Subject:
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Re: TLC/TLG about to supress fan created films?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.animation
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Date:
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Mon, 26 Mar 2001 23:25:17 GMT
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Viewed:
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3953 times
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In lugnet.publish.cinema, Thomas Garrison writes:
> Ah, but no one here has bought the Lego trademark, only ABS. As an analogy, I
> could buy a case of Sprite, but if I made a movie wherein a character visibily
> drank from cans of Sprite, the Coca-Cola company could be within its rights to
> sue me for unauthorized reproduction (on film) of their trademarked can and
> logo designs. Of course, they wouldn't, but if the character in my
> hypothetical movie were depicted as both a Sprite addict and a sociopathic
> serial rapist and murderer they might, on grounds that I was damaging their
> product. [...]
Those words remind me of an episode of _The Young Ones_ where Alexei Sayle's
character picks up a can of Coke, saying, "Ah...Coca-Cola...symbol of the
free West!" He drinks the Coke, starts freaking out, and then runs around
with a hatchet trying to kill everyone in the house. Of course, it wasn't
actually Coke in the Coke can; it was a serum that turns you into an
axe-wielding homocidal maniac that Neil had put in the Coke can so that
nobody would drink it by mistake. :)
> I don't think that precise scenario applies to Lego movies, but
> that's probably the same reasoning. And so Lego has a reasonable right, IMHO,
> to exercise control over use of their images--particularly any depictions of
> their logo or distinctive pieces, such as minifigs.[1]
(Not that it counts for anything; I'm not an IP attorney and I don't have
all the facts here anyway and even if I did I can't speak for TLC) ... but
my guess is that TLC is freaking out over the unofficial animated face
graphics, which it may feel are confusingly similar to its own official
graphics. Whatever set this off, it's likely to be something subtle that
nobody has really done before in this medium (or hadn't caught TLC's
attention yet).
> On the other hand, I bet TLC's marketing department is spitting fire right
> now. "You want us to try to market a ***two hundred dollar*** toy for making
> Lego movies and then you shut down people who want to distribute Lego
> movies??!!?? That's it; I'm heading to Ritvik."
This world we live in never stops amazing me! It's a brand-new roller
coaster ride every day. :-) There must be some pretty interesting emails
floating around inside of TLC today. I wonder if TLC gives any heads-up to
its employees before going after somebody for something like this so that
the first place they hear about it isn't through negative publicity online.
--Todd
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