Isis Litigation, Svensk Filmindustri, and the Bergman titles

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piano player
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Re: Isis Litigation, Svensk Filmindustri, and the Bergman titles

#51 Post by piano player » Sat Jan 17, 2009 11:22 pm

HypnoHelioStaticStasis wrote:
piano player wrote:
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
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?
I don't know, it could be a very good thing, and it could be a very bad thing.

Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter had a story on this today. According to them the Isis takeover will mean that "the distribution of Bergman titles in the US will be made easier", and that "the new rights holders now hope for a new Bergman wave in the United States".

Hopefully someone at Criterion/Janus will be able to clarify.

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Matt
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Re: Isis Litigation, Svensk Filmindustri, and the Bergman titles

#52 Post by Matt » Sat Jan 17, 2009 11:42 pm

The garnishment of existing contracts just means that Isis gets any royalties or other revenue from existing DVD sales that would normally be going to Svensk Filmindustri. It means nothing, currently, about rights.

canti10
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Re: Isis Litigation, Svensk Filmindustri, and the Bergman titles

#53 Post by canti10 » Sun Jan 18, 2009 12:04 am

I see that their catalog doesnt have Face to Face. Does another company have the rights to this film? Well, this could be a good thing, that means all those lovely film will finally come out! I'm just hoping soon enough.

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domino harvey
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Re: Isis Litigation, Svensk Filmindustri, and the Bergman titles

#54 Post by domino harvey » Sun Jan 18, 2009 12:14 am

canti10 wrote:I see that their catalog doesnt have Face to Face. Does another company have the rights to this film?
Paramount

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Max von Mayerling
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Re: Isis Litigation, Svensk Filmindustri, and the Bergman titles

#55 Post by Max von Mayerling » Sun Jan 18, 2009 1:54 am

This might make any future releases involving film elements or other materials a somewhat more complicated, although not impossible, matter. Assuming that SF controls the elements, I would think that Criterion would need to separately negotiate with SF on the film materials (in terms of obtaining the best elements, restoration, etc.) and Isis on the US distribution rights. I imagine life is easier when you can negotiate all this with one party, and that same party derives all of the economic benefits of the US dvd or blu-ray release.

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Antoine Doinel
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Re: Isis Litigation, Svensk Filmindustri, and the Bergman titles

#56 Post by Antoine Doinel » Sun Jan 18, 2009 10:17 am

Matt wrote:The garnishment of existing contracts just means that Isis gets any royalties or other revenue from existing DVD sales that would normally be going to Svensk Filmindustri. It means nothing, currently, about rights.
Anytime I hear the word "garnish" it reminds of this exchange from the Simpsons:
Krusty the Clown: I can't go to jail. I got a swanky lifestyle. I'm used to the best.
IRS Agent: Krusty, this is America. We don't send our celebrities to jail. We're just going to garnish your salary.
Krusty the Clown: You're going to *garnish* my *celery*?
IRS Agent: Please, Krusty, no jokes.
Krusty the Clown: Who's joking? Oh, I don't understand what you're saying, it all sounds so crazy to me.

piano player
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Re: Isis Litigation, Svensk Filmindustri, and the Bergman titles

#57 Post by piano player » Mon Jan 19, 2009 3:27 am

Torsten Larsson, chairman of SF, questions the Isis takeover:
We have been collaborating with Janus Films for years. Our relation is active, successful, and shall continue to be so. From now on Isis means that Janus will have to pay them royalties instead of us. I would be suprised if that turns out to be a legit way of doing things. Our american lawyers are working on the case right now.
(freely translated from swedish).

Send in the clowns.

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arsonfilms
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Re: Isis Litigation, Svensk Filmindustri, and the Bergman titles

#58 Post by arsonfilms » Mon Jan 19, 2009 1:39 pm

I hope that Larsson's statement puts an end to the crazy paranoia that's been running rampant through this thread. Although he doesn't say so specifically, he seems to indicate exactly what many of us have figured the whole time: the existing contracts all still stand, and the only thing at stake will be who gets the royalty checks.

