Mr. Burde is the producer of two video- and TV-series consisting of nine films:
One five-part series entitled "The legend of Atlantis" and one other four-part
UFO-series.
Both series are being sold with a license to video and TV-production.
The copyright is registered in Canada with Stargate Ltd.;
ISBN-numbers ensure the protection of the rights.
Mr. Burde himself has founded marketing companies in Canada and Australia as
well as the "Sternentorverlag" publishing house in Germany.
Mr. Burde was and is producer of all publications. About three years ago a company
with the name of Audio and Video Light Works, manager Carlos Solorio, approached
Mr. Burde. This company ordered larger quantities of videotapes as ready-made
products and settled all invoices. The company offered to conclude a license
contract as bulk purchaser in order to start selling the product with the largest
video-distributors via supermarkets and mailorder.
Mr. Solorio sent a draft contract to Mr. Burde, the content of which was very
unfavorable for Mr. Burde and for this reason no agreement was reached. As a
consequence the business connections were terminated with no further contract
negotiations.
Afterwards Mr. Carlos Solorio spoke to the client in private and explained that
he was about to give notice at Audio and Video Light Works and start business
connections with a new company called Terra Entertainment, 914 Westwood BLV
STE 290, Los Angeles, 90024. Terra Entertainment was said to be a newly established
company and Solorio its joint-owner. Mr. Solorio said it could be assumed that
the client´s program would become such a great success that he wanted to conclude
a license contract. Once again the client received a contract by mail and was
asked to come to Los Angeles personally in order to negotiate and conclude the
contract. In addition to that Mr. Burde was asked to send the master tapes from
Germany to the USA.
The client agreed with Mr. Solorio that the contract could only be concluded
if Mr. Burde was granted control over the copies. Of this he was assured.
As a result the master tapes were sent via air mail from Munich, Germany, to
the US video-copying plant Allied Digital LA. Mr. Burde had so spent some 45.000
US-Dollars in order to produce the master tapes and have them sent to the USA.
In the following period Mr. Burde received no feedback whatsoever from Mr. Solorio.
After having made enquiries Mr. Burde found out that Mr. Solorio had engaged
a video-copying plant named Allied Digital as his future video-copying plant.
Mr. Solorio had collected the tapes from the customs and later supposedly transferred
them to Allied Digital.
Mr. Burde suspected that copies of the master tapes had been made in order to
do business with them, however, without authorization thus excluding the client
from any further involvement.
For this reason Mr. Burde immediately flew from Australia to Los Angeles in
order to take possession of the master tapes at Mr. Solorio´s. The master tapes
were transferred to Allied Digital on condition that for the time being no further
work was to be done on them before the contract was concluded.
Mr. Burde spent some time in Los Angeles and found out that Solorio had given
false details. He was still employed at Audio and Video Light Works and could
be contacted there on the telephone. After that, however, the company Terra
Entertainment offered the client the conclusion of a contact. This contract
was again very unfavorable for Mr. Burde for which reason no agreement was reached.
These events date back to the winter of 1998/99 and the spring of 1999. The
master tapes remained at Allied Digital for about seven months which is why
Mr. Solorio could not take hold of them. In July 99 Mr. Solorio once again approached
the client who was in Canada at that time. This time Mr. Solorio and the client
agreed to conclude a contract which was to be in force between the two privately
contacting persons only and excluded any company whatsoever. After long and
tenacious negotiations this contract was concluded a copy of which is enclosed
with this statement. According to this contact only the client can authorize
the production of videotapes and control the amount of tapes produced.
After the conclusion of this contract Mr. Solorio asked whether he could transfer
the master tapes to another video-copying plant. The new video-copying plant
was to be:
Technicolor, 2322 Mission Oak Blvd., Camarillo, CA 93012. The contact there
was to be a certain Mrs K. Faye.
Mr. Burde agreed to this suggestion on condition that a contract about the production
of copies be made and that only Mr. Burde would be entitled to authorize the
copying of master tapes and the production of normal copies. After the transfer
of the tapes to Technicolor the client was stalled. A contract with Technicolor
was not submitted but only promised.
About one week ago the client put the pressure on Mr. Solorio. He was bent on
getting information about the current situation and on seeing the contract.
Mr. Solorio, however, only made excuses and presented to the client a list of
all copies made which showed that allegedly 2.750 copies were produced.
The client found out that not Mr. Solorio gave Technicolor the order but rather
Terra Entertainment for which Mr. Solorio allegedly works. The client suspects
now that Mr. Solorio has ceded his contractually established rights to Terra
Entertainment.
The client also refers to a statement which says that the client is the only
one who controls the production of copies. This statement can be found on a
document with the letterhead of Terra Entertainment. The client does not know,
however, who drew up and signed this statemnt.
Mr Burde is now looking for an attorney in Los Angeles who would take over his
case, cancel the contract concluded with Mr. Solorio to Terra Entertainment
and phrase the conditions without contract so strictly that Mr. Burde can assert
all his rights and Terra be obliged to giving exact information and rendering
of account.
Above and beyond this the client requires support in negotiations in the USA
with radio and television stations who are likely to be interested in taking
over and broadcasting the videos once they have become aware of them.
It is also necessary to check on the copies already made, to require information
on how many copies have been produced and which items on the invoice have to
be settled.