[The Australian Panther]

Elsewhere Crash wrote,

This is precisely what irks me about copyright restrictions. These films are a century old and anyone with even slightest claim to being a "creator" is long dead, yet some rich bozo is able to prevent the other 8 billion people in the world from seeing them without his say-so. Ridiculous.

Brings to mind, the copyright problems with Music. Unlike other creative properties, music distributing companies often licence much older properties for re-release. This is less so than say, movies, books Comics and so on. 
But ownership of the original music is a different story.
Take the Beatles. They gave copyright to their songs to Northern Songs and that started a long story of them being ripped off and taken advantage of. Eventually Lou Grade bought the rights to Northern Songs and then when his company imploded - an interesting story in itself - Michael Jackson bought the rights. This book takes the story up to 2007.
BOOK REVIEW: Northern Songs: The True Story of the Beatles' Song Publishing Empire.
https://rnrchemist.blogspot.com/2014/01/book-review-northern-songs-true-story.html

I believe that Paul McCartney, by now, has the rights back again.
You don't think Michael Jackson was interested in money?
At that point he owned the rights to the Beatles work, his own work and the Jacksons. He married Lisa Presley, which could have been a pathway for him to own the rights to Elvis's work.
This is by no means the only horror story of its type in the music world. Probably just be biggest one.         
       
   

[profh0011]

The Beatles thing came up in a talk I had with my best friend the other day, when I told him I'd just read Andrew Lloyd Webber somehow had bought the rights to all the Eille Norwood HOLMES films.

I mentioned how Brian Epstein's INCOMPETENCE is what led to Northern Songs owning The Beatles' music. I forget what happened later, but apparently sometime in the late 60s, The Beatles, who had been getting some royalties for a while STOPPED getting any.

Paul McCartney, legend has it, had to SUE to disolve The Beatles, in order to release TONS of money tied up in a mountain of licensing deals.  When he finally started getting some "real" money, he asked his wife Linda what she thought would be a good thing to invest it in.  She said, "Why not something you love-- like music?"

Paul found BUDDY HOLLY's music was up for sale, and bought it.

So for years, Paul got ZERO in royalties for Beatles songs... but he got PAID every time a Buddy Holly song was sold or played.



I still love the "HOLLY DAYS" album.  Paul played all the instruments, Denny Laine sang, and Linda took the photos.   

[The Australian Panther]

Brian Epstein's INCOMPETENCE is what led to Northern Songs owning The Beatles' music.

Epstein was more 'green' than corrupt. As were the Beatles.

As was typical at the time, however, the Beatles signed the contracts without reading them, trusting Epstein and James completely. This would unfortunately prove to be their undoing.

It was Dick James who really caused the trouble.

Via a series of events, Epstein (and by proxy, Lennon and McCartney) ended up signing with James, who was a struggling small-time publisher who was close to running out of money with his fledgling company. 

From there it got more complex.
Would make a good TV mini-series.

 

[Andrew999]

Doesn't the 95-year rule mean that the Eille Norwood films are at least in the public domain in the States ?

[profh0011]

Knowing the BFI has prints, wouldn't it be a thrill if someone were to put out, potentially, 4 box sets-- 3 for the 3 series of shorts, and a 4th for the 3 features?

Someone said "most" of them are intact. Having only just gotten a full list of them, I can't say which ones might be missing.



And I just blew $94.00 for the complete series of "THE MAN FROM UNCLE".  5 box sets in one package-- the 4 tv seasons, plus a whole package of nothing but "bonus features".  GEEZ!!!!!  This is gonna keep me busy at least one day a week for a LONG time now.   

[Andrew999]

Why not write to the BFI and suggest a release? They have a commercial wing:

https://www.bfi.org.uk/contact-us