Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesThe Beatles‘ Apple Corps Ltd. has emerged victorious in a lawsuit launched last year by a company founded by Sid Bernstein, the late promoter of the band’s famous August 1965 concert at Shea Stadium in New York, over ownership of footage from that show.
The company, Sid Bernstein Presents, claimed Bernstein — who died in 2013 at age 95 — was the producer of the original 1966 film that featured the footage and that that Apple Corps had infringed on its copyright when it allowed that footage to be used in the 2016 documentary Eight Days a Week — The Touring Years.
A New York judge dismissed the suit on Wednesday, saying that no matter how much the late Bernstein may have been responsible for the concert taking place, the company has no claim to the master tapes.
In its original motion to have the lawsuit dismissed, lawyers for Apple Corps and Subafilms Limited — the company that was granted a copyright on the footage in 1988 — claimed Bernstein had no creative control over, nor input into, the filming of the show or the production of the 1966 movie, The Beatles at Shea Stadium.
In addition, a legal memo filed with the court says the contract between Bernstein and Apple Corps’ predecessor company, Nems Enterprises, granted Nems the sole right to film the show and to any receipts from the movie.
Bernstein’s company had argued that, “[w]ithout Sid, the mastermind of the event, this film would never have been made.”
The judge refuted the company’s claims on multiple grounds, including a preexisting contract with Nems Enterprises, as well as statute of limitations issues.
An attorney for Sid Bernstein Presents said he believes there may be grounds for an appeal, but the company has not announced any further legal action at this time.
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