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Copyright suit against Russ Whitney and his book publisher by Pete and Tony Youngs

Pete and Tony Youngs and their company Real World Enterprises, Inc. have filed a copyright lawsuit against Russ Whitney, Whitney Information Network, Inc., Whitney Education Group, Inc., Whitney Leadership Group, Inc., and Dearborn Financial Institute, Inc., which does business as Dearborn Trade Publishing.
Federal court in Atlanta
The suit was filed in federal court (United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division Civil Action File No. 1:03-CV-1697) on June 19, 2003. It alleges that the Youngs write and sell information on the subject of finding, buying, rehabbing, and selling pre-foreclosure properties.
Refused to assign copyrights to Whitney
Since March 27, 1997, they have allowed Russ Whitney and his various companies to market their seminars. Around August 26, 2002, Whitney asked them to sign a new contract that required them to either assign their copyrights to Whitney or agree to stringent non-compete covenants. They refused and ended their relationship with Whitney.
Youngs material in Whitney publications?
The complaint alleges that soon thereafter, Whitney began offering pre-foreclosure seminars using material taken from the Youngs’ publications and recordings. It also alleges that some of that material is in Whitney’s new book, Millionaire Real Estate Mentor, which was published by Dearborn.
‘My personal friendship…’
The acknowledgement section of that book contains the following statement:
Of course, tremendous appreciation goes to the Wealth Team: …Pete Youngs and Tony Youngs…My personal friendship with each of them is enhanced by their willingness to share knowledge that has made them millionaires.
Apparently, they were not as willing to “share their knowledge” as Whitney had hoped. If the allegations are true, it also appears that “appreciation” and “personal friendship” means somenhing different to Russ Whitney than it does to most people.
Page 317 of Millionaire Real Estate Mentor has photographs and biographies of the Youngs brothers.
Former instructor Todd Dotson also sued Whitney for copyright infringement
The Youngs brothers are not the only Whitney instructors in this situation. Another Whitney Instructor—Todd Dotson—also rejected Whitney’s demand that he assign his copyrights to Whitney and sued Whitney in Fort Worth for copyright infringement in December, 2002. Whitney settled that suit on secret terms outside of court in January of 2003 just before he was scheduled to give a deposition in the case.
Glenn Purdy
Another Whitney instructor who is listed as a member of his “Wealth Team” and pictured in the back of the book (page 315) is Glenn Purdy. He, too, is a “personal friend…” who was willing to “share his knowledge” but is now no longer associated with Whitney. I do not know if copyright issues had anything to do with that split.
Sounds like the “Wealth Team” may need a new coach.
Likely terms of Whitney’s contract with Dearborn
I have not seen the contract Whitney signed with Dearborn, but I have been in the book publishing business for decades, so I can make a very educated guess as to its contents. In fact, a Dearborn predecessor, Real Estate Education Company, tried to get me to be one of their authors. I flat refused.
The Whitney-Dearborn contract probably has a clause in which Whitney states that the book Millionaire Real Estate Mentor was written by him or, if created by others, that Whitney previously acquired the copyrights to the material created by others. Indeed, he claims to have fininhed the manuscript around the time he was pressuring his various instructors to assign their copyrights to him.
I would also expect that the contract said that Whitney agrees to indemnify the publisher for their legal costs and any court-ordered judgments if they are sued for copyright infringement, libel, etc.
As an author and publisher for over twenty years, I am appalled that Whitney would ask his instructors to assign their copyrights to him. Copyrights earn money for authors until 50 years after their deaths last I checked. I am even more appalled that many of Whitney’s instructors apparently agreed to this. Unbelievable!
John T. Reed
Copyright 2003 by John T. Reed
Last update 6/24/03
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CONSUMER WARNING NOTICE: I recently saw Russ Whitney on a late night TV infomercial and then attended one of his "free" seminars. Unfortunately I believed all of their LIES and FRAUDULENT CLAIMS and I paid thousands of dollars to go to his "training camps". Needless to say I was clearly ripped off, cheated and lied to by Russ Whitney and his employees (band of thieves). My mistake was not searching the Internet to find out more about Russ Whitney and his company's HORRIBLE reputation for fraud, deception and illegal activities. Had I searched online I would have found out about THOUSANDS of customers being cheated, HUNDREDS of investigations by the Attorney General into the fraud of Russ Whitney and his company's, and that Russ Whitney himself is a CONVICTED VIOLENT FELON and spent years in PRISON. I saved the cached pages from the major search engines of the John Reed lawsuit with Russell Whitney and the TRUTH and FACTS that Reed discovered during his investigation of Whitney. I am posting this information on real estate discussion boards so other people do NOT get cheated and ripped off like I did.