MARY CROSBY LAWSUIT SETTLED

The daughter of legendary entertainer Bing Crosby and a woman who lives near her in Malibu have tentatively settled a long- running lawsuit concerning the neighbor's right to traverse the actress' land to reach a federal park in order to ride horses there.

Lawyers for Mary Crosby and her husband, Mark Brodka, as well as the neighbor, Susan Demers, filed papers with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Johnson last Friday stating that a resolution was reached subject to certain conditions that were unspecified in the documents.

In September, Johnson ordered Crosby and Brodka -- through a preliminary injunction -- to let Demers to cross the couple's land to reach a public area where the woman rides horses. Crosby -- who famously shot Larry Hagman's J.R. character in the original "Dallas'' series -- and Brodka also were told to give Demers a remote- control device to open a gate the couple relocated and modified along an access road in May 2011.

The preliminary injunction against Crosby and Brodka, an attorney, was good until April 15, when the judge was scheduled to hold a non-jury trial on the issues. Crosby, the 53-year-old daughter of Bing Crosby and his second wife Kathryn Grant, and Brodka began the litigation by suing Demers and her friend, Martha Gwinn, in December 2010.

Crosby and Brodka's suit asked a judge to determine whether Demers and Gwinn have any rights to cross over the couple's property.

The actress has lived in a rustic area on Barrymore Drive above Pacific Coast Highway since April 1982. Demers, a horse trainer, then countersued Crosby and Brodka.

Twice revised, Demers' complaint alleged nuisance, trespass, invasion of privacy and intentional interference with express easement. She also wanted a permanent injunction allowing her to continue crossing the couple's land, punitive damages and attorneys' fees.

Demers maintained that when she bought her property in 1987, it included easements giving her the right to pass over a part of the Crosby-Brodka property. But attorneys representing the actress and her husband said the easements were eliminated years earlier.

Crosby and Brodka maintained the land where Demers rides her horses is now federal park property and that the law required her to reach it through public access routes.

SOURCE

BING IN COURT

Returning from an evening out with Mona Freeman during which they attended Claudette Colbert's party on October 11, 1953, Bing had an automobile accident at 5 a.m. at the junction of Wilshire and Sepulveda Boulevards in Hollywood in his Mercedes Benz sports car and has a "severely wrenched back". He is taken to his home by a passing motorist and had to miss several days of filming.

Representatives of the State Highway Patrol say that Bing "showed no signs of being drunk and that there was no indication that Mr. Crosby was driving recklessly" when involved in the accident on October 11.

(FROM 1954 PHOTO CAPTION):
Hollywood -- Female autograph fans are ignored by singer Bing Crosby as he arrives at Los Angeles Superior Court to appear in connection with a $1,000,000 damage suit brought against him as the result of an auto accident. The suit has been settled for $100,000, Crosby's lawyers announced. $67,500 went to fireman Frank H. Verdugo, driver of a car which collided with Crosby's $12,000 sports auto early October 11th, 1953. Verdugo's wife, Lucy, got $27,500, and her brother Eulalio Perea received $5,000. Verdugo charged that the crooner's faculties the morning of the accident were impaired "by reason of being without a reasonable amount of sleep for an unreasonably long period of time." He also asserted that Crosby had been drinking and charged him with driving with "utter disregard for the life and safety of others."

SOURCE

BING CROSBY PRODUCTIONS SUES OVER HOGAN'S HEROES

A federal judge denies Bing Crosby Productions' attempts to halt an arbitration initiated by the WGA to allow the show's original writers to exploit theatrical motion picture rights to the popular 1960s show.

The Writers Guild of America is headed to arbitration to establish that the original writers of the 1960s TV show Hogan's Heroes are entitled to lucrative "separated rights" in the story of a German prisoner-of-war camp during World War II. The WGA is making the move over the strenuous objection of Bing Cosby Productions, the producer of the original series. If successful, the writers will have the ability to license a film remake of the classic show.

Hogan's Heroes premiered in 1965, created by Bernard Fein and Albert Ruddy. The CBS sitcom lasted for 168 episodes through six seasons and still plays in syndication on MeTV.

In 1963, Fein and Ruddy assigned rights to their creation (then titled "Heroes") to Bing Crosby Productions and in the following year, entered into an employment agreement with BCP whereby they got $4,500, a bonus payment of $500 for the broadcast of the pilot, and 10 percent of the the show's net profits.

It wasn't a huge sum, but nearly 50 years later, Fein's widow and Ruddy could be taking home more if an arbitrator is convinced that the writers held onto separated rights, which under the terms of the intricate guild agreement, means that credited TV writers reserve many literary rights even when the producers hold the copyright. "Separated rights" are what allow writers of TV shows to profit when movie studios develop movies based on the material, as happened recently with 21 Jump Street, last weekend's No. 1 movie at the box office.

The WGA submitted its arbitration claims last October, which caused BCP, Rysher Entertainment, and Qualia Capital to file a lawsuit in California federal court seeking a declaration that this dispute couldn't be arbitrated.

BCP raised a host of arguments, including that the assignment agreement between BCP and the writers didn't include an arbitration clause, that the agreement gave BCP the right to make a motion picture based on the series, that the CBA between WGA and producers at the time didn't apply to assignment agreements, and that the CBA excluded individual disputes between writers and producers.

On Monday, California federal judge Stephen Wilson rejected that assessment, saying that "this dispute falls squarely within the [CBA's] arbitration clause."

