MTI files lawsuit against Theaterpalooza

I was looking at their facebook earlier when a friend shared the post about it but now looking back again, they have removed their page. Being that they seem to charge kids to be in their shows AND they charge for tickets, it not like they were not making some kind of money. It's not that hard to factor the rights into you budget. And 16 times? Sounds to me like they are being mismanaged by someone that either doesn't know that you actually have to PAY for show rights or didn't think it mattered because they were doing it for kids. Now, the kids suffer for it so good job to whoever in charge.

Article from Playbill, don't think it's been picked up here yet. Might be soon: http://www.playbill.com/article/music-theatre-international-files-legal-action-against-virginia-community-theatre

CATSNYrevival said: "This probably happens more often than anyone knows. And it’s usually the kids who suffer and are inderectly being “taught” that copyright laws don’t matter. I was involved with a youth theatre company that paid licensing fees but would lie about the number of performances, number of seats and cost of tickets in order to negotiate a lower fee."

 

Which is really sad (and yes, I'm sure it happens pretty frequently without being detected) especially since many places will work with you  so that it can become affordable.  I had a lovely experience dealing with Samuel French just last month (for a non-musical).

Eek. Found them on Yelp. Only 7 reviews but the bad ones are pretty bad and of their 2 positive reviews, the one is from someone that went to shows but did not have children involved and the other looks to be from an account created just to leave the one positive review to counterbalance all the bad: https://www.yelp.com/biz/theaterpalooza-leesburg

GeorgeandDot said: "Just stupid of them. They could've afforded the rights. I will say that the current funding of arts programs in some schools make it impossible for them to afford the rights to some shows. Does MTI offer a discount to poorly funded schools? If not, I don't blame some schools for not getting the rights. It's unfortunate, but it's true. The arts programs in most public schools really struggle."

"Does Pathmark or Key Food or Stop and Shop or Trader Joe's offer a discount off their regular prices to low income people? If not, I don't blame them for shoplifting. It's unfortunate but it's true."

You do understand that's basically what you're saying, right?

UncleCharlie said: "GeorgeandDot said: "Just stupid of them. They could've afforded the rights. I will say that the current funding of arts programs in some schools make it impossible for them to afford the rights to some shows. Does MTI offer a discount to poorly funded schools? If not, I don't blame some schools for not getting the rights. It's unfortunate, but it's true. The arts programs in most public schools really struggle."

"Does Pathmark or Key Food or Stop and Shop or Trader Joe's offer a discount off their regular prices to low income people? If not, I don't blame them for shoplifting. It's unfortunate but it's true."

You do understand that's basically what you're saying, right?"

I didn't say they should, but I understand why they do.  The rights are ridiculously expensive and are way out of the budget for most public schools.  Most find ways to make it work, but others can't.  I see why and how it happens.  I'm sure they don't take every Middle School in the middle of nowhere to court because they didn't pay the proper fee to perform Seussical.  Of course they should pay the rights and set that example, but I know a lot schools can't fit it into their budget.  This on the other hand was a company that was charging $200+ per actor and was charging for tickets on top of that.  They had more than enough money to pay for the rights.

By the way, have you never heard of food stamps?  Also, yeah.  I would think MTI would do something to help public schools in low income neighborhoods.

 

Updated On: 7/16/18 at 08:55 PM

I am surprised that JK Rowling and Warner Bros. are not suing as well.

"There are plenty of shows, mostly non-musicals, that are in the public domain that you can perform for free. There are also a number of licensing companies that license shows much more cheaply than the big licensing houses.  Are they adaptations of classic stories? Sure.  And a lot of them aren't great. But you do that until you can afford to put on one of the other shows.  Ma and Pa will go see little Johnny in whatever show he's in."

Thank you.  I loved that they thought they could just blatantly rip off MTI and they would not get sued?  Ridiculous.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/MTI-Files-Suit-Against-Continual-Infringer-Theaterpalooza-20180723

Oh. Wow. This lady. THIS. LADY.

I hunted down the article that she gave her statements to. Appears to be a local newspaper and also looks like it was done on the same day that news broke about the lawsuit: https://www.loudountimes.com/business/ashburn-based-theaterpalooza-sued-over-alleged-nonpayment-of-licensing-fees/article_40be3e34-89e3-11e8-b09a-0704ad593c82.html

An ADDITIONAL quote from her in the article that just.... honestly you gotta read it: "Ten of the shows we never produced, and some of the shows are our own versions.”

For real, what crazy town is this lady living in?! That's maybe even WORSE then not paying for the rights because if you are using the songs, ANY part of the script or plot that is even REMOTELY similar, or BILLING the show under the impression that it is the copyrighted version (EX. They were billing that they would be doing CURSED CHILD soon) then you are STILL BREAKING THE LAW cus now you are plagiarizing the work.

 

EDIT: Went to glance back at that Yelp listing and there is a new review from an Amanda Z. She apparently knows a former teacher from the group and dishes on a bunch of stuff she knows including that the teachers were told to re-write copyrighted works to perform them without paying rights.

Updated On: 7/24/18 at 05:13 AM