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Financier Got Bona Fide Right To Screenplay Copyright

By Stan Soocher
January 31, 2014

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York decided that an investor obtained the copyright to a film screenplay, even if the finance advisor for the production company in which the screenplay author had an equity interest fraudulently induced the author to assign the copyright to the production company. McDonald v. Brown, 12 Civ. 7109.

Christian McDonald wrote the screenplay Remnants and co-formed Res Ipsa Loquitur Productions to produce an independent film. Barry Jay Weiss was hired to arrange the film financing. Res Ipsa then joined with Cine Globe Productions to form Remnant Productions LLC. Meanwhile, McDonald assigned his screenplay copyright to Res Ipsa, then to Remnant Productions. McDonald claimed Reiss promised that the author would serve as the film's director and retain the screenplay copyright until his film directing and writing services were fulfilled. Thomas V. Conigliaro was among those who provided the financing for the Remnants film project.

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