from what I understand Isis now owns the rights to the US-distribution of Bergman's films, that goes for all of them. In other words Criterion should - theoretically speaking - get into trouble even if they should attempt such a simple thing as a blue-ray or DVD reissue of an existing Janus title. Basically Criterion won't get to release Summer With Monika and the Magician without the permission of Isis, and that's not going to happen unless bonnier group sweden (SF) pays up the ten million dollars they owe in accordance with the court decision.

Have I got all this wrong?

[domino harvey]

Yes, just because it's a Janus title doesn't mean Criterion can now release it. However, It's my understanding that if Criterion has already licensed a film for DVD release, this new arrangement wouldn't void the previous deal. If they've begun work on a DVD, they've paid for the rights-- you don't do that step backwards and if Criterion did, they deserve to be burned for not bothering to pay for the rights first

[Michael Kerpan]

Any rights that Criterion has signed a deal for (prior to now) should remain in place -- even if they didn't have to pay (in full) in advance. Whatever rights Isis Litigation has, these cannot be _greater_ than those which AB-SF itself possessed prior to the time the court ordered transfer of all rights from AB-SF to IL.

However, if Criterion needs to make future payments (based on finally moving ahead on an already contracted project), then there is a problem as to where the money should go. One solution is for Criterion to turn the money over to the court -- and then let the parties fight it out over who is to get the money (while it then goes about its own business).

[Doctor Sunshine]

I may be entering thin ice...but from what I understand Isis now owns the rights to the US-distribution of Bergman's films, that goes for all of them. In other words Criterion should - theoretically speaking - get into trouble even if they should attempt such a simple thing as a blue-ray or DVD reissue of an existing Janus title. Basically Criterion won't get to release Summer With Monika and the Magician without the permission of Isis, and that's not going to happen unless bonnier group sweden (SF) pays up the ten million dollars they owe in accordance with the court decision.

Also, SF doesn't own every Bergman title. The last Bergman title Criterion released was Sawdust and Tinsel (about a year ago), licensed from Sandrew Metronome, and the last SF title was Virgin Springs (about two years ago). This also means Criterion's about due for another Bergman release. IL just wants the money they're owed, so whatever's in the pipeline can be released and Criterion can pay them--minus that 10% reward--or the court. So, with Criterion doing a Bergman a year, on average, this shouldn't really affect their output for the time being. In the future, who knows what will happen--maybe SF won't be as forthcoming with the negatives, maybe some insidious company will start releasing colourized Bergman titles (and death's skin tone turns out to be a pleasant eggshell blue)--but in the mean time we've got a couple years grace for this to work itself out.

[Tom Hagen]

Again, not my particular area of legal expertise, but wouldn't the status of existing Criterion agreements remain in the same contractual posture that they are now via existing licensing agreements with AB-SF? It seems to me that the courts would have to treat any of the awarded copyrights which are currently burdened by existing contracts as assignments for purposes of examining third party rights. Otherwise they would run into constitutional contract clause problems, breach of contract litigation, etc.

Once the existing licensing agreements expire, Isis can do whatever it wants with the titles and tell Criterion to pound sand. But for right now, it seems that Criterion would keep their existing rights to Bergman titles under whatever agreements they previously had with AB-SF, and Isis would be assigned AB-SF's rights under those licensing agreements, i.e., they would get whatever future royalties or other fees that Criterion would have otherwise paid to AB-SF under the original terms of the contract.

[Doctor Sunshine]

Whoever's getting paid we should be good for a while. We need some more lawyers up in here.

[Grand Illusion]

I just learned about this. Bergman's my favorite filmmaker, and I'm too distressed to make anything of this news. It's all a blur and just looks like a Colorado movie theater was just awarded the rights to Bergman's entire catalog and put up a geocities-circa-1997 website to brag about their newfound prizes and somehow make them "available". How? I don't know. Maybe we send them Paypal money, and they send us DVD-Rs.

The whole presentation looks like a small child going to the attic, finding a complete print of Metropolis, and then eating it with a side of asparagus. Hell, I'll even take Facets releases of the minor Bergman titles, as long as they get released and don't have Sharpie writing on the DVDs.

[Tom Hagen]

It's all a blur and just looks like a Colorado movie theater was just awarded the rights to Bergman's entire catalog and put up a geocities-circa-1997 website to brag about their newfound prizes and somehow make them "available".

It's a pretty wild story, isn't it? I mean, this is the equivalent of MOMA breaching a contract with some sort of museum being built in middle America, not paying on a subsequent legal judgment, and then losing the rights to all of their Picassos to a clueless corporate shell looking to cash in as quickly as possible. That's how completely insane this all is.

[Antoine Doinel]

as long as they get released and don't have Sharpie writing on the DVDs.

That method seems to be working for Wiseman.

[piano player]

While Isis lacks physical prints of the movies at issue, most exist in digital format, "so that makes obtaining a master film version less significant," Smith said.

What an idiotic thing to say. This makes me worried.

Isis recently launched a new movie retail website, SwedishClassicFilms.com, where individuals can order DVD copies of Bergman's works.

Now that is just plain weird.

As it was, Isis collected some $500,000 by garnishing Svensk’s contracts with several U.S. film companies, including Sony, Janus Films and MGM, Smith said.

Looks like Criterion are up early. Maybe thay can get a bargain price for Face to Face, Brink of Life, The Magician and Summer With Monika

U.S. company has plans for Ingmar Bergman catalog

[HypnoHelioStaticStasis]

U.S. company has plans for Ingmar Bergman catalog

Sorry, I found the language in that article a little vague... does this mean the currently existing US DVDs are now going to be discontinued? Or are we gonna have to wait and see?