Warner Bros. cracking down on local "Harry Potter" festivals

http://www.bnd.com/entertainment/article213308634.html

Obviously for copyright-related reasons, but it looks like Harry Potter-themed events are going the way, title-wise, that Super Bowl parties are heading (i.e., "Big Game" parties). Warner Brothers cracking down on the use of "Harry Potter"-related characters worldwide in special events.

http://www.bnd.com/entertainment/article213308634.html

Thoughts? (Even though I'm one that never have given a rip about Harry Potter or most popular culture nowadays in general--in fact, I used to think when he first came out around 2000, that Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings were one in the same).

Waste of effort. No real impact to IP or revenue and only will generate negative publicity. OTOH, when DOJ prevails in its appeal of the AT&T merger, perhaps it can throw in forcing Warner to allow these as part of the settlement. Total management fail.

It won't stop the festivals. They'll probably just change the name somehow.

umfan said:

Waste of effort. No real impact to IP or revenue and only will generate negative publicity. OTOH, when DOJ prevails in its appeal of the AT&T merger, perhaps it can throw in forcing Warner to allow these as part of the settlement. Total management fail.

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Hahaha. On what basis? The right thing to do is learn from Disney and sell a bunch of stuff to create the "ultimate" Potter fest.\

With AT&T in charge, look for the company to be more creative in the way it monetizes its assets.

Nothing to do with CNN, David, that wasn't the basis for the lawsuit by DOJ, any comments taken out of context by the President notwithstanding.

My concern is with the ownership of significant swaths of content by major distributors of content. It was a mistake to allow Comcast to acquire NBC/Universal, but feeble minds keep citing that as a reason why other similarly flawed mergers must be allowed. To think that in house content won't be favored by the distributor is fallacy. Already networks cancel better performing shows because they don't have a share in the back end. This merger should have concessions or be reversed because of the concentration of content with distribution and the further such mergers it will effectively allow, see Fox/Disney or Fox/Comcast as an example. Hardly a coincidence that Comcast made its blockbuster bid for the Fox entertainment assets directly on the heels of Judge Leon's laughable decision.

umfan said:

My concern is with the ownership of significant swaths of content by major distributors of content.

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Ownership of content and distribution was considered a bad thing in the 1940s. That's when the government prevented movie companies from owning theaters and networks from owning programming. All of those laws have gone away. Now, TV networks own programming companies. Movie studios own TV networks. So the walls between content and distribution were torn down many years ago. It's not just NBC & Comcast. The means of distribution isn't a factor now that the administration removed the net neutrality rules. That was the government's mistake. Removing net neutrality put more power in the hands of AT&T and Comcast. If they were really concerned about consumer costs, they would do more in that area. That's how you control costs to consumers in a tangible way.