Posted by Smalls at adsl-67-122-161-208.dsl.lsan03.pacbell.net on December 09, 2003 at 17:17:10:
In Reply to: Re: Mike's infinite wisdom posted by Joel Walton on December 09, 2003 at 16:52:09:
If you didn't have a "cosmic rolodex" upon which to get in touch with the proper parties... and no matter what path you went down, you couldn't get that contact information?
You give up. You don't do it. It's really that simple.
The fact that you had no path despite your efforting should be taken as a hint that... Kevin probably didn't care to see someone else's interpretation of his work. And then you should've stopped.
Who was your contact at Miramax that "gave" you permission? They have to have had the power to grant that permission for it to be a legally binding verbal agreement.
I mean, your dad could give you permission to adapt Clerks, that doesn't mean you legally can.
I used to answer phones for T-Mobile, that doesn't mean that I could give you permission to steal Catherine Zeta-Jones-Douglas-Diller-Washburn-Phillips' underwear. I could tell you you could, sure, but I doesn't mean I had the authority to give you that permission.
"No, Cathy, don't worry... one of the guys from the Utica call center said it was okay!"
In other words: unless your contact had the last name Weinstein or Eisner, I doubt its binding.
And yeah... presuming that after getting a C&D order, you can just turn around and take a meeting to discuss it... that's a little creepy and strange, man. You've proved yourselves as completely unprofessional, who's gonna go to the table with that?
Do you, like, understand how that sounds?
"We'll rip off a guy's idea without his permission on the strength of the vague advice of a mailroom worker... and then when his lawyer threatens to sue the shit out of us, we'll go to his house and have tea and we'll give him a dollar and he'll let us do the play again... this time with his blessing and we'll make our careers off of ripping off his movie and then meaculping later!"
It sounds a little... out of touch with the reality.
Mike