Yoko Ono goes to court over Lennon film

5:00AM Friday April 25, 2008

Yoko Ono claims ownership. Photo / Supplied

Videos of John Lennon smoking marijuana, writing songs and discussing putting the drug LSD in President Richard Nixon's tea are the focus of a court case starting in Boston next week over whether they should be made public.

The case pits Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, against Massachusetts company World Wide Video, which claims ownership of nine hours of film of the former Beatle and Ono, taken weeks before the "Fab Four" broke up.

World Wide, a consortium of Beatles collectors, wants to release the black-and-white videotapes as a two-hour film, titled 3 Days in the Life, about Lennon during a turbulent time for the most celebrated band of the 1960s.

The company, which paid more than US$1 million for the film, nearly premiered it last year but abruptly scrapped the screening after a stop order from Ono's lawyers, who claim she is the rightful owner of the tapes.

Rolling Stone magazine says it is "awesome John Lennon footage you might never see".

World Wide has filed a suit in US District Court in Boston against Ono for copyright infringement. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

World Wide said it bought 24 original videotapes and their copyrights in 2000 from Anthony Cox, Ono's husband before her marriage to Lennon in 1969.

Cox shot the tapes at Lennon's estate in England for a documentary he planned, titled Portrait.

The tapes, recorded between February 8 and 11, 1970, show Lennon composing two hits, Remember and Mind Games, and a candid discussion of his drug use.

World Wide says that soon after it bought the tapes, they were stolen in 2000.

The company filed a separate civil suit a year later against a New Hampshire man who agreed to return copies and find the originals.

The original videotapes are now held by Ono, whose lawyers claim she bought them legally from World Wide through a Florida man, who has been named as a defendant in the company's suit.

"The decision that should be made in the case is who in fact does have the copyright," said World Wide's lawyer, Joseph Doyle. "We're saying we own copyright to this film."

- REUTERS

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