Wyrd Sisters take on Warner
p2p news / p2pnet:- Hi Wyrdos! say Canada`s Wyrd Sisters on their web site.
Things are…errr… interesting around here. Okay, maybe interesting is not the right word. Terrifying would be closer. It all started with a phone call recently from a warner bros lawyer.
The fellow said: ‘We’re making a big movie and putting together a band of famous musicians together called the wyrd sisters. We’re going to make a big splash, sound tracks the whole shebang! So… you don’t want our army of lawyers shutting down your girls’ band… sign this piece of paper and we’ll give you $5000′.”
Hmmmm.
Here’s the way it is.
We said no. It is our name. We own it. We’re not about to be threatened into giving up our name. And Warner Bros has no business making a movie with a band with our name in it without at least some simple courtesy.
All kinds of untrue things are circulating about our situation, but I am unfortunately unable to publicly discuss anything at this point. Suffice it to say that we didn’t go looking for Warner…they came looking for us.
But according to the Canadian Press, that’s not the end of it.
Wyrd is now suing Warner Bros, not to mention Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker, Radiohead’s Johnny Greenwood and Phil Selway, over a scene in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire “that allegedly depicts a band called The Wyrd Sisters playing on a stage,” says CP.
“The name of the band is threatened by Warner Brothers actions,” Wyrd Sisters lawyer Kimberly Townley-Smith is quoted as saying.
“If everybody knows Harry Potter’s Wyrd Sisters, we can’t go out and find new fans because people are going to see us and go, well who are you? Some people are going to think we’re ripping them off.”
Oh. So it’s all about preserving the Wyrd Sisters name?
Well, not entirely.
“Townley-Smith has filed a statement of claim seeking $40 million plus punitive damages from three divisions of the Warner Brothers empire,” says CP.
This is not, however, the first time the Wyrd Sisters’ name has been involved in a movie. But the last time it happened, no one got upset and in fact, no one appears to have even mentioned it.
In 1980 Britain’s Terry Pratchett wrote a book called theWyrd Sisters, featuring a world carried on four elephants standing on a huge turtle travelling in space. In 1996 it was made into a six-part animated video for Britain’s Channel 4 and you can pick up a copy up online for $12 US.
Canada’s Wyrd Sisters started out in 1990.
Stay tuned.
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UPDATE: Our original post kicked off with:
A weird kind of quasi-Canadian punch-up is brewing between a Canadian band and Edgar Bronfman Jr, scion of the Canadian family which made its fortune during the Prohibition era, and who now runs Warner Bros.
We say ‘quasi’ because Bronfman & Co now run the Warner. And Warner is, of course, one quarter – the American quarter – of the multi-national Big Four record label cartel.
It’s also one of the dominant Big Seven movie studios.
However, neither Warner Music Group nor Bronfman are connected to Warner Bros Pictures, and we’ve apologised for making that link.
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
October 5th, 2005 at 1:14 pm
The “Wyrd Sisters” first appeared in Shakspeare’s MacBeth.
Having worked in theatre for a number of years, my personal theory theory is that nobody actually LIKES Shakespeare and his plays are only performed now because there are no royalties to pay.
October 5th, 2005 at 1:26 pm
Good post.
I’ve noticed before that you frequently go the extra mile with your stories, digging up that little bit extra to make them uniquely p2pnet’s.
Keep it up.
Morg
October 5th, 2005 at 4:15 pm
It was a while ago that I read the Goblet of Fire, but isn’t the band The Weird Sisters?
October 5th, 2005 at 5:04 pm
Actually,the Wyrd Sisters first appeared in Norse mythology; the three goddesses of Fate … but in either case, they’ve been around for donkeys’ years… far longer than this folk act.
October 5th, 2005 at 5:06 pm
BTW… I am not really Anonymous Coward. My real name is James Birkbeck – and you’d better not think of using that name or I’ll sue you. Heh heh.
October 5th, 2005 at 10:02 pm
I am new to this controversy, and quite honestly, not a Harry Potter fan. I went onto the Wyrd Sisters website, and listened to a few of their tunes in the discography area, and they are really talented, with beautiful musicianship, vocals and harmonies. So, regardless of all of this nonsense, why not just give them a listen, and put all of this garbage aside. I am sure they would much rather be focussing on their music and careers in the positive, and not have this issue hanging over them like a black cloud.
October 5th, 2005 at 10:08 pm
Hi, me again, the one who just submitted the above titled message. I am not a computer nerd who understands all the ins and outs, such as logging onto this site to have my name attached to my above quotes. So, imagine my surprise when immed. after submitting my comments, appearing next to the SUBJECT line, in the “BY” field, it flashed Anonymous Coward for a minute before replacing it with Readers Write. That is really disgusting. So, print that. By the way, my name is Anne, and I have no problem giving my name. I guess not all sites are reputable or show class.
