Got an email asking me if I knew that the lineage of the Green Dragon school may have been descended from Ku Yu Cheung. If this is true that is some serious background. Ku Yu Cheung was one of the legendary Iron Palm practitioners. Yu-Cheung was said to have the most devastating iron palm in the history, matched by, no one. He could break more than ten brick blocks with one strike.
Ku Yu Cheung is like the REAL “fist of legend.” I am going to add this to my other little wrap up leads to follow. I also got the right spelling for Ta Shia, or “Shen Ta Shia” and found out the correct spelling of the Ta Shia’s name. It is Douglas Nowokunski.
Here is an image from harmoniousfist.com showing Master Cheung breaking 10 bricks with his iron palm. Now I know some of you UFC and JKD types are going to give me the “…boards(or bricks) don’t hit back” line. I am just reporting on who’s who for the time being. We can get into our little stylistic arguements AFTER the film comes out. Anyway, wanna sit under a masters iron palm just for kicks. You can tell me if it hurts.
I do appreciate the email I get from people. I have been contacted by people from all over the world and recieved info from alll over the country and England. This continues to be a great supplement to my research.
BDFS Fall River threatens me with a Cease and Desist Order
Meanwhile I got an email this morning telling me the Internet Dojo Copyright Wars are heating up again at CountDante.com. I am supposed to be receiving a cease and desist order due to some footage of Dante I got from England and used in my promotional trailer (bomb it while you are there) to help me raise awareness about the project. It comes from some 8mm film footage. Bill Aguiar III says it belongs to him. Fair enough, if that is true. I asked his lawyer exactly a year ago for an inventory of images and film footage available in the archive of the BDFS. I never got a reply. So what am I ceasing and desisting from?
Mr. Aguiar wants me to sign a Trademark agreement, as I understand it, promising him $10,000 when the film is finished. I am willing to negotiate, when I get to that point, for licensing images and film footage that he alone has in his possession and rights too.
As he said in his post, he knows I “don’t have squat.” I do have a working email and phone that is freely available to anyone who wants to call, including bill collectors(they too know I “don’t have squat”). Doesn’t take much effort to call a brother up and explain the situation.
Heretofore. I have heard nothing from Mr. Aguiar or his lawyers since my email over 8 months ago outlining my willingness to pay for archival materials and the conditions under which I would do so.
98% of all materials on Dante I have came from Chicago people, old magazines and newspapers. I can easily complete the film without any imagery from the BDFS. That is not what I want to do. But I am not going to be stuck up over vaporous archival material. There is enough information in Massachusetts newspapers to allow me to tell the Fall River story. All archives offer at least watermarked copies so you can see what you are buying. Even the Newspaper will pull paper copies for me.
What a way to start my morning.
As I keep saying over and over and over again, I want to make the best film I can about the man John Keehan and the times he lived in, and chronicle the social history of American Midwestern martial arts in the course of it all.
Simple enough…
Well said floyd. It appears that the BDFS website has imploded. I know that you are trying to make the best film that you can and can’t wait to see it. Good Luck
Floyd if you weren’t doing a good job they wouldn’t want to sue. Good job!<BR/><BR/>I’ll keep you posted when I hear more from the "Church".<BR/><BR/>Hey Bill, truth hurts doesn’t?<BR/>Yet it sets us free.<BR/><BR/>Master C. P.
Floyd, although I am as excited as anyone else to see a documentary on the Count get made ( I really am), I must say your request to Bill’s lawyer seems rather ridiculous. Send you a letter telling you all the stuff that is copyrighted? Can you imagine? I imagine such a list would look like this:<BR/><BR/>1. Dante in gi posing<BR/>2. Dante in gi posing<BR/>3. Dante in gi posing with student<BR
Actually, in ascertaining the value and ownership of archival collections for use in film or print, what Floyd is asking for is standard operating procedure. Webb would be a fool to pay $10,000 for materials that he hasn’t seen and the request makes Mr. Aguiar III come off as little more than a shakedown artist.<BR/><BR/>I used to oversee permissions for big city daily newspaper. I often had to
Bill’s problem with Floyd isn’t for material that Bill owns and that Floyd hasn’t used yet. It’s for materials that Bill owns and Floyd has already used, but didn’t have permission to use. What would the newspaper you worked for do in that situation?
How do I know who owns what? This footage was mailed to me from abroad on VHS, the UK to be exact. When I see a visual inventory of materials legally owned by Bill Aguiar III then we can solve this problem. How do I know who own what without a visual inventory? What if the guy who sent it to me from the UK decides he owns it?
John, <BR/><BR/>The newspaper would have never ended up in the predicament that Mr. Aguiar has found himself in. Most of the requests that I fielded were for use of pages of the paper in either books or visual media. In that case, it was pretty obvious to anyone that said pages, headlines, mastheads, etc. were from the newspaper and therefore protected under its copyrights. In the case of photo
Why can’t Mr. Aguiar speak for himself on this subject? I don’t see him posting on this blog. Floyd is a good honest man why not talk to him openly Mr. Aguiar?<BR/><BR/>Hiding behind lawyers and having one of your students to it sounds like something a Green Dragon would do. *Pfft*<BR/><BR/>Whatever the case, he knows about Floyd and he knows how to make contact in the public eye. As somebody who
Mr Anonymous,<BR/><BR/>While I agree with almost all of what you said, my point is that Floyd has already used copyrights that are not his to use. His film trailers show photos that were taken directly from the book “Worlds Deadliest Fighting Secrets”. Bill owns that copyright. End of story.<BR/><BR/>As far as what material Bill has to offer, I sent Floyd a partial list just last night. The