Marvel has sent us a cease and desist letter demanding that we cancel the Iron Man event tomorrow at the AMC Metreon in San Francisco. We are not canceling the event yet - stay tuned as our lawyers work this out.
Just to be clear, we paid the full ticket price for every seat and are fully authorized to do this. This is unbelievable and stupid in so many ways, and goes right to the top of the list of moronic legal moves against us. And he even ends the note with a “please don’t print” message.
Update: Just spoke to Althoff. He’s serious. And threatening lots of further action. He mentioned “public safety.”
Update 2: Just for the record, we began the whole process by calling the group sales phone number on the official Iron Man movie site, and worked directly with Paramount on the screening.
Update 3: As of right now, AMC is telling Marvel where to stick it, and the show is still on. More in the morning.
Update 4: Goodness prevails. Event is ON.
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I don’t think today is April 1st? Its end of April !! April 30th 2008… let me wait to see the comments from people who purchased the tickets
!
Cheers!
What is the deal with these C&D. Surely there’s a better way of doing business.
This is ridiculous.
FAIL.
unbelievable is right :S
The Title fits the content
Think Green - Save Paper - Think before you print!
Wow. Marvel wrote to you! Awesome. And bad : ).
Hope you can still screen it.
Wow, this should be interesting to see how it turns out… Good luck Michael.
I’m seeing so many of these of late, I feel like the lawyers must be bored.
Hulk smash puny cease & desist.
Unbelievable. You are buying tickets for 600 people for the movie, giving Iron Man so much coverage and this is the reaction? The only way I am watching that movie is if the showing tomorrow happens as planned.
I’d actually have thought the theater would be more driven to cause a ruckus than Marvel… Another example of lawyers making the world a far better place.
Wonder if he’s looking for more PR by spoofing you in this way? This could bring Iron Man a lot more attention. Sure hope he understands the implications this negative PR could have for him tho.
And I thought we had a lot of dumb lawyers in the UK…
@#10, LOL! Lets hope he doesn’t see your comment here and Arrington would receive yet another email asking to pull this link down
?
Crazy, you would think they would learn by now the way to handle these situations.
You left the phone number in the confidentiality notice, but censored it in the signature.
….i saw some earlier posts wondering why spontaneous fun things like the iron man screening don’t happen in nyc. this is why…coming from an ex-new yorker now in SF. how dumb!
I think as a fuck you to Marvel you should post a torrent link to download Iron Man
Michael,
You get the last laugh - that letter prob cost Marvel $300.
If they don’t mind spending that money mindlessly, instead of giving it to a Children’s Hospital or something, then why should you?
-Andrew
Or you can sue them. Think of the exposure for techcrunch:
-All blogs will cover it
-It’ll make the front page of every social network since it has the whole little guy stands up for other little guys
-Who knows real news might even cover it
21 Comments: 6 minutes.. Record
You have got to be kidding me. Just when I was so amped to watch this movie, suddenly I don’t feel like it anymore. What a bunch of snotty nosed asshole lawyers.
Meeeeehhhhhhh….
I love that he signed his email “very truly yours”
NOW you should broadcast it cinema paradiso style.
Depends. Is the pre-screen being conducted by Metreon (is it still Sony?) or by TechCrunch? What assurances are there to make sure the people attending aren’t going to record the movie, upload it, and subvert Marvel/Paramount? From their point of view they’re just protecting their IP.
I hope there’s a lol-er fight.
I love his sign off: “very truly yours,”
If we can’t watch it - we’re acting it out.
Wooooooow.
I fail to see how it’s legal for them to shut the event down if you bought & paid full price for every ticket.
I wonder if they contacted the Metreon as well since they can get in as much trouble for agreeing to host the event since the procurement of the film is in THEIR hands as you can for hosting it.
I declare an immediate boycott on all Marvel purchases… Oh wait, I’m not 12 anymore so that won’t be a problem.
This is exactly the mentality of both the Movie and Music industry … technology = BAD … instead of using this for their advantage and benefit, they want to kill it quickly.
I would send them a C&D for harassment! If I did not live in Florida - I would be there with you.
It continues to blow my mind how many ostensibly cool brands inevitably end up just being run by their lawyers….often down very uncool paths. Considering all the major decisions they make, house counsel should be the highest-paid bunch of employees at most brands.
I get that IP law is incredibly valuable as an incentive to spur innovation, but omg it can be such a pain.
Do they teach reading in law school or just writing C&D letters?
Buying one movie ticket is legal.
Buying many tickets is a crime.
uhh, sounds like some lawyers have their panties in a wad. if you’ve paid for all tickets, like you said, WHAT THE FUCK GIVES THEM THE RIGHT TO TELL YOU WANT TO DO WITH THE TICKETS!? this reminds me of the assholes called the NFL that tried to prevent superbowl watching parties on large screens.
L for lawyers, L for losers. Is this the way to anti-viral your marketing or what?
Man that blows. at the startup happy event tonight i was saying how great i thought this idea was. i love how he spells “wavier”. You should get Erick to go over to his office on 5th ave and take care of the business.
You should un-censor the email address, so we can contact him directly.
Bloody lawyers. Wankers.
It has come to my attention that our trademarked name “Iron Man” has been posted numerous times on your website.
Please remove immediately all instances of “Iron Man” from your website, as you have not been authorized to use our trademark in this manner.
Very truly yours,
“Big Dave” AKA “The Davinator”
HaHa, Does that mean Marvel wants everyone to go and watch the movie alone? Aren’t we allowed to ask friends to come and watch it with us.
Or is this Marvel’s attempt at embracing the Torrent community? Sending C&D’s to people going to watch their movie in the Cinema. You should have known better Mike, beers at your place would have been much more appropriate it seems
Dave C - Hulk smash puny cease & desist… perfect comment
I don’t like that is is happening, but doesn’t Marvel have rules about pre-screeners. I understand that Mike is just trying to give back but why are you surprised that a company wants to the keep the movie private until it is actually released to the public.
646-742-6648
Hmm, so I guess equipping random attendees with Qik cameras would be out of the question
darn…
charles - see update 2 above.
The best way to promote your movie, coming out during the first week of GTA IV’s release (yes, video games DO impact movie attendance), is not to piss off so many of the fans that would potentially rave about the movie to others.
it’s 6848… I just called and he answered.
My apologies then Michael. Sucks.
So, this means one of 2 things.
1. The movie sucks, and they don’t want 650 bloggers writing that 2 days before general release.
2. The movie doesn’t suck and they have no idea what 650 positive reviews can do for their box office…. so their PR/legal/marketing people suck.
I suggest a poll with these 2 choices.
Keith Teare