The Liberty Indy reports that outdoor movies in Lapolt Park -- cancelled hastily last month, when the organizers were informed that one has to pay to host public movie performances -- are back.
After a hiatus caused by licensing issues, MOVIES IN THE PARK AT DARK WILL RETURN this Saturday (8/14) with The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor! Details of how the event is returning will follow, but we wanted to get the word out so you can plan your Saturday.
The Zinc Plate Press blog says a few local good Samaritans stepped in to cover the licensing fees:
A few weeks back, Swank Motion Pictures, who owns the licensing of all outdoor movies, threatened legal action against the series sponsors unless licensing fees were paid or the movies stopped. Unable to pay the fees, the sponsors had no choice but to pull the plug.
Now thanks to the generous donations of the Liberty Rotary Club, Liberty Elks, the Sullivan Cares Coalition, and the Nichols family, the movies are back for the last 4 weeks of summer.
Us media types may find it hard to believe, but the Liberty movie series planners clearly aren't the only people living in the 21st century who don't know that you have to pay for the rights to perform movies and music in public spaces. The New York Times recently ran a terrific magazine piece about music rights, featuring the trials and tribulations of Devon Baker, copyright enforcer, in her Sisyphean efforts to get small-town bars and clubs to pay for the music they play:
There was, for example, the gentleman at a Kentucky RV resort who told her on the phone that he was going to come into her office and “spray her down” with a machine gun. Then there was the female punk-rock-club owner in Colorado who ripped up Baker’s licensing agreement, ordered her out of the club, followed her out the door, spit a huge goober on the paperwork and stuck it to Baker’s windshield.
Not every experience is awful, she pointed out. She once signed an adult-club licensing agreement on the dance floor, beneath the strippers’ poles — and the strippers themselves, as they danced; it couldn’t have been more pleasant. Not long ago, she visited a manager for a health care chain and walked out half an hour later after a congenial sit-down with a signed agreement and a check for five figures.
But it was tough going sometimes, and these positive experiences were all too rare. “I actually had a guy that I called the other day,” Baker told me, “and when I asked when he might be sending in his check, he said: ‘I don’t know, why don’t you call Obama? Ask him! He runs everything now.’ So, I put that in my notes, ‘Client referred me to president of United States.’ ” Then there was the colleague of Baker’s who got a letter saying, “Eat you-know-what and die.” When she replied to the client, she got another letter, asking, “What part of eat you-know-what and die don’t you understand?”
