‘Hobbit’ Heirs Seek $220 Million
For ‘Rings’ Rights
By Brett Pulley - July 15th, 2009 - Bloomberg News
J.R.R. Tolkien sold movie rights to his “Lord of the Rings” novels 40 years ago for 7.5 percent of future receipts. Three films and $6 billion later, his heirs say they haven’t seen a dime from Time Warner Inc.
The accounting methods used by New Line Cinema, the Time Warner unit that made the movies, will face a jury’s scrutiny in October, when the heirs’ lawsuit against the New York-based media company is set for trial in Los Angeles Superior Court.
The case, if not settled by then, may provide a window into accounting practices that let Time Warner deny proceeds of the Oscar-winning films to Tolkien’s heirs. The litigation also threatens to derail two “The Hobbit” films that, if their predecessors are a guide, could generate $4 billion in sales.
“Usually it’s not outright thievery by the studios, but death by contract,” said Pierce O’Donnell, the Los Angeles- based lawyer who represented the late columnist Art Buchwald in a successful case against Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures in 1988. “It’s an esoteric world where black doesn’t mean black, and white doesn’t necessarily mean white.”
Of course the reality is that this egregious practice of ripping off artists is based on the extortion and blackmail based logic of our corrupt court system. As noted in the article, it is standard practice to charge one artist for expenses which were incurred on completely different projects for other artists. Incredibly, since the contract provides for profits on these expenses, the first artist gets ripped off twice. How else do you think a phenomenally successful series of movies that generate $6 billion in sales can rip off the writer, due 7.5% of the gross, and claim he is due NOTHING!
Courts repeatedly have endorsed this idiocy. It is standard practice in Hollywood because our courts embrace the corruption it is dependent upon.
There is no justice in America. Our courts are corrupt.
Kodak Agrees To Settle Bias Lawsuit
by Matthew Daneman - July 15th, 2009 - Deomcrat and Chronicle
Eastman Kodak Co. has agreed to a $21.4 million settlement with a group of African-American employees who contend the company discriminated against them in its pay, promotion, job assignment and layoff practices.
A hearing on the proposed settlement is scheduled for Sept. 15 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan W. Feldman for final approval. The judge last month gave preliminary approval to the deal, under which more than 3,000 current and former Kodak workers could receive payments ranging from $1,000 to as much as $75,000.
Under terms of the 132-page settlement, Kodak also would make numerous changes to how it trains its work force on equal employment issues and handles future discrimination complaints.
This is the third lawsuit brought by blacks against Kodak. They settled the first law suit with new rules establishing how to treat blacks with preferential treatment in the future. They then sued again when the new rules did not result in blacks getting ahead of whites by sufficient margins. This was not a law suit. This was extortion, sanctioned by the most corrupt court system in the world.
Please note. Every single black worker at Kodak was covered by the two suits which are being settled here and got free money from the settlement. The suits essentially argue that rules written by blacks in the previous lawsuit did not protect a SINGLE BLACK employee. NOT ONE.
If the actions by Kodak were truly that egregious that they harmed every single black employee... you can bet every dime you own that this action would not have been settled. Actually what it really proves is that if you have a good lawyer and you are black, you will win any law suit against any business in our current court system. That is how corrupt our courts have become.
Lawyers Group Gives Sotomayor
Its Highest Approval Rating
by Michael Doyle & David Lightman - July 7th, 2009 - McClatchy Newspapers
The nation's lawyers and law enforcement leaders gave Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor ringing endorsements Tuesday, even as Republicans tried to rally opposition.
With Sotomayor's Senate confirmation hearing less than a week away, the American Bar Association announced that the 54-year-old appellate judge is "well qualified" to serve on the nation's highest court. The unanimous recommendation is the association's highest grade for a potential judge.
It is total hypocrisy to call the American Bar Association "The nation's lawyers and law enforcement leaders". By their defense of criminal loving liberal judges it would be more honest to call them the leading force for the subversion of victim rights in America. Our murder rate is the highest in the world because of their political bias in favor of "the rule of judges" and against "the rule of law".
Since Sotomayor is liberal and a racist, she could have one of the highest rates of being overturned among American judges and she would still be praised by this group. Oh wait. She has one of the highest rates of being overturned among American judges. Well of course, holding America in such contempt that she rejects "the rule of law" makes her "well qualified" in the minds of the anti-American pro-Socialist liberal-progressive haters who populate the Democrat Party and the highly politicized American Bar Association.