So Bill Fold contacted me, and told me they wanted to take over the name. He realized I was a huge fan of the festival, and told me to make them an offer. I said I'd get back to him.
So of course, I called my friend George, an intellectual property lawyer. George told me that there was really no precedent for this, and that it would cost them at least five figures to write up an initial complaint. Based on this information, I asked for what I thought was fair (30 g's, legal fees, and me plus three to all Goldenvoice events forever). This was about three months ago.
So today, I tried to log into my account, only to find it had been suspended. When I went to my old account at www.youtube.com/coachella it was all theirs. They'd successfully fucked me out of my account, all my videos are gone, and there's pretty much nothing I can do about it.
Well, almost nothing.
My new username on YouTube (until it's taken away from me) is "goldenvoicesucks" and I made sure I was the first person to post on their little account.
Fight the power, even if it's with a garden hose against a gaggle of flaming assholes.
5 comments:
Well when you responded back with an offer of me that's when they had you. You can not legally squat on domain for the purpose of selling it back to person that owns that name. You could have owned Coachella.
Interesting take, but it's not a domain name, and I never really wanted to get rid of it. I was actually using it, and it was an easy way to tell people to look me up that I met at the festival. I did talk to a friend who's an intellectual property lawyer, and he's the one who told me to go for it, saying that as far as he knew, there was no precedent for something like this.
Still, I'm pretty much over it. It was very hard at first, especially since that next year (2011) was, IMHO, the *worst* lineup of all time. It's weird going to my old YouTube channel and seeing their stuff there, but I'm happy with what they've done with it.
I still think it's unfair that I've been completely banned from YouTube, though. That's really the last thing I'm still pissed about.
I knew Bill Fold long a go and his "posse", just be lucky that's all he stole from you...
Right on, Guardian, I know that it's nearly impossible to rise to the top of anything, let alone an entertainment company, without totally fucking over enough people to fill up a NFL stadium.
I did recently get un-banned from YouTube, and this year's Coachella was one of the best ever, so I guess time heals all wounds.
Nah. Fuck that guy.
I am a part of folds POSSE. and YOU ARE VERY LUCKY I've not looked you up for disrespecting a friend of mine... CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR.
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