I should
probably mention at the very start of this entry that
I do indeed take this seriously. Just because I've
decided to deal with it a certain way doesn't mean I
don't think it's a big deal. The bottom line is that
after weighing all the options, it would be absolutely
foolish not to push this as far as it can possibly go.
That being said the following press release was faxed
to Columbus via The Other Paper, the Columbus
Dispatch, This Week, the Booster, the WSYX/WTTE
Newsroom, the WBNS 10TV Newsroom, the WCMH NBC 4
newsroom, 610 WTVN and CD101:
FOR
IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
SMALL-TIME WEBSITES
BEWARE.
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX CRACKS DOWN
ON FANSITE POSTING PICTURES OF THEIR
SHOW.
LOS ANGELES - Feb. 28,
2004 - Former WTVN and CD101 talk show
host, Adam Kontras, is getting more than
he bargained for when he decided to do a
little guerilla marketing. Kontras
attached a sign with his website,
4tvs.com, onto a building outside of the
studios of "On Air With Ryan Seacrest" in
hopes that it would be viewable on the
nationally syndicated talk show that
shoots against a backdrop of windows in
Hollywood. It worked so well that the show
had to rework their camera positions to
avoid the sign and it only appeared during
one segment. Satisfied, Kontras took down
the sign and wrote about the story in the
journal section of his website including
pictures of his sign's 43 seconds of
glory.
"It garnered two funny
emails from a guy in Boston, but otherwise
there was very little reaction. It was
pretty harmless unfortunately" Kontras
said.
Apparently the
producers of the show felt otherwise as
they forwarded his journal entry to their
lawyers because of the screenshots used to
tell the story. A few days later Kontras
was served a cease and desist order from
Twentieth Century Fox to take down the
pictures.
"There are thousands
of fansites with screen captures of shows
that easily fall under the "fair use"
section of the copyright laws. Fox is just
targeting me for getting my sign on their
show." Kontras said.
The "fair use"
exemptions of the copyright laws are
generally vague and depend on the courts
to define them on a case by case basis.
Kontras is confident that his site, and
every other fansite showing pictures of
celebrities and television shows, are
safeguarded as they're communal sites
sharing pictures and ideas with other
fans, not profiting from the pictures with
advertising revenues. Kontras has no
advertising on 4tvs.com and simply keeps
the journal for friends and family
following his journey in L.A. In fact,
only now are complete strangers checking
out his "sign entry" on the site since the
cease and desist was ordered.
"This would've been
the non-issue of the century had Fox not
gotten the lawyers involved. Now they've
got every tiny website in the world
protesting their overuse of the copyright
laws while reading about my sign. Thank
you letters to the law firm are
forthcoming." Kontras said.
Kontras is currently
finishing up pre-production on his final
stage show about the fictitious boy band:
Adam & The Trinitrons. It's a one-man
show in which he plays all 5 characters
on-stage with 4 televisions showing
pre-recorded versions of Kontras as the
rest of the band. The final show in the
Trinitron Trilogy ironically deals with
censoring the band due to the current wave
going through the country since Janet
Jackson's Superbowl "malfunction". Kontras
will premiere the show at the end of May
in LA and plans to bring the show to
Columbus in mid-September. For more
information you can follow "The Journey"
at 4tvs.com.
About Adam
Kontras:
At 19, Adam was the
youngest talk show host in 610 WTVN
history running his late night "Late Show"
for over 3 years. His production skills
soon landed him the job as Production
Director at CD101 where he continued the
"Late Show" Tradition on the FM airwaves.
It was here, Adam started building his
one-man show, 4tvs, which would eventually
take him to Los Angeles just 2 years later
in January of 2000. He quickly made waves
on the net starring in a Movie Review show
(with his TVs) for Hollywood
Screentest.com called Movie Minded. In
2001, he reworked his one-man show into a
boy-band parody; The Trinitrons, that got
him into venues such as The Ha-Ha
Café and most notably The Comedy
Store. He's currently writing a sitcom
pilot and bible with the characters he's
developed in The Trinitrons and is set to
premiere the final stage show of the
Trinitron Trilogy in May.
# #
#
I'll rewrite it
for LA once the Oscars blow over. As usual
LNR Entertainment sent the faxes and we'll see
what type of response is received.
Now what I didn't
realize before this all happened is just how big this
whole copyright issue was. There is an ENORMOUS
amount of literature on the issue concerning the
"injustice" of copyrights against free, creative
thought. The fights these people are battling are
pretty far-out there. I'm finding that I disagree with
quite a bit of it, and don't see me becoming the
champion of the anti-copyright movement anytime soon.
Illegal-Art.org
is a pretty good site that has some of the various
infamous video and audio that uses copyrighted
material, as well as articles and links to other sites
that discuss the whole issue. Within those links I
found a site that deciphers cease and desist orders
and gives FAQs on how everything works and what to
look for in your situation that would garner a call to
an attorney or simply ignoring it. There as an
abundance of information on the issue...
