If you have followed the legal battles revolving around Orson Welles’ work in recent years, then you’ll be aware that Welles’ youngest daughter Beatrice has been suing Turner Entertainment for the rights to Citizen Kane, Magnificent Ambersons, and Journey Into Fear, claiming copyright over said works due to some unearthed contract. A recent trawl through the Internet for Welles news led me to stumble over some documents about the case; this document is the ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals; in it, you will see that Beatrice was denied on most counts, including her claim of copyright, but on appeal a couple elements were remanded back to the prior court. Most interesting is a note at the bottom which states that while Beatrice Welles claimed rights to all three films, she had already settled over Ambersons and Journey, and this would seem to make plain the reality that this was the real reason behind those two films, particularly the former, not coming out on DVD, given that this case has been dragging on for literally years. Maybe Warner can finally get us DVDs of these films, and maybe even Blu-Ray editions (dare we hope). Here is an amended version of the ruling from September 2007, which adds some further comments. Kane would seem to be in limbo until this case is done, one way or the other, though. Lawyers, feel free to weigh in. The case appears to have gone before the court again at the end of February, but no further details seem to be available to the lay person.