Red vs. Arri Lawsuit (12/2011)

[Marc Wielage]

I was surprised to see this story hit Daily Variety today:

Cameramaker Red Claims Espionage
DAILY VARIETY
Dec. 28, 2011, 3:07pm PT
by Karen Idelson

In a saga worthy of a Hollywood thriller, allegations of email hacking and industrial espionage have surfaced in the camera industry in a lawsuit filed by digital camera maker Red against rival Arri.

In the suit filed Dec. 21 in federal court in Orange County, Calif., Red accuses Arri of stealing technical details and development plans for Red cameras, giving Arri an unfair advantage.

Much of Red's complaint rests on facts revealed in an August plea deal between federal prosecutors and former Arri executive Michael Bravin, who is also a defendant in the suit. Bravin pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of email hacking, admitting as part of the deal that he accessed the email account of Band Pro chief executive Amnon Band.


Full story at this link:

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118047954

I don't know enough about the case to comment, but no matter what you think of Red, Arri, or any other camera company, I think dirty pool is no way to conduct business. Spying on people, reading private emails, and profiting from that information is wrong and dishonorable; I think Red has a very strong case here.

[Sergio Perez]

Jim has posted about this before. Its a sad story and I hope the courts make an example of this case. As much as I like Arri gear, this, if proven correct, is a really shameful act. However, even if Arri gained benefits from this it was only in a short term. The brains, creative team, developers of the technology are still at Red, and I'm sure that after the initial disappointment and shock, the Red Team is cooking something even better and a bigger leap than the previous stolen plans. I'm sure Jim and the folks at Red are even stronger after this.

[Marc Wielage]

Yes, I had read Jim's posts earlier in the year when the initial break-in occurred. This story broke in Daily Variety yesterday as a fairly big headline in the business section, so I think this is the initial response by Red. I hadn't heard that they were actually going to take legal action, but I understand why they felt it was necessary.

I know of cases in the LA post business where certain unscrupulous salespeople and former execs took information from their old office over to the new company, and knew privileged information about rates, equipment, people, and so on. In that case, even though it's kind of underhanded, you sort of expect that kind of politics. But having access to proprietary information, especially knowing about advanced prototypes, models, and features than aren't even announced yet, is unfair and unjust. Arri (or at least their former employee) clearly didn't play by the rules.

I'm very curious to see where this will wind up. I did a search on the story title and already got over over a thousand hits, so it's spreading across the web like wildfire.

[David Battistella]

I'd like to see more DRAMA in front of RED camera's than read about all the DRAMA behind the scenes.

It's just a shame that this stuff has to happen, but everyone has to stick up for themselves.

David

[RayFrisby]

What happened to JIm's post today about Arri ???

[Bob Gundu]

What happened to JIm's post today about Arri ???


Only those up all night last night got to read those :-P

[Jason Ramsey]

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?69552-Movie-Camera-Maker-Red-Accuses-Rival-Arri-of-Corporate-Espionage