(EXCLUSIVE) Steve Harvey Shut Down in Court, Unseen Footage Lawsuit To Continue

theJasmineBRAND.com exclusively reports, Steve Harvey has been shut down in his plea to have his former employee slapped with an injunction, to prohibit the man from selling unseen standup footage that he feared would harm his career. The Federal Court judge denied his motion and is allowing the legal battle to continue on.

Here’s the latest: On August 21st, the Federal Court judge came back and shut down the comedian’s attempt to have the case thrown out of court. He explains that Harvey failed to prove in his testimony that Cooper breached a deal and never provided evidence showing the ex-employee knew the videos belonged to Harvey.

The order says that Harvey failed to show the evidence that would warrant a permanent injunction. However, the judge did deny the videographer’s attempt to get a permanent injunction against Harvey. The judge threw out several claims in the man’s lawsuit, but will allow him to continue on for the remaining issues. He points out that it’s unclear at this point whether Harvey signed the alleged video contract with his former employee and until that is figured out he cannot throw out the entire case.

Steve Harvey

Here’s the backstory: A videographer named Joseph Cooper filed a federal lawsuit against Steve Harvey last year,  accusing him of attempting to block the sale of raw stand-up videos of the comedian from early in his career.

Cooper explained back in 1993, he entered into a deal with Harvey to be his exclusive videographer for his comedy club shows. He said he shot over 120 hours of original footage and the deal was he would then edit the footage and sell videos of the performances. He said that Harvey asked him to delay selling the tapes because he thought it would interfere with his career at the time, which he agreed to because he thought they would be more valuable when Harvey was a bigger star.

Cooper said the footage shows Harvey doing material that is much different than his current image & career. Fast forward to 1998, Harvey agreed to pay 5 million dollars to Cooper to NOT sell the videos but that never happened. The man says Harvey’s issues with the footage include: bad lighting and showing a different type of comedy. Cooper says that Harvey was also scared of the impact it would have on his career.

In 2013, the man says he worked out a deal with a distributor where he would make 75% royalties on the sale of a tape entitled, “Steve Harvey Live, Raw & Uncensored.” — but Harvey’s legal team contacted the company and said Cooper did not have the rights to sell the footage and the deal fell through.

Cooper filed suit against Harvey demanding 20 million dollars in damages due to him blocking the sale and lying about him not having the rights to sell the video.

Steve Harvey, wife Marjorie at Miss Universe

Harvey fired back at the 20 mill legal battle, explaining that Cooper failed to provide any contract signed by him. He claimed he never gave over all rights to the footage of his stand up to his ex-employee.

The comedian then filed a counter-suit against Cooper demanding the court issue an injunction against the man from releasing any of the footage he currently possesses.

The comedian claimed Cooper has violated his right to publicity and is attempting to sell 120 hours of footage that he does not own, which is taking advantage of his reputation and prestige as an entertainer.

Further, he said Cooper is attempting to use his likeness and name to hawk the video to distributors which is illegal since he is the rightful owner of the stand-up footage.

Harvey said he paid the man in full for his work, filming his shows and he claims he has been injured and continues to be injured due to the ex-employee trying to sell off his property. He demanded the court grant him an injunction that prohibits Cooper from selling or releasing the footage along with the seizure of all the videos & damages for lost profits, injury to his reputation and other damages.

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