'Actor' Allegedly Threatening Carnival Cruise Lines For Filming Him & Not Paying Royalties
from the seriously? dept
This one is a bit lacking in detail, and the story seems to raise more questions than it answers, but assuming it's accurate, it's yet another example of the sort of bizarre legal situations that people are put through because of bizarre beliefs about who "owns" their likeness. This one was sent in by Ry Jones and it involves a small portion of an incredibly long and rambling blog post by Carnival Cruise's "senior cruise director," John Heald. You have to scroll about two-thirds of the way down to find the story of the cruise line allegedly being sued by a guy demanding royalties because a "welcome show" was filmed and shown on the ship. Here's how Heald describes the situation:Anyway, the facts are that I chose six volunteers to come on stage with me for the welcome aboard show. Amongst them was a fine young man who got into the whole spirit of the show and all was well. However the next morning he demanded to speak to me telling me that I must remove the show which had been recorded and was playing on the cabin televisions. The reasons behind his demands were that he was an actor and if I played the show I would owe him royalties.......lots of royalties. I respected his request and had the entertainment technical manager edit out his interview portion so there was no speaking although I kept the spoon game section in as it involved all six of the guests.Assuming this is accurate, Heald is right that Carnival's lawyers should have a field day with this guy, and he'll likely realize pretty quickly that he's got no legal leg whatsoever.
This made Mr Cloonpitt very unhappy and he demanded I remove the entire show which on the third day of the cruise I eventually did. He spent the rest of the cruise telling me I owed him money and that he would be contacting his agent which.......I guess he did. Now I have cleared all of the above with the Carnival lawyers and they have no problem with me telling you about this because amongst other things Mr Cloonpitt volunteered to do the show and there is a waiver thingy within the ticket policies. However, I now I have to write a formal report about this and that's got me mad as I wanted to spend the afternoon with Kye and Heidi. I had Googled the actors name and nothing came up on IMDB.com .............he hadn't even played a dead body on ER.
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Aniconism
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Aniconism
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Re: Aniconism
I believe the cruise director made up the name, so as not to name the actual person...
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Re: Re: Aniconism
Let's hope he now doesn't get sued for defamation by the combined enterprise of Messers Cloony and Pitt (or sent to "sleep with the fishes" in true 'Vegas style :-) )
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One born every minute
As for "Mr. Cloonpitt"'s claim, I guess there's a wider point here that asks "How can you later claim any kinds of rights over a picture of you when you knew there was a camera pointing at you, deliberately volunteered for it and you didn't try to enter into any kind of contract up front?".
Surely this kind of claim ought to at least be supported by a pro forma "Using any images of me will be taken as your acceptance of my standard contract for royalties related to.. blah blah blah" or some such legal nonsense sent beforehand to the cruise line? I seem to remember there was a guy a number of years ago used a technique like that to discourage cold calling salesmen, but I've no idea if even he got anywhere with it.
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Re: One born every minute
I wonder just how old is the "fine young man" to whom he is referring and where this person resides.
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whew
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And Mr. Cloonpitt's next lawsuit target...
I'm an actor too. Every time I go to get gas at the local 7-11 convenience store, there I am, up on the TV where everyone can see me. Where are my damn royalties? This is fair warning 7-11, pay up or I'll see you in court.
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Re: And Mr. Cloonpitt's next lawsuit target...
Either way, his demands were certainly not legit.
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Re: Re: And Mr. Cloonpitt's next lawsuit target...
Either way, his demands were certainly not legit.
I hope the judge in the case sees it that way. Because if he wins in court, I see the following new business method being patented by someone:1. Search around looking for places to "volunteer" to be in a video.
2. Wait for it to be shown, then pull out your SAG, AFTRA or Equity Card and demand royalties or you'll sue.
3. Profit.
Or the other "number three" outcome:3. Obscurity / Laughing Stock of the Internet
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Reverse
They apparently think they can bind you to some exclusive licensing contract just because you walked down a public street.
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