Why Does Lego Get To Stop Spinal Tap From Using Lego Video?
We recently wrote about the ridiculous job for lawyers making sure no unauthorized brands appear in a movie — which doesn’t have much of a legal basis. But, for some reason, companies back down on that sort of stuff all the time. The latest example involves the classic mockumentary band Spinal Tap, who is putting out a new DVD, where they thought (correctly) that it would be cool to include a fan-made video of one of their “hits,” “Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight.” The video was made by a then 14-year-old and was a stop-action video involving a lego version of the band and its fans: Now, from Spinal Tap’s point of view, this is a very cool way of connecting with fans: making use of a cool video in their DVD. In fact, they even played it up, and during a live performance where the video was shown, got real-life fans to mimic the lego fans, by holding their hands in the infamous “C” position of the plastic lego figures. But, of course, the lawyers got in the way. Lego objected to som
