Rebirth of America, this is my time

"What?"

The sudden news made Ethan's eyes widen.

"What did you say? Disney was sued? What happened?"

Ethan is a little confused now.

Although in daily life, it is normal for a company to be sued, but if the company is Disney, there must be some problems.

Of course, this does not mean that Disney cannot be a defendant, but when they want to tie the "United States Code" to their belts and play the role of a rights-defending madman every day, if they are still defendant, That can only prove one thing——

They're in big trouble!

And the fact is...

is also like this.

Before Ethan returned to the office and sat down, Ballmer had already closed the door. Not only that, he also said with excitement: "Boss! This time Ron Miller is in trouble for himself." It's a big trouble! If it can't be solved properly, their video game business will probably explode!"

"Really?" This news made Ethan very happy, and Ballmer's ink mark was like a cat's claw, which made him want to stop. "Oh! Steve! Don't speak half the words!"

"Speak quickly! What happened to them?"

"Hey - isn't this exciting!" Ballmer laughed twice. Seeing Ethan glaring angrily, he did not hesitate anymore and said: "If we have to dig deeper into this matter, it actually has nothing to do with Disney, because everything is caused by Universal..."

When Warner, MGM, Paramount and Disney make great strides into the hottest video game industry, how can Universal, a traditional entertainment giant, want to fall behind? They also want a piece of the action.

From the beginning, their idea was perfect.

When the popular director they trained themselves, Steven Spielberg, maintains a good relationship with Ethan Jones, Universal can connect with Destiny Games through this channel and license their famous works to Ethan Jones, commissioned Ethan to make them into games.

If I had to describe it, what Universal is pursuing is an operating model like "Star Wars".

They don't want to pay anything except simple authorization.

At the same time, they are also eager to obtain high shares.

But before they started talking to Ethan, Steven Spielberg, who was raised by them, made a fuss and wanted to leave Universal Pictures, set up his own business, and start a personal company.

This choice caught the world off guard.

After Steven Spielberg rejected the offer of support from his old employer and stated before founding the company that the new company currently had no financial problems and did not need external financing for the time being, Universal and Steven Spielberg Berg's relationship suddenly became delicate.

Not only that, when Steven Spielberg accepted Ethan Jones's invitation and became the co-president of Destiny Pictures, the relationship between Universal and Ethan completely collapsed.

In this case, self-reliance is the right path.

So, when Universal discovered that the monster game "Godzilla" was selling well, they wanted to use this as an opportunity after not entering the video game industry in the past few years. With "King Kong" in hand, they want to bring this well-known monster to the market in North America and make profits.

And since Universal does not have video game patents, it is impossible for them to pay royalties to Philips when Philips has stabbed them in the back before. So, when Ron Miller heard the news, he came to the door and said that Disney could publish the game for them. After the commission was only fifteen points without publicity and distribution costs, Universal felt that the price was okay. Chairman Sidney Sheinberg agreed.

The two parties had signed a cooperation agreement even before "The Empire Strikes Back" was released.

Now that the preparation work has been completed, the next step is to develop the game. But when Sidney Shenberg, the chairman of Universal Pictures, was recruiting people and forming a research and development team, a letter was sent by RKO lawyers. The summons appeared before them.

RKO took Universal Pictures to court, saying that Universal had infringed on copyrights in the "King Kong" project.

Also standing in the dock was Walt Disney, because they had reached a cooperation agreement with Universal Pictures, and the project was "King Kong."

RKO felt that when Walt Disney knew that the copyright of "King Kong" belonged to RKO, they still conspired with Universal in a big way, which constituted de facto infringement.

RKO demanded that Walt Disney immediately stop its infringement and compensate them for the corresponding losses. In this part, their claim was US$3.5 million.

"Wait! Steven! I didn't understand!"

Ethan was stunned when he heard Ballmer's words.

While interrupting, he also asked: "Is the RKO you are talking about the one who filmed "Kane Kane"? If I remember correctly..."

"Did they film the original version of "King Kong"?"

"Now, they are the ones who jump out and say that Universal has infringed the rights?"

In fact, Ethan has always known that at the beginning, "King Kong" was not a Universal movie, but an IP belonging to RKO. Decades ago, after Warner's "The Jazz Singer" became a huge success in Hollywood, RKO, which felt that talkies had great prospects, was officially formed.

