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From Sfist.com

Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Live performance of "Once More with Feeling" halted by 20th Century Fox

By Rita

Thursday 20 October 2005, by Webmaster

Once More, With Feeling

It’s vaguely embarrassing to admit that there was a general buzz of excitement at SFist HQ when SFist Jon found out that counterPULSE Theater was staging a live-action version of the Buffy The Vampire Slayer musical episode, "Once More With Feeling." Set for performances this weekend and next, tickets sold out pretty much immediately and geeks of all stripes (musical theater geeks, comic book geeks, Star Trek geeks, Joss Whedon geeks, and your everyday run of the mill geeks) began lovingly sheathing their precious original tickets in durable plastic covers to preserve forever.

Well, where geeks go, lawyers are soon to follow — last week, counterPULSE got an angry letter from Fox TV’s attorneys, demanding that they cancel all the shows or face a copyright and trademark infringement lawsuit. Feeling as if they had no choice, counterPULSE has now cancelled all the Buffy shows (which they are now referring to as "the Halloween shows," or the "Uffy" shows). Fox is taking the position that it alone, and not some namby-pamby San Francisco theater group, has the right to profit from Buffy-related activities.

counterPULSE has one last stake left in its back pocket, though — Joss Whedon himself has apparently said that he has no objection to the staging of the show, and counterPULSE has sent this along to Fox for consideration. Given the number of other people whose rights would need to be cleared by tomorrow, though, we’re not optimistic that this Buffy’s going to actually be able to save the universe, this time. (On the bright side, collectors, you won’t actually have to remove the ticket from the protective plastic sleeve you placed it in, and it won’t be ripped at the door!)

Dear Fox: We believe the use of the BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER-related trademarks and copyrights in the context of this informational newspost constitutes permissible fair use. Please contact us if you have any questions.


5 Forum messages

  • > Live performance of "Once More with Feeling" halted by 20th Century Fox

    20 October 2005 14:01, by Anonymous
    How embarrassing for the theatre company! I wonder what rock they have been living under for the past century! Pretty much everyone knows that you have to license creative property. Especially if you are trying to sell tickets to it !! -Morons- At the bare MINIMUM at least ask permission first!

  • > Live performance of "Once More with Feeling" halted by 20th Century Fox

    20 October 2005 16:54, by Anonymous
    Agreed. If the show was free, then that’d come under the heading of "fair use", but since they’re charging admission, thats plain copyright infringement. Joss may have the rights to the songs themselves, but Fox still owns the rights to use the name Buffy, etc.

  • > Live performance of "Once More with Feeling" halted by 20th Century Fox

    20 October 2005 23:27, by Michael

    saw fox mgnt takin’ shows in a way that make no sense... you can’t do that to the people... (suppose they’d take 95c for each dollar)

    when first read this, i thought it was some live buffy cast performance...

    did a complete score for MOMS (Mustard On My Shirt) musical get finished? That’d be scary for Halloween...

  • > Live performance of "Once More with Feeling" halted by 20th Century Fox

    21 October 2005 00:16, by Anonymous

    Sorry, but the theater company is in the wrong - I don’t like Fox at all, but they own all the trademarks and copyrights and all that to Buffy. The theater group is basically trying to make money off someone else’s property without asking permission to use that property first. It’s as if they’d decided to stage a play in my back yard without asking if they could first. Much as I wish it were true, Joss isn’t the only one with an investment in Buffy, and anyone involved in theater knows that you need to obtain actual permission from copyright holders to perform a piece in public for profit.

    At any rate, I don’t see anyone else playing Giles nearly as well as Anthony Head, so maybe it’s for the best . . .

  • > Live performance of "Once More with Feeling" halted by 20th Century Fox

    21 October 2005 01:32, by Anonymous

    Sorry, guys, but at the risk of being a party-pooper this makes perfect sense really. If you wrote something (or were hired to write something) on a professional basis and then someone else appeared and decided to use the material without asking, paying or getting clearance to do so, you’d claim it was basically theft of your material - no matter if they make a profit or not. Whedon doesn’t own the material. He was paid to supply it to someone who doesn’t want other people using it without asking. That’s not unreasonable. The group was insane to try and breach copyright and think there wouldn’t be repercussions. It smacks of a rather inept set-up to begin with.

    It’s the same reason that people get pissed off when their full article transcripts or scans thereof are posted here. Twice I’ve had to demand articles to be pulled from here because I’ve had angry editors contact me presuming I’ve given permission for the work to appear here. Once it was even indicated I’d lose payment because the interview was no longer exclusive to that magazine. Writers put a lot of work into getting articles, promising which outlets the piece will appear in, editors hope to increase sales and encourage their publishers to run more stories in the same vein. Then what happens, a site comes alone reprints the entire thing, doesn’t ask permission and sales of the mag don’t increase.

    You want to read an article, buy the magazine - don’t steal it like a shoplifter.

    I hate to say it but one day people will come to this site (which is otherwise a great site) and find it’s not here because people got pissed off that their work was being hijacked and took legal action. Fox may be heavy-handed in some cases, but they are morally correct to prevent anyone using their material whenver they feel like it.

    As someone’s who’s had my work printed in full here without asking and who still sees tons of copyright infringement going on, all I can plead is for a bit of common sense. Writers like myself and studios like Fox are quite often happy to work with people who request co-operation for mutual benefit, but we also take a dim view of those who assume they can do whatever they like with other’s work.

    Just a bit of common sense, please?