Former Lynyrd Skynyrd drummer Artimus Pyle and Cleopatra Films can no longer go ahead with plans to make Street Survivor: The True Story of the Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash.
Monday U.S. District Court judge Robert Sweet ruled that "Cleopatra is prohibited from making its movie about Lynyrd Skynyrd when its partner substantively contributes to the project in a way that, in the past, he willingly bargained away the very right to do just that; in any other circumstance, Cleopatra would be as 'free as a bird' to make and distribute its work."
He is referring to an agreement that Pyle signed, which basically doesn't give him any rights to the name of the band or its likeness.
Meanwhile, a lawyer for Cleopatra argues that, "This is a case in which the defendant has an affirmative constitutional right to engage in the speech for which it is being sued: in producing and releasing the film, Cleopatra is exercising its right to make a film about a newsworthy event from the past, a form of constitutionally protected free speech."
Cleopatra is free to make the film, but without the Pyle's participation as it's "in violation of the restrictions imposed on him by the Consent Order [the band signed]."
Cleopatra plans to appeal.