After several years of planning, they launched "King Kong."

Because "King Kong" at that time was a comprehensive work, regardless of the visual effects or sound effects, it was the best in the history of that era. Therefore, it attracted countless audiences into the theater as soon as it was released. Not only that, Even the media put it on a pedestal, calling it the scariest movie ever.

But unfortunately, the popularity of "King Kong" did not allow RKO to survive forever. When RKO executives felt that technology is the greatest productivity in the film industry...

They completely deviated from the film field.

Since the massive investments did not bring about the returns they deserved, after several years of continuous losses, RKO's major shareholders, who felt that the film field was too deep, decided to leave.

Immediately afterwards, they sold the company to the real-life Iron Man——

Howard Hughes.

Anyone who has watched "The Aviator" starring Leonardo DiCaprio should know that Howard Hughes's goal is to star in the sea, so after playing in Hollywood for a few years, he also left.

When the boss of a company changes one after another, even if the company has huge wealth, it will be difficult for the people underneath to dig into it, because the continuous changes in coaching will make the company's morale unstable.

Therefore, when RKO changed hands several times, the greatest significance of its existence was to use its only film library to bring greater benefits to the boss. After several turnovers, "King Kong" became a product of Universal.

When these facts emerged in Ethan's mind one by one...

He couldn't figure out why RKO would say that Universal didn't have the right to make games?

Waiting for him to recall carefully, he discovered that King Kong was present in Universal Studios in his previous life;

In the future, when Peter Jackson was filming "King Kong", he would also ask Universal to get the copyright;

When Universal wanted to form a monster universe, King Kong became the oldest IP they had...

Now, Ballmer tells him that Universal doesn’t have the rights to “King Kong”?

This is simply the most ridiculous thing in the world!

His question also made Steve Ballmer laugh and said: "Boss, this is actually the most interesting thing. In your memory, "King Kong" is a Universal movie, right?"

"Isn't it?" Ethan looked confused.

"of course not."

Steve Ballmer shook his head and said: "I thought the same way before, but after I read the information, I realized that the "King Kong" movie released a few years ago was actually a Paramount movie and had no connection with Universal. Any relationship."

"WTF???" This answer surprised Ethan.

But after Steve Ballmer's explanation, he realized how bloody the story was.

A few years ago, Hollywood released a remake of "King Kong". At that time, everyone thought it was a Universal project, because according to media reports, many people knew that at the same time as the movie was released, Universal was A King Kong paradise has been built in the movie theater.

When complementary promotions such as movies and parks appear at the same time, any normal person will feel that Universal Pictures has used the double-line approach in Hollywood promotions, but unfortunately...

That's not what happened.

"King Kong", which was released a few years ago, was not actually the idea of ​​Universal Pictures, but the idea of ​​a producer named Dino Laurentiis. He wanted a remake of "King Kong," so he approached RKO to buy the rights to remake the original film. Then, like countless other producers, he started raising money.

At first, the company he was looking for was Universal, and Universal's chairman Sidney Simberg was also very interested in this matter, because they were researching a new audio system at the time, Sidney Simberg. Ge believes that if more advanced sound effects can be put into the movie "King Kong", it may promote hardware upgrades in North American theaters, which will make them make a lot of money globally.

However, during the negotiation process between the two parties, many differences arose, because Sidney Sheinberg wanted to lower the price, while Dino Laurentiis wanted to get more.

After struggling for a period of time, Sidney Shenberg, who did not want to waste too much time on such boring matters, entrusted the negotiation to a lawyer.

When the Vultures entered the scene, wrangling became a torment. In order to end this pain as soon as possible, Dino Laurentiis finally accepted Sidney Sheinberg's offer.

Both parties signed a licensing agreement.

Then the fun begins.

"Because the "King Kong" project involves so much money, Universal's chairman needs to personally sign the document to finalize the cooperation. Therefore, even if Universal's lawyers follow Sidney Sheinberg's wishes and Dino Laurent Teece hammered out the details and they couldn't officially sign the document."

"So, at that time they just signed an intention to cooperate."

"While waiting for approval, Dino Laurentiis felt that the price was too low and wanted to try his luck elsewhere, so he found Paramount Chairman Barry Diller."

"Then Barry Diller saw that this project seemed interesting."

"So, without knowing the details, he expressed his willingness to vote."

