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1.- if this suit was filed in California why would New York law apply?
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New York law applies because all parties to the original 1969 contracts agreed that it would. This is legally valid and indeed almost standard in commercial contracts (read the fine print in a product warranty if you don't believe me). The case was filed in California because New Line is located there and therefore California has
in personam jurisdiction. It's not all that unusual a situation.
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2. - Would the previous filings of Wingnut Films and Peter Jackson be available to the Estate and would Peter Jackson be a good possible witness to assist them?
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The actual filings- documents filed with the court- are matters of public record and open to anyone. Of course since PJ eventually settled a lot of stuff was never filed or submitted as evidence. Whether PJ would be a good witness is a judgment call for the lawyers. However, it's certainly possible that PJ's version of production costs might be rather different from what New Line is claiming!
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3- This was posted on another site - halloffire.net - by an attorney. Is there any truth to this and could you explain what you think it means
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I posted it, and was referring to the doctrine of Copyright Reclamation, a part of US law. The purpose behind it is to allow the heirs of an author or artist a chance to 'reclaim' the copyright as against any really crappy deal he might have made in his lifetime: the classic case is that of Superman's creators who sold the character to DC Comics for peanuts. Basically the way it works is that whenever a copyright by a *deceased* author comes up for its third or fourth renewal (at 56 or 75 years after publication) the author's heirs can apply to reclaim the copyright and void any assignments or licences the author may have granted in his lifetime.
I have absolutely no reason to think, incidentally, that the Tolkien Estate is remotely contemplating anything of the sort. I brought it up rather as the sort of the thing this mythical Mean Old Take-Our-Movies-Away Estate might indulge in., if it really wanted to be nasty.
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