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How a big movie studio (unfairly) forced a student to give up his senior thesis

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Re: How a big movie studio (unfairly) forced a student to give up his senior thesis

#51

Post by jimbobimbo »

vibrunazo wrote: post #49
dctoedt wrote: post #48

Some observations: 1. If the studio had filed a lawsuit, there's a very good chance that, after seeing the Asimov estate's permission, the judge would have quickly tossed the case on summary judgment --- and quite possibly awarded the student his attorneys' fees under section 505 of the Copyright Act,[1] as happened recently in several of the Righthaven copyright-troll cases.[2] 2. A copyright lawyer might have been…

> It's a pity the student didn't talk to a copyright > lawyer (with litigation experience) before caving. How much would that cost him in the US? And how likely is that the court would actually grant him the money? The link says "at court’s discretion". Has it actually ever happenned before?

It could've been free first consultation, it could've been a few hundred dollars - if OP had already budgeted $10,000 on the project, a small price to pay.

Re: How a big movie studio (unfairly) forced a student to give up his senior thesis

#52

Post by bonzoesc »

clarkevans wrote: post #29
v0cab wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People with money have influence. If we give them less money, they'll have less influence.

By downloading a film, even if you don't pay for it, you are contributing capital to that film. You'll cache the the plot, characters, actors in your mind and likely talk about it with your friends & collegues --in social situations re-enforce the film's value and reify the investment others have made by paying for the film. If you don't see the film, and one of your friends has a film reference you don't recognize,…

> By downloading a film, even if you don't pay for it, you are contributing capital to that film. You'll cache the the plot, characters, actors in your mind and likely talk about it with your friends & collegues --in social situations re-enforce the film's value and reify the investment others have made by paying for the film.

That and $8 will get you a Starbucks.

Re: How a big movie studio (unfairly) forced a student to give up his senior thesis

#53

Post by fluidcruft »

vibrunazo wrote: post #49
dctoedt wrote: post #48

Some observations: 1. If the studio had filed a lawsuit, there's a very good chance that, after seeing the Asimov estate's permission, the judge would have quickly tossed the case on summary judgment --- and quite possibly awarded the student his attorneys' fees under section 505 of the Copyright Act,[1] as happened recently in several of the Righthaven copyright-troll cases.[2] 2. A copyright lawyer might have been…

> It's a pity the student didn't talk to a copyright > lawyer (with litigation experience) before caving. How much would that cost him in the US? And how likely is that the court would actually grant him the money? The link says "at court’s discretion". Has it actually ever happenned before?

I'm somewhat surprised (given that all the faculty were sympathetic) that nobody directed the student to the university's counsel.

Re: How a big movie studio (unfairly) forced a student to give up his senior thesis

#54

Post by joshklein »

This is apropos the story, albeit slightly tangential. I don't remember all the specifics, but during my time at university, I remember a student being sued by some outside party related to his academic work. My university mobilized every resource at their disposal to defend the student and the lawsuit went away. The OP mentions attending a "small private college"; maybe my story is a hidden benefit of the large institutional machine. I would have expected the school to provide him counsel at a minimum.

Re: How a big movie studio (unfairly) forced a student to give up his senior thesis

#55

Post by dctoedt »

finnw wrote: post #18

> I responded by sending them the consent form from the Asimov estate, and explained that it was a student project, not a commercial venture worth litigating. I turned over our script, our shooting notes, our shot list, copies of our tapes and even the concept art drawings. I think the moral of the story is: Don't give the studio more information than you have to. The consent form would have been enough. If the studi…

Another perspective: If the studio had sued, they'd have gotten the information in the discovery process anyway. So you might as well give them the information early; that will increase the chances that someone at the studio will make a sensible informed decision. (If the information were confidential, you'd want to insist on putting an NDA in place first.)

Re: How a big movie studio (unfairly) forced a student to give up his senior thesis

#56

Post by yread »

moylan wrote: post #21
mahrain wrote: post #3

The (American) judicial system is broken when this type of class justice arises. This is a dangerous development.

when it comes to the little guy been screwed over by the ones with the cash to pay lawyers i don't think the usa has any monopoly in this area. my favourite case of the big guy losing despite the resources they bring to bear is the mclibel case ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McLibel_Case )

Thanks for the link to McLibel, somehow I've never heard of it. You might argue though that this case ended positively creating precedents. The small guys won 60k (from government) after being fined for 40k (which McDonald didn't even collect). OTOH it dragged on for 20 years... But being right in the end is priceless!

Re: How a big movie studio (unfairly) forced a student to give up his senior thesis

#57

Post by hobin »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #41
hobin wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know whether such extreme talk is legal, no, but it's quite common for lawyers to talk in this way. Remember those letters you got when you forgot to pay for something on time? You know, the ones with a nice little addition saying "if you do not pay before X, we will be forced to take legal action." It's the same thing, whether they will take action or not. The intent behind the statement is 'this will make i…

> It's the same thing Not exactly. The debt letter states, "If you do not fulfill our legal contract, we will pursue legal and established means to come to a resolution." The lawyer threat states, "I am turning a business issue into a personal one, and I will abuse the law."

In the case of the OP, I agree. I was speaking in more general terms what the general intent of 'lawyers threatening you' tends to be.

Re: How a big movie studio (unfairly) forced a student to give up his senior thesis

#59

Post by mickey7 »

guerilla tactic: if the trial ever proceeded it would have launched this guy's film career by giving him immense public exposure instead of just another sob story on reddit.

why did it take the lead of the studio's lawyer's team to make the phone call - it would imply how seriously they were concerned about real potential risks.

instead his surrender was exactly what the studio lawyers aimed for.

btw since this was 10 years ago it's conveniently outside the statute of limitations for slander - so he doesn't have to prove this story is even real and not just viral promotion bs for his lame student project.

Re: How a big movie studio (unfairly) forced a student to give up his senior thesis

#60

Post by [deleted] »

vibrunazo wrote: post #49
dctoedt wrote: post #48

Some observations: 1. If the studio had filed a lawsuit, there's a very good chance that, after seeing the Asimov estate's permission, the judge would have quickly tossed the case on summary judgment --- and quite possibly awarded the student his attorneys' fees under section 505 of the Copyright Act,[1] as happened recently in several of the Righthaven copyright-troll cases.[2] 2. A copyright lawyer might have been…

> It's a pity the student didn't talk to a copyright > lawyer (with litigation experience) before caving. How much would that cost him in the US? And how likely is that the court would actually grant him the money? The link says "at court’s discretion". Has it actually ever happenned before?

[deleted]
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