Am I being screwed here?

[misswhynottryit]

no no no no, small claims!

[Blade_Jones]

no no no no, small claims!

I always thought copyrights were a Federal issue that could only be handled in Federal court.

[misswhynottryit]

I'm not sure how the issue of copyright got into my thread. I'm suing the dp i hired to shoot a short film (paid him already, no footage, not even the drive I gave him to dump the footage onto).

Any suggestions about THIS case?

Our court date is tomorrow morning at 8:30am. HA!

[Blade_Jones]

Any suggestions about THIS case?

Bring all evidence you have to demonstrate that there was a contract and what the terms of the contract were. Bring written contracts, bring emails, including the computer with the emails saved (example: saved in Mozilla Thunderbird). Bring a copy of a written ad that you may have placed looking for a DP. Bring phone answering machine messages that might help your case. Bring the receipt showing that you paid for the hard drive, paid him for his work, etc. Be prepared to refute lies. Defendants always lie in court.

[finderskeepers]

I would obviously get an entertainment lawyer/solicitor. I didn't study law and don't know UK copyright laws. However, If you have registered a copyright then the original material should be yours. Therefore, he can not sell the filmed performance as his own. It would be like me filming the screenplay for "Forrest Gump" and then trying to release it. However, as I stated I don't have a law degree, so speak to someone that does!

Originally Posted by eimajjjj

But what if he refuses? That's my point, he has ownership of my film at the moment and could simply just walk away and say it's his and he directed it!

[Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC]

Agreed!

Find a good solicitor with experience in these matters and take the DP to court. Sue him for stealing copyrighted material (Hopefully you have the screenplay copyrighted) and "work-for-hire" infringements.

Make sure your script is copyrighted to have a case.

Emails do count as evidence in court. Email correspondance can help a lot.

[Morris]

There are two separate discussions. Regarding the small claims court, you are limited as to the amount you can get back. Even when you win, you can have a problem in collecting depending on how the judgement is worded.
For either case you want to show potential damages and loss of revenue in addition to what you paid the individual.

[misswhynottryit]

Thank you all for your help and advice. I did as you said and when the lousy "DP" didn't show up, I won by default. I won $4,220 in costs and damages (would have won more if I had another signature to confirm the floors were brand new before the "dp" sliced and diced them with his un-protected C-stands.

Anyways, thanks again and I'll check back here to see if anyone needs any help or if I hit a road bump in getting this judgement (I imagine it's a whole other set of hoops).

re: last reply - not sure how the judgement will be written. I literally just stepped out of court...


my email is misslovestolaugh@gmail.com if anyone is so inclined to follow-up...


Love from Los Angeles
-justanotherdumbactress

[Blade_Jones]

Make sure your script is copyrighted to have a case.
Emails do count as evidence in court. Email correspondance can help a lot.

Not copyrighting your script with the library of congress is not the end of the world. Save any evidence that you affixed it in a tangible form (ex- a Word document on a hard drive which shows date create, date last modified, etc).

[Synia]

Originally Posted by Blade_Jones

Not copyrighting your script with the library of congress is not the end of the world. Save any evidence that you affixed it in a tangible form (ex- a Word document on a hard drive which shows date create, date last modified, etc).

I don't know much about IT, but aren't those date easily changed? For example if you set your clock on your computer to, say, 2007. Then you create a fresh document. Wouldn't the date created show "2007"?

[finderskeepers]

Good Point. However, if you email the script to the actors then you would have a legitimate third party time stamp. I emailed my script to tons of actors when I was casting.

Originally Posted by Synia

I don't know much about IT, but aren't those date easily changed? For example if you set your clock on your computer to, say, 2007. Then you create a fresh document. Wouldn't the date created show "2007"?

[Indigo]

So eimajjjj what is the end of your movie story?
Did I skipped it in some of the posts?

Did you had to give up on your movie and credits etc?

[Indigo]

Does anybody else knows the answer?

I contacted eimajjjj directly but I still didn't got any feedback from him.

How dod the tory ended?
Did he managed to save his movie?!