The Credits Conspiracy

On a Saturday night, in early February, the American Cinematheque
screened one of the great political thrillers WINTER KILLS.

Those who know the film and those who were about to know it for the
first time made up a full house at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica.

After the screening, the writer and director William Richert sat
with the film’s production designer Robert Boyle, who would, just
a few weeks later, receive a special Academy Award, to talk about
this master work.

What the audience didn’t know is that Richert, in that world outside
the Aero Theatre, was discovering that a class action lawsuit which
bears his name WILLIAM RICHERT VS. WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA
is the focal point of a conspiracy to legitimize the illegal foreign levies
enterprise.

Richert whose WINTER KILLS is powered by paranoia of a corporate-
controlled United States found himself waking up one day beginning to
suspect that in agreeing to give his name to a lawsuit seeking justice
for thousands of others, his name instead is being used to secure the
interests of multi-national corporations.

The only document in evidence in superior court is the most recent
negotiation of the 1990 foreign levy agreement between the WGA,
DGA and the AMPTP companies.

It is not the document that should be in evidence in this court.

It is not the document that enables the WGA and DGA to access
monies on behalf of those who are not members of the WGA and
the DGA.

It is not the most recent renegotiation of the DGA/WGA/IFTA
Foreign Levy Agreement signed by David Young and Jay Roth.

Jay Roth is the executive director of the Directors Guild and was
outside counsel for the DGA, WGA and SAG in all their initial
secret agreements involving so-called foreign levies.

David Young is the executive director of the Writers Guild who,
although he claims to be committed to organizing reality show writers,
has, in reality, used the America’s Next Top Model writers for publicity,
then abandoned them, and, through the DGA/WGA/IFTA Foreign Levy Agreement, has accessed monies due them and has not told any of
the writers of reality shows about the existence of such monies,
choosing instead to have them deemed undeliverable.

During the recent writers strike, Young was quoted, in the
Los Angeles Times, “I just lay back and look at all the havoc
I’ve wreaked.”

In 1995, the WGA, having for five years now been officially
albeit secretly in business with the companies, corrupted the
procedure that determines screenwriting credits.

As a result, Universal was allowed to credit Aaron Sorkin
as having written an original screenplay for THE AMERICAN
PRESIDENT and William Richert and Kyle Morris were deprived
of their rights under both the Constitution of the United States
and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Richert refused to pay dues to a union that had so deprived
him.

He wrote and directed THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK outside
both the WGA and DGA contracts with the AMPTP.

It is through the DGA/WGA/IFTA agreement that both unions
get hold of Richert’s ‘foreign levies’ for that film.

Emma Leheny (CSB No.196167) perjured herself in superior
court when she stated that the WGA has never collected
foreign levies in William Richert’s name for THE MAN IN
THE IRON MASK.

The WGA and the DGA are, secretly, members of CISAC –
the International Confederation of Societies of Authors sand Composers.

from Article 2 of the statutes of CISAC

“…(CISAC) is an international, non-governmental, not for
profit organization composed of societies administering
rights in all categories of copyight.”

The two unions – as CISAC Code No. 196, the WGA, and
CISAC Code No. 172, the DGA – fraudulently represent themselves
throughout the world as rights societies, as the legally mandated
rights societies for all US writers and directors.

This is not a legitimate business. And that is why the existence of
an agreement was not disclosed by the WGA and DGA for over
five years. And then as an allusion is a letter accompanying a
check for a small amount.

SAG didn’t disclose the existence of these monies for seventeen
years and did so last August because a lawsuit was imminent.
At this rate, actors can expect an update in 2014.

They do not appear to feel vulnerable and appear confident that
their conspiracy to corrupt the integrity of the court will succeed.

Because there is no possibility of someone suddenly producing
that very first agreement of 1990 they have no reason to worry.

And so they have no reluctance whatsoever to call it, in open court,
a collectively bargained agreement, because most members do
not go where the guilds have not invited them.

And even if they heard what the guilds were claiming in court,
most members would be afraid to make mention of it
unless there was indication that they could.

It is why the guilds never gave any concern over the years to getting
their stories in sync. Because members do not question the guilds.

While the Writers Guild, for years, would send a foreign levies
check for a small amount with a letter stating that “side by side”
with the DGA, “we fought to ensure that you received an
appropriate share of this money which we believe the foreign
governments intended you to receive and finally reached a settle-
ment agreement with member-companies of the Motion Picture
Export Association,” Jay Roth was, at the same time, enclosing
a letter with the modest DGA checks claiming that “pursuant to the European Statutes and an agreement with the Motion Picture Producers,
the DGA, WGA and the European collecting societies…American
directors and writers are entitled to a share of these levies.”

There is no agreement between a MPP - whatever that is –
Roth capitalizes Motion Picture Producers – and a rights society,
pursuant to the European Statutes - again he capitalizes.

The agreements were negotiated between the Guilds and the
rights societies and they violate European statutes, capitalized
or not.

Roth has lied every time this letter has been sent. It is still
enclosed with the payouts and Roth is still lying.

The WGA’s letter always identified the amounts paid as “an appropriate
share.”

But the letter conceals that the full amounts are collected in our names,
and so we can’t ask how anything other than 100% is an appropriate
share of our own money.

The letter claims that the settlement was with the member-companies
of a trade association, companies that have never employed any of
us, companies that don’t employ talent.

