Friday, October 1, 2010

Legal Commentary: Williamsburg Yeti

So, the Williamsburg Yeti is basically a local group that, among whatever else it is they do (I don't pretend I fully follow) try to get theater to W-berg residents at affordable prices.

They've also just kicked off a project called "The Great Broadway Swindle" to try and alert people to the dishonesty in the Broadway pricing system. I'm not sure if I think it's a swindle -- the idea being that people in the know go to the TKTS booth and get tickets at half of what rich theater tourists come to town to pay. It's rather like airlines -- people pay the price they are smart enough to pay. One day, no two people will be paying the same price (I think Ken Davenport was in favor of that, but I can't find a post).

Anyways, the point is that they previously had a photo of the TKTS booth as their group photo (in the sense of "This is what we're protesting," and TKTS contacted them that they were inviolation of copyright and they should take it down.

One of my favorite uses of copyright: sticking it to people you don't like.