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Re: Isis Litigation, Svensk Filmindustri, and the Bergman titles

#59 Post by Adam » Mon Jan 19, 2009 2:46 pm

I think it's safe to say that there will be no new DVDs from restored prints, since Isis doesn't actually own or control any physical assets related to the films. They just want money from the distribution & sales of current DVDs really.
I think it will be a little while longer before you see any Bergman films in your local movie theatre, since why woudl any film distributor send you a print if you then pay the royalty to a different company.

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Max von Mayerling
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Re: Isis Litigation, Svensk Filmindustri, and the Bergman titles

#60 Post by Max von Mayerling » Mon Jan 19, 2009 3:29 pm

I don't think that's necessarily true. First, SF may have its own reasons for doing restorations, because, for example, as a practical matter, as has been noted earlier in the thread, Isis may have a hard time messing about with any non-US distribution rights, due to enforcement problems. So SF may restore films on its own with the non-US market in mind.

And then there would also be nothing to keep Criterion from negotiating separate agreements with SF and Isis, paying SF for access to elements and paying Isis for US distribution rights. They would certainly have a basis for saying to Isis, well, I'm not paying you as much as I might have paid SF for the rights, because all you can give me are the rights & that's not worth as much as the rights plus film elements. They could also draft contracts with contingencies contemplating the outcome of future litigation.

Again, probably more complicated, but not impossible.

I'm sure this is far from the only situation where the dvd distribution rights holders and the film elements holders are different parties. I imagine Criterion has dealt with this kind of arrangement more than a few times. Like when somebody finds a copy of Passion of Joan of Arc in their closet & it's a one-of-a-kind print - it's hardly likely that the owner of the closet also happens to own the US dvd distribution rights. And I don't think that the US dvd distribution rights holders would have any rights with respect to what the closet owner does with the print.

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Re: Isis Litigation, Svensk Filmindustri, and the Bergman titles

#61 Post by Adam » Tue Jan 20, 2009 9:50 pm

NY Times today:
Seeking Bergman Film Rights? Try Aspen
By BROOKS BARNES
Published: January 20, 2009

LOS ANGELES — As plot twists go, this one is a doozy: after an eight-year legal battle over the lease of a movie theater, the former owners of a multiplex in Aspen, Colo., now own the rights to Ingmar Bergman’s entire film library.

Or do they?

In late December an amateurish-looking Web site popped up offering for sale on DVD dozens of classic Swedish films, including those of Bergman, the film legend responsible for classics like “The Seventh Seal” and “Cries and Whispers.” The site, SwedishClassicFilms.com, also offered to sell exhibition rights.

The offer, so unusual as to be unbelievable, was not extended by Svensk Filmindustri, the giant Swedish company that has long held the rights to Mr. Bergman’s work and to the other Swedish art house classics on the Web site’s list, including Bo Widerberg’s “Elvira Madigan” and Lasse Hallstrom’s “My Life as a Dog.” Instead, the offer came from the former owners of the Isis Theater in downtown Aspen.

In July a Colorado judge transferred all of Svensk’s film rights to Isis Litigation L.L.C. after Svensk refused to pay damages resulting from a renovation of the Isis Theater in the late 1990s. Now, having finished recording its bounty with the United States Copyright Office — and with the documents to prove it — Isis has set out to make some money.

“We never wanted to go into the Swedish film business,” said Jack L. Smith, a Denver lawyer at the firm Holland & Hart who has represented Isis in its legal battle with Svensk since the beginning. “But now we own these films and are in the process of trying to figure out how to market them.”

What Isis actually owns is subject to some debate by outsiders.

Hugh D. Wise III, a Colorado lawyer who at one time represented Svensk, could not be reached, and e-mail inquiries and telephone calls to Svensk and its corporate owner, the Bonnier Group, went unreturned. In July Torsten Larsson, a Bonnier entertainment executive, told Variety, “A court decision in Colorado means nothing in Sweden.”

