Warner Bros. Cracks Down on Harry Potter Fanfests

Crackdown on 'Harry Potter' fan festivals, including Ithaca's


I don’t get it. Don’t fanfests promote the product?

The AT&T purchase of Warner should not be allowed to proceed. Power has gone to the head of the suits. Next, will Universal and SONY object to record shows?

 

gorts, please correct the thread title. Thx

 

if this backfires and harry potter starts losing fans ill never stop laughing

 

I guess I should go and download copies of my favorite HP FanFic before the lawyers go after that.

(The fanfic writer little0bird is frankly far better than Rowling was for at least the first three books.)

 

You know there was a Beatlefest for years when Sony/ATV/Apple came along and stepped in. This resulted in a name change for the event to "The Fest For Beatle Fans" and who knows what other kind of arrangements were made (one imagines the suits getting their beak wet.) So the Harry Potter sitch comes as no surprise, intellectual property is a huge commodity these days.

 

Yeah, piss off the fanbase buying a lot of your Harry Potter stuff. Good plan, guys.

 

"The beatings will continue until morale improves!"

 

If I'm Warner Bros, I sponsor one of these events every year and make sure it has great food, fun activities, etc. I also set up a little store with exclusive stuff for sale at the event. The fans would love it and also buy stuff.

 

The real problem here is legal precedent. If they don't protect their copyright or other intellectual property even against these seemingly harmless activities it can cause problems if they have to take a "real" infringement case to court. The infringing party could claim that if Warner Brothers did not take action against these smaller violators, they have relinquished the right to do so at all.

A local dog groomer used the basic Starbucks logo for their sign and called their business Starbarks and ended up getting served with a cease and desist order........

 

From my understanding, that only applies to trademark, not copyright. The reasoning might be the same as to why this is happening, though.

It also may have a lot to do with attempting to protect licensing agreements.

 

I am not an attorney but this was my immediate thought and I believe Warner has to be consistent in enforcing copyright and trademark laws. I see nothing wrong with what Warner has done here. People organizing and profiting from this event believe Warner benefits from the festival "helping to build" the franchise, that is a laughable argument. It is either in violation of the laws or it is not.

 

There had been a really nice fest in an upscale Phil neighborhood for 10 years or so. Kids had a great time, money raised for a nonprofit, restaurants made a few bucks. Gone.
I thought we were trying to encourage kids not to live on a device, and actually read.

 

Studio morons. So afraid they'll lose a half buck. If it wasn't for Star Trek conventions and fans keeping alive the spirit, there would likely have been no Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, and Discovery. Money grubbers.

 

There would have been no Star Trek beyond the original series if it weren't for fans and conventions. It was fan pressure which led to the Animated Series and Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

 

Thereby proving that sometimes the fandom can make bad things happen, too.

 

And that's the truth. There have been cases where words like "Aspirin" slipped into the public domain because the owners failed to protect their trademarks.

What Warner Bros. should do is license X number of Harry Potter® conventions every year (at a very low price, like $1), but with the proviso that they can't make their own merchandise and sell Harry Potter wands, T-shirts, hats, games, books, or whatever. They'd be limited to only being able to sell real packaged products licensed by J.K. Rowling and/or WB. I think that's the important thing here.

Note that at the San Diego Comic-Con and various sci-fi conventions, studios and copyright holders routinely will send inspectors to the dealers' rooms and make sure that everything being sold there is legit. They don't want thousands of unauthorized, games, statues, model kits, toys, clothing, posters, and so on being sold, because that really is a rip-off. Somebody selling legit DVDs or soundtracks or T-shirts or whatever, that's fine.

 

No, the people selling bootleg DVDs just sell them at the smaller Horror/Sci-Fi conventions....

...allegedly.

 

Warner's getting tough, huh?.
I guess I better... I said I better quit doin' them Foghorn Leghorn impressions in public...Public, That Is!

 

T-T-T-T-They'll sue, folks!

 

You referring to Chestnut Hill by chance? I know they have,or had HP fest there.

 

yep