After prolonged litigation, Rodney Moore has won the rights to 127 titles he shot for Odyssey Group Video, including his signature line Creme de la Face and his top-selling line I Swallow.
According to Moore, "When OGV went bankrupt [in 2003], they wrote up my titles as part of the estate. I immediately disputed their ownership of the titles.”
After 18 months, he said, “when we went for a summary judgment on the copyright ownership, the judge ruled in my favor, saying that there was no evidence that copyright had been ever transferred to OGV, and therefore the titles were mine. At that point, all the masters were returned to me."
Former OGV general manager Bob East, now president of Phoenix Releasing, declined comment on the court’s decision.
Involved are 50 volumes of Creme de la Face, 24 I Swallows, 18 Different Strokes, 23 Cumm Brothers and a few other titles such as Rodney Blasts the Stars and Working Girls.
Moore's Rodnievision plans to re-release all of these over the next year, through its distributor, Exquisite Multimedia (EXP).
"I'm sure there will be lots of stores and distributors that will be excited to have these back on their shelves. We basically doubled our catalog overnight,” Moore said.
EXP sales rep Tony said, "Our buyers are constantly asking us when these titles will be available again. Most of them have never been released on DVD before, so we expect sales to be great. Creme de la Face and I Swallow were groundbreaking series.”
Moore plans on releasing the more recent titles just as they were, but he said he’ll probably release the older titles like Creme de la Face and Cumm Brothers with two volumes per DVD.
"We don't look at these titles as old product but rather as vintage classics, and we will market them that way," Tony added.
For sales, contact Mayra at Exquisite Multimedia, 866.629.4273 or email: [email protected].
