CAPITALISM: THAT'S NOT HOW YOU DO IT: Let's say that you're a business that caters to tourists. Not just any business that caters to tourists, but a themed diner that features singing waitresses, located smack in the middle of Times Square. And then one of your waitresses goes on television -- not just any TV show, but the most popular show in America for many years running. And not just any most popular show in America, but one whose audience consists, in giant part, of exactly the people who you want to know about your restaurant -- that is, people who might want to be tourists in New York, and who, if they do, are likely to spend time in Times Square doing touristy things. And what does your waitress do on that show? She sings, and she does it well enough to earn the judges' heaping praise for her talent. It goes so well, in fact, that the show sends a crew to your restaurant, where they film your front door, your waitress belting something out, and your patrons having a ridiculously good time. Millions upon millions of people in your target audience have just been treated to a feel-good puff piece about how much fun they could have in your establishment -- developing a personal connection to one of your employees in the process -- and it didn't cost you a penny. You have won the Powerball Lottery of free publicity. So what do you do?
Well, fire the waitress for going to American Idol's Hollywood round, of course.*
*Caveat: TMZ link, so this may not be true.
FWIW, I went to Ellen's this summer (it's not terribly good, but it's convenient if you're going to the theatre and offers a wide range of food) and one of the waiters (I think it was the one who performed "Shy" from "Once Upon A Mattress") was proudly announced as having won the Golden Ticket/Line Pass from American Idol Experience at WDW, so this isn't a new issue.
ReplyDeleteMorons. Wow.
ReplyDeleteThis is pretty similar, at least for me, to how movie studios will issue takedown notices to sites/users hosting unauthorized trailers. It's not like, you know, they like/are excited enough about your movie that they want to promote it for you or anything...
ReplyDeleteAt least there there's an argument that they are required to issue the notices in order to maintain copyright protection over the material in the trailer. If you have notice of use of copyrighted material and you fail to take reasonable steps to protect it, then (subject to a ton of argument and caveats and legal tests in which Matt is the resident expert) that is a factor favoring a finding of abandonment of the copyright. I'm not sure how this works with things like trailers, but you can see how risk-adverse lawyers would want to cover themselves. But that has nothing to do with a theme restaurant shitting all over its unequivocally great free publicity.
ReplyDeleteObviously, the answer is that when she auditioned on "Idol," she failed to get clearance from the copyright holders of the songs she sang. Ascap licesnse, schmicense.
ReplyDeleteThere's not the "don't enforce" problem with copyrights as much as it is with trademarks. The tricky part is that some "infringements" (even pretty blatant ones) are good for publicity. Here, they had the right to fire her (she was an at-will employee who wouldn't show up for work at an assigned time), but it was stupid to do so. Same reason I wouldn't necessarily advise my client to issue oodles of takedown notices for music in YouTube videos--it's often (though not always) good promotion that's not losing you sales.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if AI has told Ellen's and AI contestants that they can't be promo'ed based on their association with AI - Matt's anecdote makes it sound like maybe not, but it's possible.
ReplyDeleteSee? Just goes to show that AI is (as my colleague from Alabama says), "No durn good for no durn body." Unless she wins or becomes the next Daughtry.
ReplyDeleteAs a former singing waitress, I say boo on that. I also say: are there still singing waitress jobs available?
ReplyDeletespacewoman: if you get a job as a singing waitress, I will fly across the country to see it.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Emily!
ReplyDelete