WGA General Counsel Tony Segall, over a decade later, invokes
member companies of the Motion Picture Association of America, contradicting the agreement in evidence in court, which is signed
by our actual employers, the AMPTP companies. In a letter to
possibly the only WGA member to ever request a copy of the
agreement, Segall warns that it can only be shared with
current WGA members because it contains proprietary information.

And while the WGA would usually state in the letters that are
no longer included with the checks that “your payment is based
upon formulae devised by the collection society…and the Guild’s
settlement with the MPEA companies,” Roth has always written
without a shred of truth, that “ your payment is based upon a formula
devised by the different collection societies within the various
countries.”

In the DGA/WGA/IFTA Foreign Levy Agreement signed by Roth
and Young there is a very different position taken.

“Further, IFTA will also use reasonable efforts to inform
each Company it represents of the Guilds’ claim that,
absent this Settlement Agreement, Covered Directors
or Writers are entitled to one hundred percent (100%)
of the Author’s Share of Video Levies or Video Rental
Levies.” Click Here to see the Non-Derogation Clause.

Although never referenced in the so-called Foreign Levy
Agreement or ever mentioned in federal and state court,
the MPEA has been a power player in the true history of
so-called foreign levies.

The Motion Picture Export Association changed its name
in 1994 to the Motion Picture Association. More to the
point, the MPEA changed its official abbreviation to the
MPA.

(The MPA is the international arm of the MPAA, the Motion
Picture Association of America.)

In the foreign levies enterprise, the MPA is the bag man.

The member companies of the MPA, and their respective
subsidiaries and affiliates, receive the monies by transfer
and keep the outflow moving, gaining interest and hidden
from the individual US citizens, to whom the monies right-
fully belong, and the IRS.

In the late nineties, Jack Shea had a lenghty run as president
of the DGA. In one message he sent to the membership, he is

“happy to report that we have additional good news.
As background, in 1990 the DGA and WGA signed an
agreement with European companies. The purpose
was to compensate US rightsholders for the private
copying and rental of their work. Under that
agreement, the Guilds’ portion of revenues collected
In Europoean countries was 15%.”

The collecting societies and the MPEA are gone from the
story and the writers and directors’ share has morphed into
the Guilds’ portion.

Shea touts “a newly negotiated agreement…of the 1990
agreement…” although he’s saying the new agreement is
with European companies.

“Our National Director, Jay D. Roth, spearheaded
these negotiations. Also playing a crucial role in
our obtaining this increase was Janine Lorente,
the DGA’s Executive in Charge of International
Affairs.”

The only thing that’s changed in the agreement is the
percentage split and that’s between Nick Counter and
the Guilds.

Although several tough-minded trips to Europe are
implied, Ms. Lorente tapped into her international
expertise and Roth did all his spearheading in that
back room out in Encino.

As worthy of derision as Shea’s story is, the intent
Is to deceive in order to keep profiting on a stolen
human right.

Rights societies do not negotiate the terms of their
agreements. Their distribution rules reflect the laws
of their respective countries and their authority to
enter into reciprocal agreements with foreign societies
comes from national treatment treaties under the
Berne Convention.

The negotiating Roth did in the early nineties and
Hadl does now is working out what it will take to
get the society to circumvent the law.

And because the rights societies can only pay individual
writers, directors and perfomers through the associations
representing them, the union must always indemnify the
societies for the difference between what the Guilds
allegedly pay any of us and what should be being paid to
each of us under the laws of those countries.

With no liability insurance in place, the rights societies
are indemnified.

Why do the Guilds violate Article 3 of the secret
agreement? Once our monies have been transferred
to the Guilds’ bank accounts we are free to split it
with our dog if we want.

Why do we insure the rights societies to do something
we could do ourselves at no risk and which would allow
us to claim the sums we pay the companies as deductions?

Why do the Guilds help the companies hide millions?

We trust the Writers Guild because of what we know
of its history, but what if that history is an invention.

During the recent strike when assistsant executive director
Slocum wrote about the history of`residuals
in Written By, it wasn’t the true story.

Then Richard Verrier, a practitioner of eraserhead
journalism, published his own invented history,
which was that several studios during the fifties
decided to start paying residuals. He didn’t report
why they did, but perhaps they just wanted to be
liked.

But the truth is very similar to the truth of so-called
foreign lervies.

In the early fifties, MCA, then a talent agency,
wanted to produce filmed television here in L.A.
At the time, most television, filmed or live, was
produced in New York.

Revue, a production company, was a subsidiary
of MCA. Lew Wasserman would need a waiver
from the unions that would allow MCA to both
represent talent and produce television at the same time.

The conflict is obvious. The agent negotiates with
a producer who is the same person as the agent.

The quid pro quo was residuals.

The big story was that Revue was going to pay
residuals.

Other talent agencies, like William Morris,
tried repeatedly to get a waiver but were always rejected,
unaware that MCA owned Revue.

As television grew more powerful, MCA became
the most powerful force in television.

On July 13, 1962, ten years after MCA got its waiver,
the United States government filed a complaint in
federal court, approved by Attorney General
Robert Kennedy, charging that MCA and it
subsidiaries had violated the Sherman Antitrust Act.

Named as co-conspirators were the Screen Actors Guild
for its July 1952 and June 1954 blanket waivers granted
to MCA, and the Writers Guild of America, west, for its
April 1953 MCA waiver.

What seems unfathomable, it turns out, has already
gone down in history.

The invented history of foreign levies is not the first
conspiracy between the unions and the companies.

TO BE CONTINUED