From the Hollywood Reporter June, 1999
www.Hollywoodreporter.com
MPAA Patrols Black Market For 35mm Prints
"I cannot tell you that there is not a 35mm film out there that is not subject to the First Sale Doctrine," said Ken Jacobsen, vp and director of the MPAA's U.S. anti-piracy operations. Thousands of other prints came onto the black market a few years ago when film exchange company National Film Service went out of business.
National Film Service had a service depot outside Los Angeles called Gilboy and when the company went out of business, Gilboy abandoned its warehouse -- and thousands of 35mm prints.
Gilboy officials allegedly wrote a letter to the warehouse's landlord saying that he could do whatever he wanted with the truckload of prints that had been left behind. The landlord subsequently sold the prints to collectors, who in turn are selling them to other collectors. The single biggest seller of these prints, however, appears to be SabuCat Prods., which in a recent full-page ad offered to sell 35mm prints of dozens of recent films including "Air Force One" for $600, "The Avengers" for $600, "Boogie Nights" for $650, "Con Air" for $600, "Jackie Brown" for $650, "101 Dalmatians" for $600 and "Starship Troopers" for $750.
"We don't deal in stolen prints," said an official at SabuCat Prods. "All of our prints have been acquired from sources such as Gilboy and other now-defunct film depots. The MPAA's Jacobsen said that they are not investigating SabuCat Productions as they have done nothing illegal "If a company or individual can prove that they aquired a print legally then no laws have been broken, and as long as they only sell the original copy and not produce duplicates for sale then it is perfectly legal to sell the print according to the first sale doctrine. "
[This message has been edited by NSCInemas (edited March 22, 2008).]