Lately, I’ve noticed that Shout Studios and the guys at Mystery Science Theater 3000 have had a hard time maintaining the rights for a few episodes, because the creators/rights holders of the original movies are preventing them from doing so.
For instance, the director of The Final Sacrifice, Tjardus Greidanus, just up and out of nowhere got a bug up HIS Great Anus and has been making it difficult to see the MST3K episode because he’s been pulling the rights to release it on video and streaming services and has been filing copyright claims on YouTube uploads of the episode. Even the original un-riffed film isn’t safe from his copyright strike spree.
And then there’s Soultaker, in which the lead actress/writer Vivian Schilling had such a problem with the riffed version that her distribution company raised the price on the movie’s license past what would be cost-effective to renew it, thus leading to the DVD set it was part of going out of print. Thankfully, it doesn’t seem like YouTube uploads have been taken down, but it isn’t available on the Gizmoplex, either.
It makes me glad that the show has its “Keep Circulating The Tapes” policy in place, because it is inexcusable for these rights holders to be preventing these episodes from being seen, and going to such extremes to do so as well. Are there any other cases like these in which someone has been deliberately preventing a Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode from being shown?
Eegah’s public domain if I’m not mistaken so there shouldn’t be any rights at all.
Honestly, I’m not sure if that’s the case. The rights for Soultaker were licensed by Dr. Ivor Royston and Dennis Carlo (the EPs of the flick) according to the copyright notices on the MST3K Vol. 14 box set. Also, I heard that Schilling actually hasn’t seen the riffed version so things aren’t really clear-cut here.
Also, I don’t think Arch, Jr. is angry anymore. He got to hit Joel Hodgson in the face with a pie, after all.
If I thought we could solve the Soultaker issue with pie, I’d offer to fund the endeavor myself. I mean, I love the episode… and I still think they went somewhat overboard riffing it. I regard it as a really cheap, ridiculous update of the legend of Orpheus (with a tacky cornball ending… sweet ride, though) so I think I’d watch it even without the riffs.
If I could do a TL;DR post, the biggest offenders are:
The two Godzilla films since Toho doesn’t take too kindly to their big star getting heckled.
Rocketship X-M as Wade Williams treated that film like his baby despite the fact he simply bought the rights to make his own version in the late '70s. This could change though…
The four films owned by Susan Nicholson-Hofheinz née Hart as she’s unwilling to license out any version of her movies unless she’s paid sandbags of money. This also applies to Attack of the the Eye Creatures as it’s technically a derivative version of another one of her films, Invasion of the Saucer Men.
The three films from Paramount, presumably since they were tied up with the now-defunct Olive Films for several years. Interestingly, Fire Maidens from Outer Space has also been put out by RiffTrax’s friends at Multicom Entertainment Group so there could be some wiggle room here.
For most of the riffed movies the rights to them have long been purchased by holders other than the original production companies. Many times, these rights-holders wanted more money than Rhino or Shout wanted to pay for home release. Other times, like the infamous Godzilla episode, the production studio wouldn’t allow it for cultural reasons.
Inexcusable? Morally maybe. Once something is out there it should stay out. I had the same issue with George Lucas. Once a film is free in the wild, it becomes the audiences’ movie. Isn’t that the point? To get a reaction? To have a success? Later on if the creator has misgivings or second thoughts, they have every legal right to do whatever. Though they should expect pushback. People become attached to things and don’t take kindly to revision. The Creative Impulsive is contradictory. Inspiration and self awareness locked in a strange dance. Occasionally it bites its own tail. We as lovers of the product are annoyed. The work found an audience. Only not the audience the maker wanted. This is the stuff divorces are made of. Irreconcilable Differences. The author changes their mind. We as the consumer disagree.
Tjardus Greidanus and others have the power to pull the plug. What’s inexcusable is not considering the public. You may be uncomfortable but they love it. Let it go. Some can’t and we have what we have. I feel bad they can’t see it. They end up hurting their work. But it’s their choice to make.
In large amount of cases, this is true. They turn into properties the rights holders are indifferent to. And then money talks or they’re simply not interested. Those are not as terrible to bear as the Greidanus examples where it’s very personal and no amount of money will fix it. Seemingly.
"There are a few movies we’d love to use, that are considered to be in the public domain, but which people claim to own the rights to, and they won’t let us use them.”
I can’t say for certain whether Rocketship X-M was one of them, but Wade Williams did this for a lot of films for which he bought simply the original prints.
I think I sympathize more with Gredainus than with the type of person who essentially scooped something up at a yard sale for pennies and then immediately put it behind a paywall forever. They’re not a maker. They’re a broker. Especially in the case of a film which possibly no one would even remember or be interested in now if not for MST3K. It was the show which gave this thing you grabbed most of its contemporary value. But your response is to demand many times that value to release the hostage? Grrrr…
I can’t remember who suggested to me that home video rights seem to last about a decade, but it’s been a good rule of thumb in recent years from everything from Chaplin films under family control to Shout releases. Since Olive Films released The Deadly Bees in 2015, I’m still hoping that one more MST3K home video volume may be in my future. Olive released The Space Children in 2012 and Fire Maidens of Outer Space in 2013, so they should be available as part of a future package.
As someone who likes things and someone who makes things, I’ve always lived in two worlds on this topic. I believe, without hesitation, that if you created the thing you should have final say on what goes on with it.
People are just sitting on the rights, I don’t like it; but they own it. To me, it’s like having this friend that lets you come over whenever and do whatever then they sell the house and somehow the expectation is that the person who lives there now should let you just keep coming into the house because your friend used to live there and there’s a lot of memories attached. It’s feeling ownership vs having ownership and sometimes putting on a show doesn’t save the rec center.
Would I want someone to do this with my creative output after I’m gone, no absolutely not. I wouldn’t want worms to eat my eyeballs once I’m gone either, but…!
Kinda’ reminds me of the memoirs of the woman who worked in the adult video store. “Yeah, you can create and watch whatever you want. I just kinda’ wish you wouldn’t.”
