The collaboration beer was put together to celebration International Women’s Day by Dead Crafty along with Lovelocks, Pretty Vacant and So Coco Rouge, all located nearby one another in the city centre. However, the problematic situation arose from the name of the beer, Savage (a glittery bakewell tart IPA), and probably the imagery, meant as a tip of the cap to Paul O’Grady’s much loved character due to encroachment on the characters Intellectual Property (IP – hold the A). The story made national media, via the likes of this article which was written pretty recently: [https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/paul-ogradys-legal-dispute-liverpool-26643417]; whilst we have to ignore some of the factual inaccuracies (naughty sub editors and journos), it’s evident that O’Grady was not best pleased judging by the quotes taken in the articles on the matter (should they, themselves actually be accurate). The result was a cancelled beer launch, a rebrand/rename (from Savage to Salvage) and a move to donate some of the beer’s profits to local animal charities. Though the aggressive legal rhetoric from the outset towards a handful of small and local independent businesses does seem heavy handed in the least. Whether this change of tack with the beer is enough to placate, remains another thing to be seen. When fully in the throes of churning out articles on a monthly basis for this blog, I was toying with imagery to give social media accounts and this site an recognisable avatar and often we choose things that we love for such things; I’ve used amended Bauhaus artwork on (personal) accounts and to this day, homage type imagery for my admittedly sessile Facebook page, with an altered image of Manic Miner. For those who grew up in the 1980s, Manic Miner was a bit of a cultural watershed in computer games, even more so for those of us who lived around Liverpool. The game and Miner Willy himself were creations of Matt Smith, a young programmer who effectively made the game in his bedroom in Birkenhead, probably unaware of the impact it would have on a generation of gamers. Given my use and amendment of the graphics on accounts (making it quite visible), I decided it would be an idea to contact Matt and seek blessing (or being asked to remove said imagery without receiving a nasty letter in legalese). These days, he is pretty reclusive and the only recourse I found to contact him was via an email address for Elite (a software company, again set up in the 1980s, which produced some incredible games for the Spectrum such as Commando, Paperboy, Bombjack, Ghosts and Goblins, 1942 and Space Harrier (under license from Capcom and other software houses)). I did eventually receive a kind reply from someone at the other end, informing me that Matt Smith was difficult to contact and probably wouldn’t mind – but they would attempt to let him know. Fast forward a decade and I am still none the wiser any feelings on the matter, but I’ve never received a letter in legalese but remain glad I did try to make contact. I’ve also been on the receiving end of content (or IP) that I have produced in my time writing and doing photography, being taken by other parties on more than one occasion. Photographs brazenly used in articles produced on other sites to promote businesses and charging companies (in Liverpool mainly) for the benefit of being on there. I suspect on the occasions that my photographs were taken there was probably an element of ignorance from the person putting the article together, along with a soupcon of thinking they’d not be found out and a small dose of that they don’t care.
This is but the tip of the iceberg for what is tantamount to intellectual property theft across many industries and many companies are probably of the opinion that it is better to ask for forgiveness as opposed to asking permission, which can tie things up with negotiations and additional costs. This is where time can be spent cynically releasing a product or article and it achieve a level of notoriety giving it further reach, when any kind of legal process kicks in and a swift retraction (sometimes) saves cost and face. Whilst some IP theft, copyright encroachment or use of material is done purely to drive sales (more on this later), there is an argument to be made for some businesses doing things out of a nostalgic admiration or love for something a brewer or owner grew up with. We can see the threads of this with many breweries across the world, with notable breweries producing beers with obscure pop culture references, nods to songs, nods to a whole swathe of 8 bit computer gaming and with a handful of UK brewers to wrestling. There has also been some internal churn with breweries accidentally converging on names which fit with the each of the breweries’ standard nomenclature, but one getting there slightly earlier and then issuing requests for cease and desist on the use of said name. Names like Mutiny on the Bounty, Black Ops and Yellowbelly have all fallen foul of such situations in the last decade. That situation just appears to be unfortunate happenstance. We reach the realms of creative things converging in terms of what people produce, some things creep into existence through a subconscious bias. There are countless examples of music that has been written arriving at the same melodic end point; see for example Manic Street Preacher’s ‘If You Tolerate This…’ with The Stranglers’ ‘Duchess’, Lana Del Rey’s ‘Get Free’ with Radiohead’s ‘Creep’ (which in itself can be said to borrow from The Hollies’ ‘The Air That I Breathe’) and Elastica’s ‘Connection’ with Wire’s ‘Three Girl Rhumba’. Beer and brewing are pretty creative industries; owing to recipe development, marketing approach and ever increasingly, strong artwork or imagery placed on small package containers and pumpclips. It is inevitable that there would be overlap and occasional congruence with products. Being completely sensible, it is probably best to err on the side of caution in most things and do some research or ask permission, even if an idea or homage comes from a place of genuine affection. Granted it is not always the case that the parody, riffing, amendment or homage comes from anywhere other than a ruse to ‘make a quick buck’. As we’ve seen on occasion, it can really take an unpleasant turn. That said, there are some businesses that have made encroachments, seemingly out of a will to get a rise from owners of an idea or IP, which is where things get very cynical. Any trouble following on, is probably deservedly invited onto an offending party.
But we still have to ask, is it ever okay to do something from a place of admiration, even love, to promote a product without consent from the owner of the IP? Pedro.
2 Comments
Dan Strobeck
4/11/2022 02:17:30 pm
Jesus Christ
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5/3/2023 12:41:03 am
Charlotte Douglas airport or pre-booking your hire car, it is worth taking a number of things into consideration. What time of year are you travelling? What types of distances do you intend to travel? How large is your party and how much luggage do you have? With weather, distance and party size in mind, you can make the best choice for your journey.
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