Due to some legal hub bub I have been hesitant to publish this CEASE & DESIST letter I received from LucasFilms in reference to our planned 2011 Brooklyn Star Wars Marathon. We received the letter at around 6 pm eastern time on Friday July 1, 2011. This left us only 2 BUSINESS HOURS to contact LucasFilms and try to come up with a way to comply with the letter and still have the event. They were still open (it was only 4 PM west coast time).... but did they call us back? Nope. Did they email us a response? Nope. They sent out their threatening letter at the absolute last minute possible despite the fact that we have been advertising for this FAN EVENT for over 3 months. Sad. Here is the letter that destroyed our event in it's entirety. I will be writing a response letter to Lucas & his company later on today. Thanks to all of you who came out and still partied with us real Star Wars fans in spite of Emperor Lucas trying to stop us.... it could have been epic, but we still made it fun!!!
You did nothing wrong. In fact you went out of your way to let everyone know that admission was FREE so you would not be making money off anyone for watching the films. The fact that money may exchange hands over drinks and snacks is perfectly acceptable and not relevant to the Lucas grievance. Does he want a cut of those profits too? 100% or nothing, George?
ReplyDeleteI wonder if they had spies at your non-event to see if the movies were actually going to be shown.
Not to condone what they did, but if their legal team should have just written that you don't have the right to do a Public Performance without a licence.
ReplyDeleteNo need to accuse you of charging for the event.
Those spelling errors are priceless!
Sorry this happened to you... At least you made impact enough that they took notice.
I guess its not only Sith's that deal in absolutes.... seems to be conglomerates as well.
ReplyDeleteThey have to stop things like this because if they didn't, there would be hundreds of free showings of Star Wars all over the place. If a company doesn't enforce their copyright, they can eventually lose the ability to protect it. Might it not have been a good idea to ask permission before advertising the event?
ReplyDeleteAs much as all of these problems piss me off as a fan, you've still got to look at the facts. Its a public performance. You should have tried to get permission first. You could easily do this marathon, just get permission OR do it privately with a couple of friends. Sorry about the trouble though. Maybe keep it more hidden next time?
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