This is going to be a long post but bear with me.
Backstory: Actress Susan Hart married James Nicholson, co-founder of American Int’l Pictures back in the 60s. When he died she got the rights to some of AIP’s films. Those include “It Conquered The World,” “Attack of the the Eye Creatures,” “I Was A Teenage Werewolf,” “Amazing Colossal Man” and “Terror From The Year 5000.”
In the late 90s, Susan started enforcing her claim on these films and hasn’t allowed them to be license or released in any format, holding up their corresponding official MST3K episode releases under Rhino and later Shout. She’s very litigious and notoriously hard to work with. She has never, ever licensed her films out and will sue at the drop of a hat.
In 2015, Shout released a documentary about AIP on Volume 34. In late 2018, Susan sued because the documentary included stills of the movies she owns the rights to. It went to Federal Court in Susan Nicholson Hofheinz v. Shout Factory, LLC et al.
For some ungodly reason the federal Pacer website requires you to pay for it, and thankfully I have a login, so I took screenshots of everything pertinent and have shared it into a gallery here.
So let me break down the legalese for those that can’t read it:
Susan sued Shout, Ballyhoo and Shout owner Jordan Fields.
The case went to mediation and nothing came of it.
Shout, et al., filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing Susan: A) has not proved ownership or renewal on the copyrights of said films; B) the clips used were allowable under the “fair use” doctrine and C) Susan has not sought to actively protect her works, as a quick Google search will show YouTube uploads of the full films she claims Shout infringed on.
Susan shortly thereafter filed a notice that she and Shout had reached a settlement in principle.
Since then, 4 Motions for Extension have been filed asking the court for more time to negotiate between the two parties to reach a final consummated settlement.
The most interesting things in the final, most-recent motion for extension, (which states why there have been so many of these) states that, in December, Shout asked Susan for 2 years license for physical releases, and stated that both parties are working out how to come to an agreement on this request and that both parties want to agree.
The actual notice of settlement didn’t indicate what exactly the settlement entailed, but this notice in the motion for extension effectively proves that Shout Factory is very close to licensing out the films for a large portion of the final, unreleased MST3K episodes.
Edit: Both parties filed a FOURTH motion for extension on 2/7/20. In it, they state that: As of this week, the material terms of the longform written agreement have been finalized and that the agreement is partially executed, but they need more time to finish execution and commence performance of the agreement. They requested an extension to March 13th.
Thanks very much to those Tarlcabot18 for studious work.