The judge added that because the writers appeared to legally be employees of BCP, which was a signatory to the WGA agreement, "it will be up to the arbitrator to decide whether WGA's claim on behalf of Writers is meritorious."

The timetable for the arbitration is not known, and it's possible that the claims could settle.

The nature of separated rights has been of some controversy between writers and producers over the years. For example, last August, the WGA attempted to stop a musical version of the 2000 Universal film, Bring It On, arguing that the stage version violated the film scriptwriter's reserved separated rights. (The case settled on a confidential basis.)

Arbitration decisions are not technically binding as precedent, althought they are usually cited as such. But the ruling by Judge Wilson could be impactful, leading other writers of old TV shows to make their own attempts to pull rights from under the noses of TV producers.

When Hogan's Heroes first premiered, it was seen by many people as a remake of a stage play entitled Stalag 17, which was adapted into a 1953 Billy Wilder-directed film. CBS, which broadcast Hogan's Heroes, was sued by Stalag 17 writers Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski for copyright infringement, but the judge dismissed the case, finding "striking difference in the dramatic mood of the two works": The play was grim and somber; the TV show was slapstick.

It was a big victory for the TV show's makers at the time, but ironically, had the plaintiffs been successful in the case, Fein and Ruddy would own no separated rights, as the WGA notes on its website that only original works, not based on existing material, are eligible. Of course, losing the copyright would have also made everything moot.

Bing Crosby sold his production company in 1967 and the Crosby family and estate does not own it at this time...

SOURCE

ANOTHER LAWSUIT FOR BING CROSBY ENTERPRISES

LOS ANGELES (CN) - Nat King Cole's and Bing Crosby's copyright owners claim an L.A.-area Internet marketer is profiting from "one of the largest operations in the world involving the sale of unauthorized musical and video titles." They call CD Listening Bar and its affiliates, run by CEO Bruce Ogilvie, "active participants in music piracy of the most blatant and harmful kind." King Cole Partners and HLC Properties filed separate, virtually identical federal complaints. HLC is named for Crosby's given names, Harry Lillis Crosby. The late singers' companies demand "an immediate stop" to CD Listening Bar's "massive, ongoing and intentional infringement" of their copyrights, trademarks and publicity rights.

"Defendants are active participants in music piracy of the most blatant and harmful kind," the complaints state. "Specifically, defendants own and operate a worldwide distribution company in the business of selling sound recordings on vinyl LPs and CDs, motion pictures and other videos on DVDs and video games in various formats. In furtherance of that business venture, defendants, without any license or authority, have illegally sought out, imported into the United States and sold unauthorized copies of plaintiffs' sound recordings."

CD Listening Bar sells the unauthorized recordings through online retailers, and distributes its products all over the world. It also does business as Super D, Phantom Distribution, Super D/Phantom and Phantom Sound and Vision, all of which are named as defendants, as is Bruce Ogilvie, who is described as CEO, an owner of and "the dominant influence in Super D."

The copyright holders claim that CD Listening Bar "overtly claims to the public through its marketing and websites that it currently stocks 'the world's largest selection of music, movies and games' and that its stock contains 340,411 unique music and video titles of which 120,000 are U.S. CD titles, 70,000 are U.S. DVD titles and over 150,000 are non-parallel import titles from 32 countries, with additional titles coming in on a consistent basis." The plaintiff's songs are included in those thousands of titles, without authorization, they say.

"Defendants are aware that their actions of importing and selling certain Crosby audio and video recordings are not legal, and that such conduct constitutes infringement of copyright, trademark and publicity rights laws," according to the HLC complaint. "Moreover, defendants openly misrepresent to the public their authority to sell this music, falsely claiming that all of their products are 'legitimate.' Defendants also indicate that much of their music inventory is obtained through 'imports' from 32 different countries, which they misleadingly explain as 'genuine merchandise released for sale in another country ... not to be confused with bootlegs or pirated material,' thus falsely implying to their customers and the public that such titles are being legally imported and distributed in the United States.

Defendants further erroneously claim that they support all copyright laws and that they pay all appropriate mechanical licenses on their 'imports,' when in fact defendants are engaged in one of the largest operations in the world involving the sale of unauthorized musical and video titles." (Ellipsis in complaint.)

The Cole and Crosby companies say Ogilvie is causing them irreparable harm, and that he has "profited greatly" from it.

"Defendants have stolen and are profiting from the legacy built by Crosby, which plaintiff has tried vehemently to preserve and protect. Additionally, by making unauthorized products containing audio and video recordings and certain compositions of Crosby available to retailers throughout the world, defendants are permitting these recordings to be further disseminated over the Internet, and freely available to millions, in further violation of plaintiff's rights. In sum, defendants' conduct severely impairs and has the potential to destroy and/or de-value plaintiff's ability to sell, lawfully utilize and otherwise control the quality of sound recordings of Crosby. Defendants' infringing conduct with regards to plaintiff's respective rights must be stopped immediately and defendants must understand they cannot continue to run their business with complete disregard of the relevant intellectual property laws," the complaint states.

Virtually identical claims are made in the Cole complaint. Both plaintiffs are represented by Corina Maccarin with Milstein Adelman. They seek an injunction and damages for misappropriation of pre-1972 sound recordings, commercial appropriation of name and likeness, false designation of origin, description and representation, and quantum meruit. Cole's complaint demands $150,000 per infringed recording.

Nat "King" Cole, a singer and pianist, died from lung cancer in 1965, age 45. Bing Crosby died at 74 while playing a round of golf in Madrid in 1977. Neither Milstein Adelman nor Super D immediately responded to requests for comment.

SOURCE