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[merylsilverburg]

Hello everyone,

First off, this is entirely optional so you don't have to do it if you don't want to.

I created this thread to ask members to support fantasy fiction author, Peter S. Beagle, win the fight against two companies: Granada Media, a multibillion dollar media and news conglomerate, and Saul Zaentz Company, a production company whose boss, Saul Zaentz, owns the rights to J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit."

Beagle wrote a novel called "The Last Unicorn" which was turned into an animated film. Granada Media is a TV producing company who refuses to pay Beagle his rightly contracted film and merchandise earnings of "The Last Unicorn" based on his novel. According to the contract Beagle is supposed to get an initial fee plus:

- 5% of net profits from all revenues from the film
- 5% of the gross revenues from "The Last Unicorn" merchandise
- $20,000 for any every sequel or remake
- Various fees for any possible television series adaptations or spinoffs (depending on the length of the program and how it is broadcast or distributed)

The contract also states and defines two kinds of sequels: producer-generated sequels to the animated movie, and author-generated sequels to the original novel, with Peter owning all rights - including all film rights - in the latter.

Granada is violating their contract and making bogus claims and excuses to not pay Beagle.

As for the Saul Zaentz Company, Beagle was responsible for all the hard work of writing the screenplay for the animated version of "The Lord of the Rings." Zaentz made Beagle write the screenplay without a real contract or appropriate payment. But because Beagle's screenplay was so good, it inspired Peter Jackson to read Tolkien's books after watching the film and thus create the "Lord of the Rings" live-action trilogy we all know now. And because Saul Zaentz owns Tolkien's rights, he was paid two hundred million dollars out of Jackson's films. Yet, he refuses to pay Beagle for his hard work...he only made promises, but never followed through.

Even though the above incident was somewhat foolish of Beagle to not demand a contract with Zaentz in the beginning, he just lacks that business sense but regardless, it was wrong of Zaentz to take advantage of him like this. And both these disputes have been going on ever since the 1980's!

To make things even worse, Beagle's mom is 100 years old and is facing medical bills because her appointed trustee stole everything she had, leaving her with nothing. So Beagle has been trying to win legal battles for her and he now has nothing.

As you can see, the poor man is in need of help because he has earned almost nothing at all from his work over the years. Even if you go out to stores and try to buy books, DVDs, whatever, it's futile because it all goes to Granada Media and the Saul Zaentz Company.

This is absolutely wrong in general. Even if it weren't Peter S. Beagle in this situation, just imagine such injustice happening to any of your favorite artists, writers, or singers who is being cheated out of their creativity and hard work.

So if you would like to help, please visit You Can Help. All this information was taken from this site and more detailed information can be found there.

Thanks to those who took the time to read this.

[Pu the Owl]

The worst thing about cases like this, is either you don't get to know them or you get to know them when it's too late...

It's a shame things like this happen, but it is good with the media sources we have, like the Internet, we can let artists/writers like Beagle express themselves and their indignation, and let other people know about the truth!

Thanks for posting this; somebody will find this helpful/interesting. I, for example, didn't know about this case in particular.

[Redpyramidhead]

This sort of thing really pisses me off. It's always the bigger corporations and those more knowledgable in business trying to get away with ripping off the more naive. I suppose that's the name of the game and has directly to do with why somebody should not be so naive about it, but people and their greed still never fail to dissapoint me. I have a friend who is a singer and who has had people try to take advantage of her and her work in much the same way. My father has worked for people over the years who didn't think twice about profiting off of all the work my father has put in nobly for them in a trusting manner while he did not get a dime. My brother is currently trying to start a business and there are those clients of his who try to get away with paying him as little as possible and blaming him for their own incompetence when a business opportunity doesn't go through after ignoring my brother's advice. People are always lying to feed off of others for their rightfully earned money. This is one reason why some of the most honest of us are struggling to get by while so many others are living way more comfortably than they can honestly say they deserve.

_RED_ stuff

[merylsilverburg]

Yes, this sort of thing makes me angry too. Hopefully, with enough support, Beagle and those disgusting companies will get what they each deserve!

Thanks for replying, guys.

[Hylas]

I find ridiculous that big corporations and companies are making all this fuss because of piracy and copyright infringements, while they are doing the same! In their case is even worse, because they've got all means to pay for a man's work and give him credit for what he does. They intentionally choose to change principles according to money and greed, which is disgusting!

[Redpyramidhead]

Originally Posted by Hylas

I find ridiculous that big corporations and companies are making all this fuss because of piracy and copyright infringements, while they are doing the same! In their case is even worse, because they've got all means to pay for a man's work and give him credit for what he does. They intentionally choose to change principles according to money and greed, which is disgusting!

Ah HAH! Another great example! It's like the FCC suing that one kid for thousands of dollars for downloading music! PLEASE! GIVE ME A BREAK!


_RED_ stuff

[Zebraman]

Big companies have these contradictions. They maximize their profit by exploiting others' work and then sueing average people for not wanting to pay their absurd fees. What they offer should cost less, and what they use for money-making shoud be remunerated.