Tom Cruise May Face Legal Action Over Hitler Globe

Today's NY Post reports Tom Cruise and "Valkyrie" may face legal action over their use of a likeness Hitler's globe in the film:

Cruise, who fights the Nazis in "Valkyrie," might now have to battle a San Francisco advertising executive who says the couch-jumping star used a replica of one of Adolf Hitler's prized possessions in the movie without permission.

Robert Pritikin - who penned such jingles as "Rice-a-Roni, the San Francisco Treat" and has a $40 million art collection - owns several Hitler artifacts, including the Fuehrer's notorious globe, which he used to plan U-boat attacks from his compound in the Bavarian Alps.

The globe was replicated and prominently featured in "Valkyrie," the thriller about a real-life plot to assassinate Hitler - and that has Pritikin mulling legal action. In 2007, Pritikin paid $100,000 for the globe and had its likeness copyrighted to keep it from being used in propaganda by sick neo-Nazi groups.

When Pritikin bought the globe, he paid 5 times it's pre-auction estimate. It was sold by an American soldier named John Barsamian who had found it in the ruins of Hitler's "Eagle's Nest" in the Bavarian Alps in May 1945.

Barsamian, below, is photographed with the globe by the AP shortly before the auction in October 2007.

Comments

[wardropper]

And no one cares that the Republicans have been using Hitler's old political tricks for at least eight years.
The Germans are certain to sue.

[wardropper]

Silly beyond belief.
I copyrighted the word, "copyright" once, but I am not greedy enough to want to sue Pritikin for using it without my consent.
I suggest he get a life too.
Playing the violin is said to be very therapeutic.

[Anciano]

There's no business like shoah business!

[CornellRedneck]

LOL!

[Anciano]

Nice metaphor for the last 60 years of American Culture.

[SanFranJeff]

Pritikin's lame attempt to 'cash-in' and recover the excessive cost paid for a Globe that should have been turned over to the US government back in 1945. How could a US soldier "own" this Globe ... ? I didn't realize soldiers were allowed to randomly "loot" and keep their spoils?

Sure - if the soldiers found food, water, blankets, clothing, boots, etc ... I would expect the soldiers to keep their findings and share them with their fellow soldiers ... but Hitler's personal artifacts should have become property of the US government, not the personal stash of one soldier, or another...­?

[mrsericcartman]

Why the US government? It actually belongs to the German people.

The US soldiers did indeed take many artifacts but so what? They went through hell to get rid of the tyrant and personally I believe they deserved much more than they have ever received. It is because of them you have the freedom to post comments regarding your personal feelings.

[CornellRedneck]

Battlefield spoils are the right of any soldier.

[jsgaetano]

He copyrighte­d... a globe.

The more I know about wealthy people, the more I wonder how the myth they are intelligent ever took hold. Probably because we would LIKE to think it was brains, and not random chance, which got them there.

[miles120]

He copyrighted a particular globes image. To keep people like Tom Cruise from glorifying it. Maybe - like many others - he finds memories of the Holocaust to be unbearable. It certainly isn't hard to see that many people have forgotten what a shameful, desperate time it was.

[Durango]

How can he copyright something that the original maker of the globe copyrighted?

Can iIcopyright the "image" of Mark Twains Huck Finn because I own a copy?

Isn't the original German copyright long gone? which would make it public domain?

[boomer59]

Tom Cruise did not glorify this stupid globe. This guy needs to go after real nazi criminals! I saw the movie and I don't even remember this globe! How dumb! It states in the article that the copyright is supposedly used to keep groups like neo-nazi's from glorifying Hitler, I don't think Tom Cruise qualifies as a neo-nazi, no matter how much you may hate him!

[Fernando]

Well, that's mental gymnastics if I ever saw them. How is Tom Cruise "glorifying the globe"? It's a freakin' prop! If Mr. Pritikin finds memories of the holocaust unbearable, then he should promote the heck out of movies like Valkyrie, which are after all, cautionary tales of power unchecked.

[Ciganka]

If he finds the memories so unbearable, why does he have an Adolph Hitler collection?

