Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Put your clock down, Lindsay. I still don't quite understand why it's legal or not to record a TV show that makes or breaks the Sony and Universal lawsuit. From the fair use you just said, you're giving me explain."

Ronald is on a long-distance call to his personal lawyer, Lindsay Dole. There has been a big event in Hollywood in the past few days. The Supreme Court may reject the judgment of the Ninth Circuit and re-judgment the videotape infringement case of Sony Corporation and Universal Corporation. Sony wins.

For a time, people in Hollywood were panicking, and everyone was saying that the second TV crisis would come, and this time it would completely defeat Hollywood.

Ronald listened to some rumors, but he was completely clueless, and he didn't know who was right, so he simply made a long-distance call to lawyer Lindsay for advice. .

"Okay, Ronald, let me sort it out with you.

First, in 1976, Universal Studios sued Sony, arguing that their VCR technology was being used to pirate movies, asking the court to rule on Sony as the subject of the automatic relief clause.

As long as Universal discovers that a videotape has pirated a Universal movie, it can automatically claim compensation from video technology manufacturers such as Sony. "

"I understand that." Ronald nodded. If the judgment of automatic relief is established in law, then the film studio will not have to bear the burden of proof in the future, and Sony and other Eastern companies will automatically be considered jointly and severally responsible for piracy.

Sony automatically loses money whenever it finds out that someone is using a pirated Sony videotape. In this case, the videotape product is equivalent to being sentenced to death in the American market.

"But 1976 happened to be the time when the copyright law was overhauled, leaving a hole for individual consumers' infringement, which is called fair use.

For example, the footage of the assassination of the chief commander broadcast on public television is fair use if it is used in future documentaries about the incident. Because the main purpose of documentaries is not to make money, but to educate the public. "

"I understand that too." Ronald knew of this special case, and it was reasonable to use footage of some public events broadcast on public television for the film.

"So Sony's lawyers, from the perspective of fair use, believe that consumers can record TV programs at home and watch them when they have time, which is fair use. Because TV programs have educational significance and accord with the first Amendment speech exceptions.

Since recording TV shows is legal, video companies cannot be banned from selling VCRs and blank tapes in America. This brought great convenience to personal piracy, and Universal appealed to the Circuit Court, where the ruling was changed to Universal's victory. Sony finally appealed to the Supreme Court.

The district court ruled that Sony won,

The Ninth Circuit commuted Universal to win, and now the Supreme Court situation, it seems that Sony has won the majority of support, can win by one vote 5:4, commuted again to win the lawsuit. "

"But I heard from the agent that the Supreme Court supported Universal 6:3, how can it be now?"

"You are talking about the first discussion. The Supreme Court can have two opportunities to discuss a case. After the first discussion, the judge who wrote the minority opinion knows that he has a chance to win two votes, so he wrote the minority opinion as the majority opinion. muzzle.

Sure enough, Justice Brennan was persuaded to jump from favoring Universal to favoring Sony. Finally, they persuaded O'Connor, the first female justice in history to be nominated by the current president. So the verdict they're going to write right now is that Sony wins 5:4. "

"What's going on? Lindsay, if you can rip the tapes just like that, wouldn't no one go to the movies?"

"I have read the Supreme Court's opinion that if individual users don't have time to watch TV, it is a fair use to record them with a video recorder and watch them when they have time.

The TV station actually likes this invention. The audience uses the video recorder to record the program, which means that the TV station's program will be seen by more people, so that the advertisement can be sold for a lot more price. "

"shxt, then our movie deserves bad luck?"

"Does this affect you much? I heard that the plaintiffs are joining six other studios, lobbying in Congress, trying to pass legislation to ban the sale of blank VHS tapes and the copy function of private VCRs."

"I can't say it well, my agent is already discussing whether to increase the TV series business for actor clients."

...

The news that Universal may lose the lawsuit and that video tape producers can enter the American market in a big way spreads more and more in Hollywood, and many practitioners are beginning to think about the impact of the ruling on themselves. The Screen Actors Guild even began to consider organizing demonstrations.

Shirley Lansing, who was producing the film "Footloose," also began to adjust her production strategy accordingly.

"Is Michael Cimino back yet?" Lansing asked the assistant.

"His agent said that Cimino has been in Oklahoma collecting stories, and his new script has been mailed out and should be arriving soon."

"Call his agent, be sure to connect him, don't think I don't know the tricks he's playing at United Arts, I guess he didn't go to Oklahoma at all, and now he's in a strip club in Los Angeles. Then send me a bunch of bills in the tens of thousands of dollars.