...but these
people are crazy. Take "The
Grey
Album" for
example. The current posterboy for copyright
violation. Not only do they defend the right to make
such an album, they think Danger Mouse should be able
to profit from it without paying The Beatles. Huh?
Many goes as far as saying we should live in a
copyright free society and that copyrights kill
everyone's creativity. ?!?! Whatever people. If the
only way you can be creative and make a living is by
using other people's works, it's time to reconsidered
your career choices. But it all comes down to profit
really. I'm not saying there is no skill or art in
remixing or sampling or "piggy-backing" on pop
culture to create new art...but if you're gonna
profit, the original artist has to as
well.
So I can't
wholeheartedly go into this as much as most people
have. I believe common sense keeps that from
happening. I completely believe that Disney should be
allowed to own the rights to Mickey Mouse's image as
long as they want to. The copyright laws go hand in
hand with the expiration date of Mickey's copyright.
Right before Mickey is to go into "public domain"
Disney has gotten Uncle Sam to push the expiration
date back...and back and back and back. This is what
the majority of anti-copyright lobbyists pinpoint as
the evil of the world, and I just don't buy it.
Granted, the majority of Disney's catalog was
"stolen" from Grimm's fairy tales, which was
public domain, but just because that work of art was
public domain doesn't mean Disney's wrong in wanting
to keep their properties private.
If Mickey did
become public domain his image and name would be fair
game to be profited off of ad nauseum by anyone. How
on earth is that fair? Yet because of how big Disney
is, they get lauded by the masses for pushing their
will on the laws to keep their copyright. Bottom line
is, the world is a different place then when the
archaic laws were written about copyrights having a
one time limit of 14 years or what not. Those
copyrights basically undermined the artist. As if
someone who creates a cartoon character or a work of
art doesn't have a right to make a living off it after
14 years, or their family after they die. I, as an
artist, believe those songs, works of art, stories,
characters are your lifeblood. They belong to you if
you choose to copyright them, and they are yours. I
feel people are free to do what they want with them,
recreate them, share them - manipulate, whatever they
want...but they can't profit off your work without
giving you a cut. That's just my opnion on it. Many,
many people disagree with me though, and it's a pretty
interesting discussion.
Ok, after
allllllllllllllll that comes my predicament. As this
big copyright proponent how dare I post those pictures
on my site?!?...
...are you
kidding? Do you even have to ask? This is a goddamn
weblog about some dude from Ohio trying to make it in
LA. This is no different than the thousands, and
I do mean thousands, of websites that follow
celebrities and post pictures (screen captures mind
you) of that celebrity on TV. Those fansites and in a
sense THIS fansite (although autobiographical)
isn't profitting from the pictures with advertising
revenue, and posting screen captures is about as
"infringeful" as a goddamn bulletin board over the
water cooler at work. Hell only half of the 50 people
on my mailing list even click the entries, most of
these fansites are in the tens of thousands range.
They're trageting me because I got my sign on
their show, period.
And I truly
have nothing to lose and everything to gain by this
continuing. Unfortunately as much as I'd like it to
progress...it's pretty much an impossibility. I'd have
a better shot of Fox greenlighting one of my
screenplays than them spending any amount of money to
fight this. And without them pushing this along,
there's only so much I can do. The thing that's great
about the story, and why it may get press, is the
whole "sign" incident. That's a good newstory.
It's funny, interesting, makes people smile - the same
reason I told the story in this journal is why a news
station would tell the story to their
readers/listeners/viewers.
And
then of course there's the
video.
LOL. DV
Therapy
strikes again. I'm pretty proud of this
honestly. As longtime readers know, the
journey songs are just slices of the
moment at hand. I thought it was
interesting, as was the case with
Palaur.com,
for you to see the inspiration that goes
into the songs. How does the artist take
his environment and spit out the art? In
Palaur it was pretty extreme, but in The
Journey of course - there are just times
when I have to perform it rather than
write it.
The Charlotte
videos are the best journey example of that. This is
just my best response to Fox for wanting me to take
down those pictures. The bottom line is, I can't. Out
of 4 years of fighting and clawing, there's no way in
hell I can turn off this spotlight. So I hope you
understand Fox...I'm not gonna bail. Sung to the tune
of "Ridin' the rails" made famous by K.D. Lang
for the Dick Tracy soundtrack 15 years ago. Re-did it
for "Lester's Theme" in my
WTVN days...
...holy SHIT. I
just realized what a copyright BONANZA my radio show
was. How on earth did I get away with that? How
can I be making more waves with this website than I
was at a commercial radio station? Wow. There's
something to ponder. Anyway, I have to finish up the
T3 script and find these actors ASAP if I can
even dream of shooting this in April. Until further
notice, the seacrest thing is over on every level. No
more signs, no more emails, hell no more faxes unless
something happens.
If this is the
end...it's a pretty fun footnote to the
adventure.
Adam
By the way the
lawyer did respond to the email I sent with: "It is a
copyright violation to post the pictures, and so you
must remove them from your site." Then gave me his
phone number for future questions. Juuuuuuuust in case
you were wondering.
