BOSTON (AP) – A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a Lawrence, Mass.-based company that wants to show rare, intimate footage of John Lennon despite objections raised by his widow.
U.S. District Court Judge Rya W. Zobel on Wednesday accepted Yoko Ono’s motion to reject claims by World Wide Video LLC that Ono’s attempts to stop the company from showing the footage publicly is a copyright infringement.
The company claims it owns the 10 hours of raw footage shot at Lennon’s England estate almost four decades ago, before the Beatles breakup. But Ono claims she is the rightful owner of the material and wants to keep the material private. The court has not ruled on the ownership issue.
The footage shows Lennon hunched over a piano, smoking marijuana, and joking about putting LSD in President Richard Nixon’s tea.
An attorney for World Wide Video did not immediately return calls for comment.
AP-ES-05-21-08 1818EDT
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.