AEG issued a cease-and-desist to a Los Angeles-based filmmaker after he created and shared a video of Frank Ocean’s entire Coachella headlining set.
Varietyreports that Brian Kinnes—who didn’t go to the music festival—sifted through hundreds of YouTube clips from fellow fans in order to create the film of the singer’s divisive 80-minute set. After uploading the video to YouTube, Coachella parent company AEG ordered it be taken down over copyright claims. Kinnes then started sending it directly to fans via Dropbox and Google Drive, which led to AEG’s cease-and-desist.
“I’m just combining what’s already publicly available,” Kinnes told the outlet. “Essentially, [AEG’s] claims are pretty frivolous and almost completely baseless.”
Kinnes also said he isn’t making any money from the film. “I’m not concerned with any legal repercussions because I do not plan on making a single penny from it,” Kinnes told Variety. “I will continue to upload it in places that [Ocean’s] legal team will not be able to find. I don’t know if I should tell that to a reporter… but it deserves to exist online.”
He spent 80 hours piecing the film together, saying he downloaded 450 videos from 300 people who went to Ocean’s show, using around 150 for the final video.
AEG’s cease-and-desist letter reads, “You cannot use our logo, our artwork, our imagery, or any of our other intellectual property for your own commercial benefit.” It continues, “The contents of your social media posts, use of our Festival name, use of our Festival content, and other circumstances clearly indicate that you are using the Intellectual Property with intent to trade on the Festival’s name and reputation.”
When AEG required him to delete any reference to Coachella on his website and social media accounts, Kinnes acquiesced, though he told the outlet that he was still certain that “the video is going to be online forever” since “hundreds of people were able to download it before everything got shut down, and those people are re-uploading it.”
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