You Never Give Me Your Money: Beatles sued over Eight Days movie

US filmmaker Ron Howard’s Beatles movie Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years begins its American run on Friday (September 16). But the movie has already run into legal problems.

The issue is over 30 minutes of remastered footage of the British band’s legendary performance at New York’s Shea Stadium on August 15, 1965. They performed 12 songs, including Help, A Hard Day’s Night and Twist And Shout.

The estate of US promoter Sid Bernstein, Sid Bernstein Presents, LLC, has initiated legal action against two Beatles-related companies, Apple Corps Ltd. and Subafilms Limited.

It claims that Bernstein, who pitched the idea of the show to Beatles manager Brian Epstein and got them a spot on the high rating Ed Sullivan Show which broke America for them, really owns the copyright to the concert footage.

Bernstein, who died in 2013 aged 95, was known commonly as “the man who brought The Beatles to America.”

No other rock group had played a massive stadium like Shea. Even Epstein was dubious. Bernstein who knew his market told the manager that he would pay him $10 for each empty ticket. All 55,000 tickets sold out.

At the time, Epstein’s NEM Enterprises struck a deal with Bernstein that his band would own all footage to the show. His estate acknowledges that such a deal was made, but now claims it was “legally” questionable. It argues that Bernstein owns the copyright, as he put the show together and “being the employer for hire of the Beatles and the opening acts, who performed at his instance and expense”.

The ownership issue of the Shea Stadium footage goes beyond its appearance in Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years. The estate is also claiming copyright infringement in the use of the footage in the 1995 TV documentary series The Beatles Anthology. The Anthology 2 album includes a live Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby from that show.

In July this year, when Bernstein’s estate learned the Shea Stadium footage to be used in cinemas, it tried to register ownership. But the Copyright Office rejected it because the estate could not provide a master copy. Requests to the two Beatles companies to come to an agreement were denied.

The lawsuit asks for an injunction preventing the remastered footage from being shown, distributed and reproduced.

It proposes a number of solutions. One, Sid Bernstein Presents be named sole author, or alternatively joint author with The Beatles, of the master tapes of the concert.

It also asks that previous attempts to register copyright that were rejected by the Copyright Office be declared valid and it be awarded the copyright to the Shea Stadium footage and that the court declare the use of the footage in the past be considered copyright infringement.

Apple Corps’ New York lawyer Paul Licalsi calls the lawsuit “entirely frivolous.” He said a copy of Bernstein’s agreement with the band explicitly states he had no claim to any film rights. “Mr. Bernstein never made any claim for the film for nearly 50 years until he died,” Licalsi said.

An official response from Apple is expected today.