In a lawsuit filed Monday, Amazon Studios and its subsidiaries MGM and United Artists They tried to invalidate the claim of R. Lance Hillthe film’s writer “Road House” original, accusing Hill of lying to the US Copyright Office when he first registered the script in 1986.
Hill wrote the script under his pseudonym David Lee Henry and sold it to United Artists through his production company Lady Amos. His lawsuit, filed in February, accuses Amazon of violating copyright law by ignoring his right to claim ownership of the original “Road House.”
Hill filed the script with the U.S. Copyright Office in 1986 and requested that rights to the script be returned to him in 2021, his lawsuit says, but Amazon ignored this and proceeded with the remake. The streaming platform acquired that script when it bought MGM in 2021 for $8.45 billion.
Amazon’s countersuit against the author of Road House
Amazon/MGM/UA’s 31-page lawsuit argues that Hill’s lawsuit is valid in relatively simple terms based on the fact that the original deal in which Hill sold the script to United Artists included “Road House” as a product of contract work.
“Plaintiff’s complaint ignores the well-established rule of copyright law that the author of a work made for hire is not the individual who created the work. In 1986, Hill personally acknowledged, represented and warranted (and, in fact, contractually warranted) that The 1986 script Roadhouse was created as a commissioned work for her own company, Lady Amos Literary Works, Ltd. (“Lady Amos”). and that Lady Amos, not Hill, was therefore its author within the meaning of the US Copyright Law,” the Amazon document says.
“For that same reason, Lady Amos, not Hill, was the grantor of the rights that the UA purchased in 1986. Hill cannot rewrite this history now, almost four decades after the fact. Your attempt to terminate that grant is invalid and your copyright infringement claim is doomed to fail.“, keep going. The presentation continues with a point-by-point rebuttal of Hill’s claim, as well as a detailed history of Lady Amos.
It also calls Hill’s 2021 Copyright Office application “fraudulent,” as well as “inaccurate and deliberately false.” Additionally, the lawsuit accuses Hill of breach of contract. Requests dismissal of his lawsuit, reimbursement of all legal feesasks the U.S. Copyright Office to cancel Hill’s original 1986 copyright request and compensatory damages “subject to proof and for prejudgment interest in accordance with the law.”
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
