For Immediate Release                                  

Contacts:

Pete Livingston, Ph.D., CEO

Not the Enemy Media, LLC

mailto:DrLivingston@NotTheEnemy.com

http://www.nottheenemy.com/

30 second trailer on website at: http://www.nottheenemy.com/Movies/movies.html

POB 71123, Point Richmond, CA  94807-1123  

Bill Simpich, JD

Monday, February 2, 2004

The litigation with 9 huge media corporations over the anti-war documentary “Over 9 Billion Dead Served” is over and Not The Enemy Media, LLC won!  On Monday, February 2^nd, filmmaker Pete Livingston accepted the settlement proposal from StudioCanal Image, the company which owns the copyright to “Terminator 2:  Judgment Day,” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger (in which over 3 billion people are blown up by WMDs).  This victory against the big studios comes even as the RIAA is suing 532 more people who have allegedly used other copyrighted materials without permission.

Following receipt of multiple threats from Fox, Disney, and Universal in the case, in December of 2002, Not The Enemy Media sought declaratory relief in Federal Court to uphold his right to distribute the documentary “Over 9 Billion Dead Served.”  The feature length film, is a passionate anti-war commentary, and is almost entirely comprised of clips from the 25 biggest box office movies.  Dr. Livingston successfully contended that his micro-budget ($30,000 film) is protected by the Fair Use Doctrine.  Fair Use Doctrine, is designed to protect the use of copyrighted material – that is used without permission - for the purposes of criticism, education, and parody. 

The lawyers representing Livingston are Bill Simpich, Tesfaye Tsadik, Jim Wheaton and Matt Zimmerman (Jim and Matt representing The First Amendment Project).  Bill Simpich says, “This film gives the filmmakers’ lenses a 180 degree spin and exposes them as creators of the mindset that leads Americans to war.  There is no better evidence of this than the footage itself.  Nothing less will do.”  Apparently, the defendants in the case didn’t want to find out if a judge would agree, and they settled out of court.

Livingston says, “This all began as an empirical examination of feature films to show to hospice workers, but it soon became clear that the examples and issues presented in these films could not be believably addressed using words in a book or in articles.  The imagery of these films is amazing and horrifying in ways that requires the transformative use of the original (copyrighted) material to convey.  Literally, you’ve got to see it to believe it. 

The documentary shows how Hollywood filmmakers have used pretend WMDs to illustrate the mass murder of over nine billion people while only one baby was born (and survived) in “Gone With The Wind” back in 1939!  Livingston claims, “These movies have drawn on various negative stereotypes, including “black,” “Arab,” and “Nazi”, to make killing not only tolerable, but often amusing.  I hope this Not The Enemy victory encourages sensitivity to these issues and other documentary makers to vigorously exercise the right of fair use.”

The top twenty five movies (as of April 1997) as analyzed in this documentary are: