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On March 28th, 2002, Twentieth Century Fox presented Filmtracks.com with a cease and desist letter demanding the removal of select coverage of the popular musical Moulin Rouge.One month prior, Filmtracks had decided to honor the film's wildly original use of music by presenting Moulin Rouge with the most in-depth review ever published at the site. Three albums of music for the film exist: two commercial and one promotional. The promotional album, produced by representatives of composer Craig Armstrong, was supplied to Filmtracks for consideration. Neither of the commercial albums, produced by Interscope Records, was supplied to the site, forcing a purchase of those albums for coverage. In order to provide comprehensive the coverage that Moulin Rouge deserves, Filmtracks reviewed the content on all three albums. Through their law partners, Keats, McFarland & Wilson, LLP, Twentieth Century Fox stated that Filmtracks must immediately remove select elements of the coverage pertaining to the promotional album. No such demand has ever been made of Filmtracks (and perhaps never to any other film music site) before, and the letter arrived without any attempt by Fox to resolve the offense through non-legal threats. Filmtracks, despite its enormous size and popularity, remains a one man operation, and obviously does not have the resources to even consider a defense against a mammoth such as Twentieth Century Fox. Thus, Filmtracks removed the minimum content required to appease the legal threat presented by Fox on the same day the demand was delivered. The Filmtracks coverage for Moulin Rouge was the most popular review for the month of March, 2002, with over 30,000 visitors to the page. Despite the actions of Twentieth Century Fox, Filmtracks continues to support the film, its music, and especially Craig Armstrong, whose coordination and arrangement of music for the project is much admired. Included below are copies of the cease and desist letter from Keats, McFarland & Wilson, LLP, and Filmtracks' response to attorney Dennis L. Wilson and Heather Haynes, who is a representative of the Fox Intellectual Property Department. The information presented has not been altered in any way. The Cease and Desist Letter: (from Keats, McFarland & Wilson, LLP, representing Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation) March 28, 2002 VIA COURIER AND ELECTRONIC MAIL Filmtracks Publications Attn: Christian Clemmensen 541 McLeod Avenue Missoula, MT 59801 TYDERIAN(at)FILMTRACKS.COM Re: Unauthorized Moulin Rouge Promotional CD Dear Mr. Clemmensen: Our client, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation ("Fox") is the exclusive owner of all copyrights, trademark and other intellectual property rights in and to the highly acclaimed motion picture "Moulin Rouge," including, but not limited to the music affiliated with the motion picture. It has recently come to our attention that you are reviewing and posting audio clips from a "Moulin Rouge Promotional CD" on your website at (filmtracks.com). However, the CD which you refer to as the "Moulin Rouge Promotional CD" was never authorized by Fox. Therefore, we must request that you immediately remove the audio clips. Fox tries to support its fans whenever possible. Furthermore, Fox has dedicated tremendous time and resources to the creation of quality entertainment programming such as "Moulin Rouge," and greatly values the comments and suggestions of fans who enjoy Fox's properties. However, the development and distribution of Fox's material requires a collaboration with many different entities, including guild organizations representing actors, directors, writers and musicians. Based in part on these relationships, Fox has a legal responsibility, including many contractual obligations, to prevent the unauthorized distribution of its proprietary material. Through this letter you are hereby put on notice that the unauthorized use of Fox's proprietary material, as well as the reproduction, sale and/or distribution by you of such unauthorized and/or derivative materials (including providing such items for free on the Internet) constitutes copyright infringement, and potentially subjects you to both criminal and civil liability. While we expect that you will want to accede to our requests, please understand that if you do not remove these infringing materials without delay, we will be forced to recommend to Fox that it take appropriate legal action against you to have them removed. Thank you for your cooperation in this regard. Your interest in "Moulin Rouge " is most appreciated. Fox will continue to do its best to bring you quality entertainment. Nothing contained in this letter constitutes an express or implied waiver of any rights, remedies or defenses of Fox, all of which are expressly reserved. Yours truly, Dennis L. Wilson Keats, McFarland & Wilson, LLP cc: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation The Filmtracks Response: (from Christian Clemmensen, representing Filmtracks Publications) March 28, 2002 VIA USPS AND ELECTRONIC MAIL Dennis L. Wilson - Keats, McFarland & Wilson, LLP Re: Unauthorized Moulin Rouge Promotional CD Attn. Dennis L. Wilson: I, Christian Clemmensen, am the editor and owner of Filmtracks Publications. I appreciate your interest in the Filmtracks.com, the most widely visited film music and soundtrack site in the world. Your legal threat regarding the Filmtracks coverage of Moulin Rouge, however, was presented in a distasteful and offensive manner. Since its launch in 1996, Filmtracks has enjoyed superb relations with studios, record labels, and artists alike. Twentieth Century Fox is the first company to use legal threats as a means of first communication with the site. The Moulin Rouge promotional album was sent to us by Ray Costa of Costa Communications, who represents and promotes composer Craig Armstrong and a number of other popular film composers. The promotion of that music is intended in the best interest of Armstrong, for whom the album was pressed. The album is not a competitor of the commercially available albums. I have confirmed with Blue Focus Management, the producer of the Moulin Rouge promotional album and additional representative of Craig Armstrong, that the album is indeed not licensed by Twentieth Century Fox. Whether or not it was "authorized" by Twentieth Century Fox is not my concern, and is an issue about which you should consult Blue Focus at (818-380-1919). Nevertheless, due to the lack of license and our concern for the reputation of Craig Armstrong and his representing parties, I have removed the audio clips from the promotional album that existed on Filmtracks' Moulin Rouge coverage. This was the extent of your demand, and that demand has been respected. However, I will not remove textual content which describes the music that exists on the promotional album, including its track listings and descriptions of its contents in the review itself. Had Twentieth Century Fox contacted Filmtracks via e-mail and kindly requested that the clips be removed, I would have been happy to do so and move on without a fuss. Since Twentieth Century Fox resorted to immediate and offensive legal threats (behavior unbecoming of a partner in promotion), your legal threat, this response, and an opinion of why the behavior by the Twentieth Century Fox Intellectual Property Department was unprofessional will be attached to the Filmtracks Moulin Rouge coverage for hundreds of thousands of visitors to view. Finally, it should be noted that despite your statement, "Your interest in Moulin Rouge is most appreciated," neither Twentieth Century Fox nor Interscope Records sent me copies of the commercial albums for review, whereas I did receive the promotional album. That lack of courtesy, when combined with your legal threat against Filmtracks, makes it clear that Twentieth Century Fox has no appreciation whatsoever for Filmtracks' efforts to support the film, its albums, and Craig Armstrong, and proves your statement to be completely false. I am truly sorry that Twentieth Century Fox could not attempt to resolve this issue with greater sensitivity. Sincerely, Christian Clemmensen www.filmtracks.com cc: Heather Haynes - Fox Intellectual Property Department And Now, My Unrestrained Response: (from Christian Clemmensen, representing Filmtracks Publications) The shame of this event is that Fox didn't just send a friendly e-mail and ask me to remove the clips in question from the Moulin Rouge coverage page. I don't agree with it, and I certainly think that there are more relevant issues for Fox to be pursuing, but I would have done it for them anyway had they politely asked. If they want to make themselves useful, then they need to be pursuing the bootleg market... not promotional review sites. The reason I am enraged by the behavior of Fox is because they broke the rules of professional courtesy. They skipped the simple request and had their lawyer shoot off a form-letter cease and desist demand instead. When you get down to the substance of their complaint, they only demanded that the four short, Real Audio clips from the promo album be removed. It is implied, additionally, that they are offended by the inclusion of the "unauthorized" promo in the review at all. I don't care if it's authorized or not --that's their problem to sort out with the management company. My policy is this: if it's meant to promote, then I'll review it. For the amount of postage and worktime that Fox invested into this threat against Filmtracks, they could have done a whole lot more to save their property someplace else. It's their "trigger happy" attitude that causes me, and many fans, to hold them with disdain. Doesn't anyone else remember Paramount's ill-fated attempt to wipe out all Star Trek sites a few years ago? When their offensive letter arrived, I immediately took to my server logs and ran back one week of activity to see exactly what Fox was looking at. They accessed from IPs at foxinc.com many times over the course of three days, and each time they seemed focused only on the Moulin Rouge review. If the logs truly indicate the extent of their visits to Filmtracks this past week, then it reveals a complete lack of understanding on their part of how a score review site works. They did not bother to learn that composers send out promos to score sites all the time, and that those promos are often lumped into the same review with their commercial counterparts. They probably haven't bothered to discover, also, that the inclusion of a promo or bootleg in a score review has little (or no) impact on the sales of the commercial album(s). They even failed to gather the basic contact information with which to contact me via e-mail. Somehow, they dug up the old Filmtracks phone number from 1996-1997 --now used by my parents, ironically. A representative from Fox's Intellectual Property Dept left one vague and completely uninspiring message --lacking any reason why she was calling-- on my parents' answering machine last night. This, too is unacceptable. For God's sake, if you want to contact me professionally, then e-mail me and ask for my private phone number. Digging up old numbers doesn't work. A message to my parents goes largely ignored; they don't want to be bothered with Filmtracks correspondence. My attempts to contact this Fox representative in response were not only preceded by the legal threat, but also proved in vain since their office is closed for the religious holiday. In sum, I don't mind bending to meet the needs of other companies... so long as they are reasonable demands. I will not change my textual opinions, and that's my one major rule. But Fox stepped over the line and showed a level of disrespect for Filmtracks that I've never seen before. Believe it or not, Filmtracks is actually considered a major entertainment site now, and has the capability of influencing millions upon millions of people each month. This is no ten-page, amateur fan site, and Fox shot itself in the foot with its presumptuous and disrespectful behavior towards me and the site. People are always wondering why I don't write as many reviews for Filmtracks as I used to. Well, it's because of ridiculous distractions like this unnecessary legal threat from Twentieth Century Fox that I no longer have time to do that which most benefits everyone involved: ...review albums. You're the 75,806th person to view this page. |