Court orders screenings of film stopped in ruling on copyright dispute
Producer found to violate scriptwriter’s rights
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Riisuttu mies ("Man Exposed"), a Finnish feature film directed by Aku Louhimies, is being pulled from cinemas after the Helsinki Court of Appeals ordered screenings to stop. The court found that the film’s producer, Lasihelmi Filmi, had violated the rights of Veli-Pekka Hänninen, the writer of the original screenplay.
The distributor says that it will pull all of the copies of the film, which premiered in September, and that it will also put a freeze on the publication of the DVD version, which was to have gone on sale on February 14th.
In its decision, the Court of Appeals overturned a ruling by Helsinki District Court in May, according to which the producer had not violated the rights of the scriptwriter. The lower court felt that the complaint was premature, because at the time, only a preliminary version of the film was available.
The Court of Appeals found in a unanimous ruling that the producer of Riisuttu mies had violated the writer’s exclusive rights to the script. The film was produced on the basis of the text of the scriptwriter without his permission.
According to the ruling, the "transfer of copyright does not include a more extensive right to change the work than what is agreed in the contract".
Hänninen cancelled the contract already in the summer of 2005, after Harri Räty, CEO of the production company, said that the script would be modified as much as necessary, whether or not Hänninen authorises the changes.
Lasse Saarinen, chairman of the Central Organisation of Finnish Film Producers says that the decision was unfortunate, but not unexpected.
"The wrong people will now suffer, such as the film’s distributor and the company that bought the television rights, because the producer has drawn up a contract with a scriptwriter, showing a lack of professionalism, and has apparently failed to follow the contract", Saarinen says.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 1.2.2007 - TODAY |
 Court orders screenings of film stopped in ruling on copyright dispute
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