Looks like the organizers of Liberty's Movies in the Park outdoor film series didn't get the right permits -- and rather than get sued by movie-licensing companies, they're canceling the rest of the series until further notice. From a press release on the Zinc Plate Press blog:
Liberty, NY: The organizers of the Liberty’s “Movies in the Park” series regret to inform you that, effective immediately, they have to suspend the showing of free outdoor movies in Liberty’s LaPolt Park until further notice. This is due to unresolved licensing issues. Says Heinrich Strauch, the Liberty CDC’s Executive Director, “We thought we had the proper license in place to cover our activities but we’ve learned over the last couple od days that there appears to be a license monopoly in place for the outdoor showing of movies. In order to protect our individual organizations from potential legal action , we decided to suspend movie nights until we have the situation cleared up. We sincerely hope to get going again later this summer.”
The Liberty Indy puts a dollar figure on it:
Hopefully it is temporary. We've heard that it would cost around $4,000 to license the movies that were selected for this year. One solution could be sponsors for each movie... We'll keep our ears open and let you know about any further developments.
The movies they were going to show this summer included a lot of fairly recent blockbusters: the recent Alice in Wonderland, Pirates of the Caribbean, Batman Begins and Wall-E. Here's a thought: How about showing films that are now in the public domain? An outdoor popcornfest featuring space-turtle kaiju flick Gamera vs. Guiron: Totally awesome. And of course, being newspaper types, we're suckers for His Girl Friday.
