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May 6, 2023- by Steven E. Greer, MD
As far back as 15-years ago, on a hunch, just using common sense, I knew that Fox News was getting themselves into a legal pickle by interacting with me and then using my ideas without paying me. They were not blocking my emails, for example. They were opening them instead and then using the ideas. They were using me as a guest and publishing my stories in the WSJ, proving they knew me and valued me.
Why did I think this? Well, I was also communicating to studios in Hollywood about TV show and film ideas.I was partnered with an Oscar-nominated director and my agent was Ari Emanuel. We had some ideas in the works. However, as I pitched some studios, I would occasionally receive panicked responses from secretaries stating they sent my written ideas back via FedEx and never opened them, etc.
Why did they make it a point to state they never opened them? This is the exact reason why Hollywood had an abrupt change in practices:
“If . . . a studio or producer is notified that a script is forthcoming and opens and reviews it when it arrives, the studio or producer has by custom implicitly promised to pay for the ideas if used.” In Grosso v. Miramax Film Corp., 383 F.3d 965, 967 (9th Cir. 2003), amended by 400 F.3d 658 (9th Cir. 2005)..,
It is all based on the 1956 Desny case. The federal courts then ruled that Desny cases were not preempted by copyright law.
I learned all of this from many years of Greer Law School in federal court.
I just filed a new lawsuit against Tucker Carlson in California state court. Here is the brief. I had previously sued him in federal court, but he got off the hook on a jurisdictional technicality (i.e., Carlson claimed he permanently lived in Florida despite having just moved there weeks before my lawsuit in 2020, and despite primarily living in Maine. The judge did him a favor.).
However, it was a case of “be careful what you wish for”. By me never technically suing him in the amended complaints, it means res judicata does not apply. It also means I have a high level of knowledge of this area of law now after many judges have educated me with decisions.
My federal case was defeated because of a copyright preemption technicality (i.e., not because anyone ruled that my ideas were not stolen by Tucker Carlson). I learned from federal court that a Desny case of breach of contract would not be preempted by copyright law.
That is what this California lawsuit is about. It is a simple contract dispute.
June 8, 2023-
Tucker’s lawyer just appeared. It is none other than Harmeet Dhillon. Read here for the history I have with ole Harmeet.
February 5, 2024-
The Amended Complaint was filed today. I am now going after Carlson’s newly created internet company because he just stole one of my very valuable ideas last month! (see page 28).