The Beatles Look to Quash 'Frivolous' Lawsuit Over Shea Stadium Footage
On the verge of last month's release of Eight Days a Week -- The Touring Years, a Ron Howard-directed film showing live performances of The Beatles, a surprising lawsuit was filed by the company assigned Sid Bernstein's intellectual property.
Bernstein was a well known rock promoter in the 1960s, credited with bringing The Beatles to the United States, who passed away at the age of 95 in 2013. The lawsuit focused on the role he enjoyed for The Beatles' 1965 performance at Shea Stadium, which has been featured on ABC in 1967, in the 1995 television docuseries, The Beatles Anthology, a 2010 Billy Joel concert film called The Last Play at Shea, and last and not least, as supplemental material following screenings of Eight Days a Week. The footage is also streamed at the Beatles.com website.
After five decades, Sid Bernstein Presents is now claiming rights to both the footage from that Shea Stadium performance, and despite seeing the Copyright Office reject its copyright registration application in July, asserts infringement on the part of two Beatles-related companies, Apple Corps Limited and Subafilms Limited.
On Wednesday, defendants filed a motion to dismiss the complaint that rejects the "frivolous" notion that Bernstein is author and copyright owner of Shea Stadium concert film.
By: Eriq Gardner
Source: Billboard
