FYI!

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/oct/23/netflix-bicycle-thieves-sued-copyright-streaming

Cheers!
Anthony
*******************************
Anthony E. Anderson
Reference/Collections Librarian
Doheny Library
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0182
(213) 740-1190   antho...@usc.edu<mailto:antho...@usc.edu>
"Wind, regen, zon, of kou,
Albert Cuyp ik hou van jou."
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"Corinth Films claims the film site has been showing the subtitled version of 
Vittorio De Sica's classic tale of poverty-stricken postwar Rome without 
obtaining rights

Corinth Films, which claims copyright for Vittorio De Sica's famous 1948 tale 
of poverty-stricken postwar Rome, has filed a suit in a New York federal 
court<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2475269-bicyclethief.html>. 
According to the Hollywood 
Reporter<http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/netflix-hit-copyright-lawsuit-classic-833908>,
 the company accepts that Bicycle Thieves is in the public domain in the US but 
suggests the subtitled version of the film, which Netflix has previously 
included on its service, remains under copyright.

'At no time have defendants contacted the plaintiff in order to seek its 
license for the internet exhibition of the picture, either in whole or in 
excerpted portions,' the complaint reads. 'Despite lacking any rights to 
exhibit the English subtitled version of the picture, defendants act as though 
they have exhibition rights."

Bicycle Thieves, which is also known as The Bicycle Thief in the US, is 
considered by critics to be one of the greatest films of all time. In a 2008 
review for the film's re-release, The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw described De 
Sica's harrowing 
drama<http://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/dec/19/film-review-bicycle-theives> 
as a "brilliant, tactlessly real work of art".

The confusion over Bicycle Thieves' status reportedly stems from a 1985 US 
court ruling in which a judge ruled the film to be in the public domain because 
neither side in a dispute over rights had taken the time to re-register its 
copyright. The judge said in his ruling that the subtitled or dubbed version 
might remain under copyright as a derivative work, leading to Corinth Films' 
complaint.

The company is claiming damages for copyright infringement and false 
designation of origin. It also wants an injunction on the subtitled version of 
the film. Netflix has not yet made any public comment on the case.

Bicycle Thieves has also streamed on the UK version of Netflix in the past, 
though it is not currently streaming. "

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