After a casual perusal of recent court orders in the case, Louis P. Petrich, a lawyer who is considered one of Hollywood’s leading authorities on copyright and trademark matters, said he was unconvinced by the Isis claim. “I don’t see any basis for a state court to do this,” Mr. Petrich said.

Bankruptcy is one exception, Mr. Petrich said, and a court could perhaps transfer certain nonexclusive copyrights. But nonexclusive rights are significantly less valuable. “With nonexclusive rights, you’re not going to be an infringer if you use them, but you can’t prevent anyone else from using them either,” Mr. Petrich said.

Back in Colorado, where Mr. Smith’s firm bills itself as “The Law Out West,” Isis disagrees. “The rights that Isis now holds are exclusive rights,” Mr. Smith said. “Svensk has no further rights to the films.”

Mr. Smith said that the original lawsuit involving the theater was served to Svensk at an office in California, now defunct, establishing jurisdiction in the United States. Furthermore, Mr. Smith said, Colorado law holds that a state judge can order the transfer of assets if a defendant refuses to pay a judgment.

Svensk has certainly refused to pay — or to participate in recent court proceedings at all.

The Isis and Svensk dispute began in 1997. The Swedish company, according to court documents, was then a co-owner of Resort Theaters of America, which operated a chain of cinemas in second-home communities like Aspen. Resort Theaters in 1997 had asked the owners of the Isis Theater, which opened in 1915, to allow them to convert the historic building into a five-screen cineplex. To persuade Isis to participate in the costly project, Svensk guaranteed in writing the long-term lease.

In 2000 Resort Theaters filed for bankruptcy and rejected the Isis lease. Svensk refused to pay on the guarantee. In 2003 a Colorado court found Svensk liable, awarding Isis a judgment of almost $7 million. Svensk appealed the judgment to the Colorado Court of Appeals and the Colorado Supreme Court, which each found in favor of Isis.

In May 2008 Colorado District Judge Denise K. Lynch found Svensk in contempt of court for refusing to disclose its assets to Isis, fining the company $2,500 a day. Around this time, according to Mr. Smith, Svensk stopped communicating with him or with the court, and the company’s original lawyer, Mr. Wise, resigned. In July Judge Lynch ordered Svensk to hand over all its films to Isis within 30 days.

After silence from Svensk — and with the judgment against Svensk now reaching about $10 million — Judge Lynch in September appointed an outside lawyer to transfer all of Svensk’s film rights to Isis, a process of filing with the United States Copyright Office that took until December to complete.

Mr. Smith says Isis — he won’t name the members of the investor group publicly, except to say “there is no major media company or the like involved” — now intends to capitalize on its new asset. (The Aspen multiplex is still operating, but under different owners who have nothing to do with this litigation.) The library of Bergman, who died in 2007, is just the tip of the Svensk cinematic iceberg, with some 200 titles, most of them obscure, also registered by Isis with the copyright office.

Isis lacks physical prints of the films, but Mr. Smith says that is not of primary concern. DVDs now available in the market contain digital copies of sufficient quality, Mr. Smith said. “We are still in the process of figuring all of that out,” he said.

Fans of Bergman in particular and of Swedish cinema in general are likely to applaud any action at all involving the Svensk library. In the United States, at least, very little distribution has taken place in recent years, possibly because of a lack of commercial interest but also possibly because, as Mr. Smith contends, Svensk wanted to avoid the market to avoid seizures that might have been made to satisfy the Isis judgment.

Since 2005, after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled in its favor, Isis has been paid royalties from some DVD distribution of Svensk works by companies like Janus Films, a distributor of classic and foreign films.

Those royalties total $520,000, according to Mr. Smith.