Tell his agent to move his fat ass over if I want me to pay those bills. "

"Should I tell his agent the truth?"

"Repost." Shirley Lansing waved her hand and asked the assistant to go out.

"Hey," Lansing covered his forehead with one hand and sighed. The Supreme Court's decision came at an untimely time, and I have to reconsider whether I want to serve as a vice president at Paramount.

The executives of the production company are all judged by the success or failure of the film. Video tapes will bring a lot of piracy, so next year's performance will not be good. If next year's revenue drops too much due to piracy, the smart guy Eisner will definitely put the blame on himself.

Instead, it's better to temporarily leave the management position of the studio and form an independent production company with his partner Stanley Jaffe. Taking advantage of Jaffe's production ability and his connections in big studios, he will be able to give full play to his strengths.

I'll call Jaffe later, he's a smart guy and will give him better terms than his old partner Melnick.

And compared to office politics, I actually prefer to go to the studio to watch the filming. Although Lansing is a pretty bad actor, the experience of working with the male stars of John Wayne is very vivid and very enjoyable for her. It's not a bad thing to go to the set more often.

The assistant knocked on Lansing's door again, "Ms. Lansing, Cimino's courier has arrived."

Lansing nodded and opened the package, which contained a script and a bag of documents. Lansing opened the script, Cimino changed a lot of things, the whole story became darker, the way the small town treated the foreign high school student Lun was more cruel, and finally the priest of the small town also united with everyone to expel their whole family .

"Tsk," Lansing frowned. In the trend of blockbuster movies in the past two years, audiences have begun to like comedy and warmth. The plot of this kind of bitter movie is not very popular. And Cimino's script is 140 pages long, and it may be a blockbuster of more than two and a half hours.

This Cimino, does he think of himself as the layman of United Arts back then? It's ninety minutes long, not even one more minute.

She had opened the file bag, which contained many receipts. Lansing flipped through it casually, but fortunately it wasn't too much. She was about to sign when she found a piece of paper mixed with the receipt.

"For the application for payment, based on the re-editing of the script, I request the producer to pay part of the script adaptation fee in advance, $250,000."

"Bell..." The phone rang, and Lansing answered the phone.

"It's Cimino's agent." The assistant's voice sounded in the microphone.

"Come in," Lansing adjusted his sitting position so that he could reach his throat with more air.

"I don't know why your client thinks I'm being blackmailed by him. Maybe he doesn't know what's going on in Hollywood right now. Everyone is cutting budgets. cost.

...you told him he was fired. "

Lansing finished in one breath and fired Cimino on the spot. I pressed the call button again and found my assistant.

"Call me the agent of two people, director Ron Howard, and actor Tom Cruise."

...

After hearing the news of the Supreme Court, not everyone like Lansing's first reaction was to cut production budgets and adapt to the more depressed movie market next year.

For example, the three lawyers who bought New World Productions were discussing how to find a talent to run the company.

They used the leverage of the financial market to finance the purchase of the new world. It turned out that the purpose was not to run a film distribution company. Instead, he felt that Roger Coleman's distribution channel was far underestimated by him.

They want to buy it, split it up, and sell its production and distribution capabilities to capital that wants to invest in Hollywood. As for those exploitative film libraries, they are actually worthless, so let Coleman take them away.

But the Supreme Court's decision made their valuation of the company fall short, and now New World will not be able to sell at the expected price.

The three lawyers are now forced to find a knowledgeable insider to run the new world. If they are lucky enough to make a few blockbuster movies, it will be too late to get rid of them.

"What does Universal's Tom Mount say?" one attorney asked to contact another Universal attorney.

"He has a distribution guarantee from Universal. In the past few years, the movies made by his own production company have been distributed by Universal. And he seems to have found a partner and is going to go to Dongying to raise money, so Mount has no idea about being the CEO of New World. Interested. Where's the Paramount you contacted?"

"Katzenberg is very comfortable at Paramount, and he doesn't want to venture into the New World. Where's the woman from Fox?"

"The level of Lansing was not good, and she was fired by the new owner of Fox. She also declined the invitation to headhunting."

The three continued to order the names of several high-level executives, but there was no good news for the headhunters.

"It seems that these executives at the level of presidents and executive vice presidents who used to hold the power will not come to the new world. They are all production and distribution companies. I really don't understand why they don't look down on the new world?"

"It seems that we have to look further down. Are there any suitable candidates for the subordinates of these candidates and those vice presidents who report directly to them?"