Beatles’ Company Wins Lawsuit

 The Beatles-owned Apple Corps Ltd. won the dismissal of a lawsuit seeking the rights to footage of the band’s iconic 1965 performance at New York’s Shea Stadium.

AP Photo/File – The Beatles
A 1966 photo showing the band about to depart London Airport for the U.S. and Canada.

U.S. District Judge George Daniels of Manhattan said July 26 that Sid Bernstein Presents LLC, named after the concert’s late promoter, failed to show it deserved the rights to the Aug. 15 1965 footage, according to Reuters.

Daniels said the company could not claim to be the “author” of the footage because Bernstein, who is credited with bringing The Beatles to America, did not film it.

“The relevant legal question is not the extent to which Bernstein contributed to or financed the 1965 concert; rather, it is the extent to which he ‘provided impetus for’ and invested in copyrightable work – e.g., the concert film,” Daniels wrote. “The complaint and relevant contracts clearly refute any such claim made by Bernstein.”

Sid Bernstein Presents plans on appealing the decision.

Bernstein promoted and produced several other artists, including Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald and The Rolling Stones. He was 95 years old when he died in 2013.