While footage of the Beatles’ Feb. 11, 1964 show in Washington D.C. has been seen before, a company called Ace Arts had hoped to distribute a documentary about the show using the entire concert under the title The Beatles: The Lost Concert. When Sony/ATV Music and the Beatles’ Apple Corps. heard about this, they stepped in and stopped it. Ace is now suing Sony and Apple, claiming the concert is in the public domain.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ace said that it already reached a deal with Screenvision Exhibition to show its documentary in 500 theaters before Sony and Apple stopped them. Ace claims that the concert footage was “sold without copyright protection” and notes that the companies never complained when the footage was shown by various other companies before.
THR notes that Ace had to sync music with the visuals, which requires a licensing agreement with the publishers. Most of the songs performed at the show are now owned by Sony/ATV. While negotiations had started, Apple Corp (not the same as Apple the computer maker) became interested in making use of the footage in an official Beatles product. The Wrap notes that Apple is hoping to release The Beatles Live!, which will feature several concerts with film from fans and professionals.
So, Sony/ATV decided to give Apple Corp “exclusive” licensing rights to sync the music to the Washington, DC footage, Ace claims. Negotiations with Ace ended without a deal and now The Lost Concert documentary will not be screened.
Sony and Apple didn’t comment.
Here is the concert in question: