[Infowarrior] - NBCU: When lawyers have no business sense

[Richard Forno]

NBC Universal Shuts Down Battlestar Galactica Fan Charity Event In  
Toronto
from the not-very-nice dept

And here we have yet another case where the copyright holder is  
certainly within its rights, but that hardly means that its decision  
made any business sense at all. Michael_S alerts us to the news that  
some fans of the TV show Battlestar Galactica tried to set up a  
showing of the finale in a movie theater in Toronto as a charity  
event. They spoke to someone at NBC Universal, who basically agreed to  
look the other way and let the event happen... but then the lawyers  
found out and they shut the event down, because how dare the biggest  
fans of one of your biggest shows all get together to celebrate the  
show and raise money for charity at the same time. Yes, it is  
absolutely within NBC Universal's legal right to block such a public  
performance, but it makes the company look like a massive, charity- 
hating bully, for no good reason (and, before someone says it, the  
need to enforce applies to trademarks, not copyright). It wouldn't  
have been hard for NBC Universal to set up a simple license to allow  
the showing to happen, but when you live in a world where lawyers and  
control are more important than actual business sense, this is what  
you get.

http://techdirt.com/articles/20090319/1844414186.shtml