October 6th, 2005 at 12:13 am
heh, i’ve always thought that the anonymous coward thing was quite humerous because it’s only ever you who see’s it (AFAIK). A little good natured humour to encourage people to register for the site. I would sign in under my username but have forgotten my password and can’t get it back! Guess I’ll have to re-register…
Baggy
October 6th, 2005 at 1:20 am
‘Anonymous Coward’ is from back when p2pnet first started: slashdot has it and so do quite a few other sites. No offence intended, hence Reader’s Write.
Baggy, send me the email you registered under : )
Cheers!
October 8th, 2005 at 3:16 pm
According to Terry Pratchett’s fans’ bibliography at
http://www.i-m-t.demon.co.uk/afp/biblio1.txt
his “Wyrd Sisters” was first published in November 1988.
As far as I knew, Macbeth’s girls called themselves “weird sisters” (if they were talking about themselves), but that’s long before spelling was properly invented anyway. And the Norns weren’t even English-speaking.
October 8th, 2005 at 3:34 pm
Robert Carnegie, rja.carnegie@excite.com, in Scotland, but I avoid registering for things if possible. I have enough passwords to forget as it is.
October 26th, 2005 at 11:31 am
I’m not anonymous. I’m Vian. But I, too, have too many passwords as it is.
I sympathise with the band. If I woke up one fine morning to a bunch of bull-in-a-china-shop lawyers trying to intimidate me, I’d be inclined to be intransigent. In fact, I’d very likely tell them where to go, and what to do once they got there, in detail not fit for a public board. Especially if I owned a business name/Trademark/legal entity that they were trying to monster me out of. (Wonder if they are monstering Terry Pratchett, or whether he isn’t a threat because his _Wyrd Sisters_ isn’t a band?)
Yes, the Norns/Nixes, wierd sisters, wyrd, Shakespeare and whatall are in the public domain. But if the group has registered it as a business name (not to mention a band name), they are entitled to defend their ownership of it. WB might have got better results if they had taken a different approach. They could have, for example, asked for permission or tried to negotiate instead of sending clod-hopping lawyers in. Trying to portray them as cashing in is disingenuous at best, and a smear tactic at worst.
October 27th, 2005 at 12:25 am
Man, talk about your desperate move to try and get free publicity. Wyrd Sisters on the move to the US scene riding the backs of Warner Bros. soon to be released film, “Harry Potter: Goblet of Fire”. Be weary fans as there is a “Wyrd” attempt by the sisters of Canada. Now that we all know who the “Wyrd Sisters” are we can move on and ignore them even more as they disappoint more than their share of folk music fans in the US, well, if they had any at all. Some one get the stage hook and pull them away from the center stage, if you got your tomatos toss’em hard.
October 27th, 2005 at 5:48 am
NO one was bullying anyone. Weird is a word. We use it everyday. How can you own the word “weird” Thats like trump owning the phrase “your fired”. Just becasue you spell is wyrd…I mean is that their last name…I mean I never heard of these people. Seems to me, to ask permission to use my name in a Potter film..not TAKE the name (I mean HELLO) would be like..an honor.
October 27th, 2005 at 5:50 am
be careful they may try to sue you for useing “Wyrd” in your sentance. I mean it’s that lame.
I have a tomato. Tossin it!
October 27th, 2005 at 5:56 am
Because I AM a Potter fan…Hello. I don’t want to go listen to their TUNES! okay…..
I don’t care if they are talented…they are sueing over a dumb name. Maybe it’s just me, but thats the most retarted thing I have ever heard. I have 0 respect for these women. People are always sueing..You could not come to an agreement civily. Nope..They wanted $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ and you all know it. $40 milllion dollars for a small scene that they say (Rowe) are NOT in at all.
(shaking me head)
October 27th, 2005 at 6:00 am
call me a cowrad..It’s late here, I am tired and have the flu. Saw Harry Potter was being hum, you know and well wanted my say and didn’t have time to register on a site I will never return.
Could care less. (Shrugg)
HI ANN!
October 28th, 2005 at 12:55 am
You can own the word as a business name. That’s the whole point of registering. It allows people to associate your product with you. Take Mercedes, for example. It’s a girl’s name, and no-one owns it. But if I start manufacturing cars and calling them Mercedes, I’m breaking the law. It’s a form of theft to take someone else’s business name. You know, stealing? And even if I were a multinational, and Mercedes were a small family-owned car maker, it’d still be stealing, and the originals would be quite within their rights to sue. There is already a band called Wyrd Sisters. Forming another band and calling them Wyrd Sisters Is. Not. Legal.
The lawyers were bullying, actually. They came in with a fait-accompli: we’re representing a terribly big important company, and you peons better take what you’re given or we’ll bury you. That’s not asking permission, that’s a hamfisted attempt at intimidation. And no means no. You have rather an idiosyncratic notion of honour – “Oh, gosh, you’re prepared to threaten me into giving up what I legally own (and have put a lot of blood, sweat and toil into for years) with no attmpt at civilised behaviour? Jeepers!”
It’s an honour to have lawyers set upon you? As you say, I mean, HELLO?