Mr. Smith said that Isis was willing to transfer the rights back to Svensk if it paid off the judgment. Otherwise, he added, Isis would seek buyers for the library or use it in any way it could.

Who might buy the library? Film-financing experts said that companies like Janus or International Film Channel could kick the tires, but that the holdings might not be as valuable as Isis hopes.

“This library is certainly very prestigious but probably has very little commercial viability,” said Amir Malin, a partner at Qualia Capital, a media-focused investment company with assets that include several large film libraries.

“I think any serious player would take one look at the unusual circumstances here and decide it’s too much of a legal risk,” he continued. “It may end up being an interesting tale and not much else.”

canti10
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Re: Isis Litigation, Svensk Filmindustri, and the Bergman titles

#62 Post by canti10 » Wed Jan 21, 2009 12:06 am

Come on Janus films, buy the rights!!!....we want to see more Bergman!!!

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The Fanciful Norwegian
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Re: Isis Litigation, Svensk Filmindustri, and the Bergman titles

#63 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Wed Jan 21, 2009 12:22 pm

Isis lacks physical prints of the films, but Mr. Smith says that is not of primary concern. DVDs now available in the market contain digital copies of sufficient quality, Mr. Smith said.
Hahahaha, what?

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domino harvey
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Re: Isis Litigation, Svensk Filmindustri, and the Bergman titles

#64 Post by domino harvey » Wed Jan 21, 2009 12:24 pm

So their business model is downloading existing discs off torrent sites

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dx23
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Re: Isis Litigation, Svensk Filmindustri, and the Bergman titles

#65 Post by dx23 » Wed Jan 21, 2009 2:54 pm

Fans of Bergman in particular and of Swedish cinema in general are likely to applaud any action at all involving the Svensk library. In the United States, at least, very little distribution has taken place in recent years, possibly because of a lack of commercial interest but also possibly because, as Mr. Smith contends, Svensk wanted to avoid the market to avoid seizures that might have been made to satisfy the Isis judgment.
That may be news to Criterion, Sony and MGM. I thought that they have released almost 3/4 of Bergman's work in the US.

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Re: Isis Litigation, Svensk Filmindustri, and the Bergman titles

#66 Post by Antoine Doinel » Wed Jan 21, 2009 5:08 pm

domino harvey wrote:So their business model is downloading existing discs off torrent sites
Given their, uh, "retro" website I think the business model will be more likely playing the DVDs on a TV and then filming it with camcorder.

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Re: Isis Litigation, Svensk Filmindustri, and the Bergman titles

#67 Post by richast2 » Thu Jan 22, 2009 2:35 pm

dx23 wrote:
Fans of Bergman in particular and of Swedish cinema in general are likely to applaud any action at all involving the Svensk library. In the United States, at least, very little distribution has taken place in recent years, possibly because of a lack of commercial interest but also possibly because, as Mr. Smith contends, Svensk wanted to avoid the market to avoid seizures that might have been made to satisfy the Isis judgment.
That may be news to Criterion, Sony and MGM. I thought that they have released almost 3/4 of Bergman's work in the US.
I think that section you quoted is referring to theatrical distribution.

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agnamaracs
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Re: Isis Litigation, Svensk Filmindustri, and the Bergman titles

#68 Post by agnamaracs » Tue Mar 17, 2009 9:18 pm

So. New Seventh Seal disc.

What implications does this have in terms of Criterion, Isis, and SF?

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Ashirg
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Re: Isis Litigation, Svensk Filmindustri, and the Bergman titles

#69 Post by Ashirg » Wed Mar 18, 2009 12:14 am

From the story above, I think the only implication so far is that Criterion is paying to both SF (for materials) and Isis (for rights in US).

Grand Illusion
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Re: Ingmar Bergman

#70 Post by Grand Illusion » Sat Jun 26, 2010 5:20 am

As long as this thread is active again, is there any clarification on the rights to Bergman's films on DVD? Specifically in regards to the Aspen theater and Svensk Filmindustri?

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