The producer and distributor of the documentary covering the Hulk Hogan sex tape scandal has inserted itself into the ongoing legal case filed by Nick Bollea and Terry McCoy.
Woltz Films has filed a motion in the U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Florida, attempting to intervene as a party defendant to protect its rights and interests as the distributor of the documentary.
Nick Bollea and Terry McCoy filed a lawsuit against Bubba the Love Sponge (Todd Clem) on behalf of the estate of Hulk Hogan, alleging copyright and federal trademark infringements, and a violation of a 2012 settlement between Hogan and Clem.
Woltz Films is backing up Clem’s response from earlier this week that the radio host is not a member or office of the company and has no control over the material included in the documentary. They add that Clem doesn’t have an ownership stake.
Woltz is arguing that it is necessary to intervene in the case to “protect Woltz’s substantial legal interests, including its intellectual property rights, its reliance on fair use and First Amendment protections, and its ability to distribute the Documentary without threat of contempt or sanctions in a lawsuit to which it was never named”.
Woltz states that the Video Killed The Radio Star documentary draws from available news coverage of the sex tape scandal and “other lawfully obtainable sources” and amounts to 38 seconds.
A temporary restraining order was issued by a Florida judge last week, and the Tampa Bay Times reported that eight seconds of the documentary were edited at a screening last Friday.
Woltz Films maintains that it never had access to the original version of the sex tape, did not obtain any of the sex tape footage from Clem, and “did not include any actual footage of the sex tape in the doc from Clem, but rather publicly available and traceable media outlets covering the story.”
The producers are also requesting to participate in next Wednesday’s hearing involving the parties.
The documentary is set to be released today on various digital platforms.