[leedurhamstone]

As I mentioned in an earlier comment, the globe appears quite ordinary, with probably hundreds of copies extant. Second, to say the "Valkyrie" prop department made a "replica" is probably greatly stretching the facts. They would have no reason to place literally thousands of minute pieces of geographic detail--toponyms, etc.--on their globe. The globe used in the film, then, was a facsimile used for its overall appearance. Then why would the owner make such a noise? Publicity for the globe and for the owner--sel­f-grandize­ment-- is most likely. It makes a good, and easy, story and adds monetary value to the globe itself.

[Jsens3]

Same old thing; get a hit, get a suit. Somebody always wants to cash in on hit movies and books. Just a little greed.

[Durango]

Wouldn't the rights be held by whomever manufactured the globe?

And wouldn't that copyright be long over?

Anyone know anything about German copyright law?

Because that would be where the right was held. In the 1940's.

Just because I own a book does not mean I own the rights to that book.

[naturallight]

Are you some kind of neo-na zee or something? this must be stamped out.

JK

I got a na-zee books about pyschiatrists called "the men behind hit ler" guess who published it?

SCIENTOLOG­Y.......Ma­verick's interest in the subject runs deep.

[Durango]

You realize that your reply to my post makes no sense.

I was talking about German copyright law.

What does that have to do with Scientology? Or Neo nazis?

[ZellaBee]

Absurd. The replica was free advertising for his globe and may even have increased the value of it. It seems he's angry because he paid too much for the piece of naz! junk.

[JBS]

Pre-nazi actually. It's a commercially available world globe manufactured in Germany during the inter-war period. There were hundreds, if not thousands sold.

You could probably have found one in any German school classroom in the 1930s.

[elwarren]

On the other hand, rice-a-roni is pretty tasty, and the jingle is timeless. I give him a pass.

[Pastprologue]

I hear that God is going to sue Pritikin for copyright infringement.

[sansego2000]

Ahhh, the American capitalist. You gotta love it.

[hrholmes]

Except the teacher in my school in Oklahoma actually 'updated' our class globe (1958) by coloring in a little area for Israel. Pritikin pretty much sums up the old adage that Jews are born to sue. lmao Just mention the words Nazi and Jew in the same sentence and let out a whiff of money odor and you can pretty much guarantee lawsuits and faux outrage from any and all Jewish organizations. I wonder if the people in Gaza and the West Bank will get to sue the Jews for their ongoing atrocities?

[roblabrousse]

Did anyone stop to think that the prop dept by-passed the issue of paying a fee to the owner. They were probably aware of the real authentic globe since they were obviously aware enough to replicate it. The owner has the right to do whatever he wants with such a famous object. Just as you or I would if we owned something comparable. In the business world it sounds like Cruise and Co by-stepped a legality. So whether you agree with it or not. Pritikin chose to pursue a line of action established by the copyrighting of this object uniquely owned by Hitler .

[SanFranJeff]

But let's look at the 'chain-of-­ownership' for a moment. How could a US soldier get to keep an important artifact from the most deadly war on the planet? Shouldn't that globe have been turned over to the US Government? And if not - why?

When I'm traveling on official business, and I come into contact with potential looted items while performing my job, I don't get to keep them!

[JBS]

Items of small value can be kept as souvenirs; even items picked up off a trash heap as this one apparently was. The soldier found it at the ruins of the "Eagles Nest" in the Bavarian Alps. At the time the soldier picked it up, it had little or no actual value, and the "rightful owner" left no heirs to claim it.

It's subsequent "value" comes solely from the association with a prior owner.

In fact, I question if this is indeed THE Hitler globe. The provenance is uncertain, even accepting the story of where the soldier found it. The "Eagles Nest" was not Hitler's residence, and he rarely used it, preferring his own already existing home and the tea house across the valley.

If Hitler had any actual attachment to the globe, why didn't he take it with him to the bunker under Berlin?

Also ... I've not seen the movie, but ... if Hitler is represented using the globe in the movie, wouldn't that globe have been in the "Führerhau­ptquartier Wolfsschanze" in East Prussia where Hitler had his "headquarters" at the time, and where the assassination attempt actually occurred?

Furthermore, there are existing photographs of the interior of Hitler's home at the Bergof showing a globe in the great room, and that globe looks nothing like Pritikin's globe.

http://www.thirdreichruins.com/Berghof2sf.jpg

I'm sorry, but Mr. Pritikin is a NITWIT, and his lawsuit is entirely frivolous.

[Name Not In Use]

No one cares that Barsamian seems to be wearing one of Hitler's old suits?