Sleep Always rip-off alert

[Rick Palidwor]

I received a distribution offer for Sleep Always from a German company some time back. On good faith (my mistake) I sent the guy a set of master tapes assuming he would honour his word and sign the contract and pay the license fee. He did not do any of this, AND he has not return my master tapes.

I have been meaning to find the time to go after him and he finally tipped it when he listed himself on the IMDB as a distributor and as a voice actor (for the German version he was creating).

I have asked the imdb to delete his credits and sent him notice.

I am posting here to ask members to keep an eye out for a German-language version of Sleep Always. If you see it buy one. I will reimburse your costs. I am interested in the proof that he is engaged in illegal distribution activities so please keep your receipts and any other paper-work from the sale (address where it was purchased, name of seller, etc).

Thanks
Rick

[Mitch Perkins]

I have been meaning to find the time to go after him and he finally tipped it when he listed himself on the IMDB as a distributor and as a voice actor (for the German version he was creating).

Pardon my language, but what a fuckin moron this guy is. Could he have picked a smaller fish to fry in his valiant attempt to get his ass nailed to the wall? Like knocking over a hotdog stand...

Aside from the loss of the masters, I wouldn't worry too much; no doubt he'll walk in front of a bus on his way to the dubbing session.

[Patrick]

My gosh....this is low.

I'll keep my eye out for anything fishy. I wonder if any of the German forum members would have a fair chance of tracking him down.

[MovieStuff]

Pardon my language, but what a fuckin moron this guy is. Could he have picked a smaller fish to fry in his valiant attempt to get his ass nailed to the wall? Like knocking over a hotdog stand...

No kidding. I mean, you don't have to be pirating copies of Titanic or Da Vinci code to get in big trouble. Copyright is copyright, no matter how small the film. What an idiot. But what if his plan is to simply produce a copy of the contract if he's caught? Does the contract have Rick's signature on it already? That could get sticky.

Aside from the loss of the masters, I wouldn't worry too much; no doubt he'll walk in front of a bus on his way to the dubbing session.

Unfortunately, when he hollers ,"Oh, crap!", it will come up as subtitles after he's already been hit.

Roger

[downix]

Egads, how moronic.

Sorry for your bad luck. I know how many scammers there are out there tho.

[Blin]

Let's get a posse together and beat the sheisse (sp?) out of this guy. I'm with you Rick. You got a name and address of this mo-fo? If copies of "Schlaf Immer' start hitting the street with a Peter Schilling soundtrack, I'm gonna hop on the next flight to Hamburg and go Max Schmeling on this guy. You guys can all film it with your Braun Nizos on Kahl film.

(exhale)

Seriously? What a wanker to rip you off.

[downix]

BTW, Rick, your email keeps bouncing. Been trying to mail you the past week.

[flatwood]

Dang, I hate hearing this kind of stuff. This guy needs a fast ride to the bottom of a long staircase.

[Blue Audio Visual]

Well it doesn't take much digging around on the net to find out who it is.

I've found out his age (early 20s), his address, his home phone number & his myspace page.

Not that I am suggesting that anyone here would be as uncouth as to give him a piece of their minds.

Bart

[jpolzfuss]

Hi,

if Rick wants to take legal actions against this guy, IMHO nobody should contact him ! Otherwise he'll most likely destroy all evidence or even sell the master tapes to someone else!

Jörg

[Mitch Perkins]

Hi,

if Rick wants to take legal actions against this guy, IMHO nobody should contact him ! Otherwise he'll most likely destroy all evidence or even sell the master tapes to someone else!

Jörg

Here's the bottom line as I see it, and I mentioned this to Rick on first hearing of this criminal mastermind (heh), now that there is some actual evidence, (though deleting the IMDB entry might have been counter-productive), you alert Interpol, they do something, or they laugh; we don't exactly have a legal department...

Maybe we could spin this into some free publicity...free except the cost of the masters...

Mitch

[woods01]

Wow, sorry to here these but at the same time its kinda hilarious because
there is probably more money in bootlegging Spider Man 3 than an
avant garde S8 feature. If the theif does have any connections chances
are the tapes will be making their way to China and the bootlegs will
circulate out of there.

On the other hand Guy Maddin thinks its an honour to be bootlegged:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDGkeoUqFOA

[Mitch Perkins]

On the other hand Guy Maddin thinks its an honour to be bootlegged:

Sure - for my part I didn't make the film to get rich; it was something that happened to me personally, friends said it would make a good story, and I loved the idea of putting together that much Super 8 in one place. Editing was one of the all-time highs of my life, especially laying in the music and watching the hits just fall into place. I practically had postpartum depression when it was done!

So yeah, the more folks who see it the merrier, but Rick did cough up for the lost masters...

Mitch

[Mitch Perkins]

Aside from the loss of the masters, I wouldn't worry too much; no doubt he'll walk in front of a bus on his way to the dubbing session.

Unfortunately, when he hollers ,"Oh, crap!", it will come up as subtitles after he's already been hit.

Roger

~:?)

I'm envisioning a scene where we're on hand to catch the master tapes as they fly out of his hand on impact.

Mitch

[freddiesykes]

How legit did this offer seem at the time? Take a look at his photo on imdb. He looks like some ridiculous tool barely old enough to drink. In fact, he was born in 1986. What credentials does he have? Did he just offer to do some voice dubbing or actual German distribution? I realize it was an honest mistake but you gotta be more careful!