"Since his asking price is higher than Sidney Sheinberg's..."

Steve Ballmer shrugged.

"Dino Laurentiis is moved."

"Then things got really big..."

Since Dino Laurentiis had not signed a formal cooperation document with Universal at the time, he wanted to pursue greater profits and switched to Paramount with his project.

When Sidney Shenberg learned about this incident, he immediately became extremely angry and directly took the dishonest Dino Laurentiis and Paramount to court for violating his rights.

Then came protracted litigation.

The process of the lawsuit was very tortuous, because only one of the three parties knew the whole story, and the other two were kept in the dark, so it took a long time to sort out the facts, and when Paramount learned, After Dino Laurentiis deceived them, they even sued Dino Laurentiis in turn and demanded compensation for their losses.

If it develops at a normal pace, this story will become a legend of a small person deceiving a big company, but unfortunately, these are just the background information, and the real weird points are yet to come.

When the Los Angeles court felt that Universal's infringement case against Paramount and Dino Laurentiis had many similarities with Paramount's fraud case against Dino Laurentiis and could be tried together, they The two cases were combined together, and because the two cases arose due to the copyright of "King Kong", the judge summoned RKO and wanted to know the relationship between them and Dino Laurentiis. matter.

And when this summons appeared, the greatest fun appeared...

Because after reviewing the information, the Los Angeles court suddenly discovered that the name "King Kong" may indeed belong to RKO, but RKO does not fully own it.

Because many copyrights have expired.

So far, among the copyrights of "King Kong" owned by RKO, the film copyright is still protected by law, but the novel that came out together with the film has entered the public domain.

What does this mean?

If a Hollywood studio says it wants to remake the "King Kong" movie released in 1933, it must obtain a license from RKO.

But if a Hollywood studio says they want to bring the "King Kong" novel that was released in 1933 to the screen again, then they don't need authorization and can create whatever they want.

When this fact emerged, Universal, Paramount and Dino Laurentiis were all dumbfounded.

The Spartans at the scene were RKO. They never expected that when Universal and Paramount got into a fight, they would be the first to be injured.

Damn it!

They just sold a license!

Then the court said that this authorization no longer had the meaning of authorization?

This, this, this...

Doesn’t this special code cost them their lives?

"This result made RKO very dissatisfied. Just when he was about to protest, Universal did something very shameful. They immediately withdrew the lawsuit and then stated that they would remake the "King Kong" novel."

"Sidney Shenberg personally initiated the project and titled the movie "The Legend of King Kong."

“Universal’s actions made RKO extremely angry and made Paramount feel like it had eaten shit. In order to stop Universal’s shameless behavior, Paramount also chose to withdraw the lawsuit, go out personally, and organized a three-party meeting. No one knows what agreement the three of them reached, but Universal finally gave up on filming the King Kong movie, but at the same time, they also brought King Kong into their own paradise.”

"Judging from the final result, the real winner is Universal who won the park project. Therefore, the public who do not know the truth and even industry insiders who are not involved feel that King Kong has become a product of Universal. But judging from the current situation Look..."

"That doesn't seem to be the case."

"Because RKO jumped out again."

The corners of Ethan's mouth twitched when he heard the twists and turns of the story. Although he has long known that no capitalist is easy to mess with, this is the first time he has seen such a shameless monopoly of copyrights like Universal.

And when these things happened, Ethan also understood why Universal changed its attitude so quickly before. When Sidney Shenberg could take over "King Kong" without any warning, after losing Spiel, After Berg, it would be a trivial matter to fall out with them. Declaring war directly would be more in line with this guy's character.

"Then who do you think will win in the end of this case?" Although Ethan already had the answer in his mind and knew that Universal would win, he still wanted to explore how people today evaluate this matter.

And his question also made Steve Ballmer raise his voice and said: "Boss! Do you still need to ask this question? The winner in the end will definitely be RKO!"

"???"

This answer, which was so different from the standard answer, made Ethan blink his eyes.

"Why?"

He didn't understand why Ballmer said that.

"You think Sidney Sheinberg will lose?"

Ethan asked.

"certainly!"

Ballmer nodded vigorously.

"Why?"

Ethan wanted to know why.

"Because this time it's not just RKO that will end up!" Steve Ballmer shouted: "General Tire, the boss behind RKO, has also taken action! With them here, how can Universal Pictures win?" (This chapter over)