I have to admit that Tom Cruise is my favorite completely insane celebrity.  While I’m generally inclined to join the mob in his stoning, I find myself completely baffled by his presence in the latest headlines.  

Apparently, Cruise’s latest movie Valkyrie is facing copyright issues regarding the use of a particular globe within the movie.  Here’s an synopsis from a website that I refuse to link due to their obnoxious audio Nintendo Wii advertisement:

The globes, produced in the 1930’s were given to high ranking officials in the Third Reich, with one Globe said to be kept at Berchtesgaden (The Eagles Nest), the Bavarian Country home of Hitler. Most were destroyed during the war, but the Berchtesgaden Globe was retrieved by American soldiers.

Art collector Robert Pritikin acquired the globe in 2007 and filed a copyright claim over reproductions, ostensibly to stop neo-Nazi’s creating copies, and this is where the problem for Valkyrie lies: they didn’t seek permission from Pritikin to use the globe reproduction first.

For the love of God, how did this even happen?  This guy buys a globe mass manufactured by a German company in the 1930’s and somehow ends up with a copyright reflecting his authorship in it?  Sadly, I couldn’t find a copy of the copyright at issue in the catalogue.  

If you have any additional information on this story, please let us know as details seem relatively sparse.

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