To report or not to report — Page 3

You need to compare this to pirated DVDs for sale on he subway, or street corner, or in Asia, or even online movie downloads. Or even the RIAA hunting down college kids for illegally downloading music. Yes, we writers WANT our work to be seen, appreciated, LOVED, even. But an entire musical is a different story. Also, royalties don't only go to writers. The proceeds from these shows employ hundreds, if not THOUSANDS of theatre professionals. Do kids in Latin America have the right to steal their paychecks too?

Perhaps the moral of this story is the price of theatre. I'm more for making it all more affordable. More accessible. Yeah, you can never stop the pirating completely, but maybe if the shows, the music, the movies, were more available to those that want it this would be less of an issue.

Ok, back to my piles of work.

Miss you, BWW.
George.

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I wish I had time to travel the world and find illegal child productions of broadway shows to report. Must be a care-free life.

""let the people who hold the rights for the show find out about it."

Just out of curiosity, how is this supposed to take place without someone telling them about it?"

That falls under the heading of "not my problem"

If Stephen Schwartz personally calls you and asks, "Hey, how's it going? By the way, have you seen any illegal productions of Wicked lately?" Then you can feel free to tell him, otherwise, just forget about it.

Every school, church and theatre in Latin America performing these abominations should be burned with the entire cast, creative team, and audience inside. But not until after they have been sued for every penny they have or will ever make in their lifetimes. Thank God for tattletales and snitches to remind us what is really important in this world, which is not art, love or compassion, but money. When those less fortunate than ourselves wish to perform musicals, but don't have the rights, it is important to punish them, humiliate them , prosecute them and extinguish their existence. Especially the children. How else will they ever learn?

But if you're going to be a perpetual snitch, have the balls to do so openly. Your eagerness to persecute others, but desire to remain anonymous for fear of retribution is far more deplorable and disgusting than the illegal productions. It smacks of self-righteous cowardice. But at least someone appointed you to be Musical Theatre Production Commissioner of the World. Oh wait...nobody did? Huh.

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Updated On: 4/21/08 at 10:09 AM