View new posts | View your posts Columbia Pictures Cracks Down on Ghost Riding

---

The Ghost Ride video by rapper Mistah-Fab has come under scrutiny from Ghostbusters copyright holder Columbia Pictures. Apparently they are not happy with the use of a car and logo that looks similar to their Ghostbusters trademarks. Along with the negative hype, the fad has been the cause of two deaths from fans trying to "Ghost Ride".

The Columbia Pictures Press Release states:
"Columbia Pictures, the studio who owns the rights to the Ghostbusters movie franchise, threatened legal action because the video showcases the "Ghostbuster's" car and logo, among other similarities. Columbia has demanded the video be pulled from all media outlets including television and the Internet."

The Ghost Ride It video can be found in this previous news post.

Serves him right for trying to get a meal ticket with associating the franchise with such a stupid fad.

And to his comments that it's about expression: Drawing is a form of expression, destroying your own painting or drawing doesn't put people at risk or skyrocket people's car insurance.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Serves him right! I think they should carry out the lawsuit anyway.

Finally a voice of reason, Sony is doing the "responsible" thing in pulling this off. I hope they succeed before anyone else gets killed emulating this stupid fad.

I hope this won't hurt Sean at all since he is the owner of the car. Don't know how that works.

As he didn't get paid for the use of his Ecto (the production only paid to ship the car back to him in Cali), hopefully he won't get penalized when all he did was trying to help someone out.

Take it from someone who knows the I.P. law a little better:
Sean should protect himself by ensuring that those who wish to purchase, rent, or use his Ecto will do so at their own risk, and not for profit. He should draft an agreement and have it signed.
While for the most part, you are right in arguing that Sean does not make a profit, and therefore, he is relieved of liability, there are certain circumstances where he may be held accountable.
When the other guys use his car in the video and gain a profit from it, both Sean and the other guys are liable for copyright infringment. It matters not that Sean was letting one borrow it, because nevertheless, his car is being used for a profit. The legal argument behind it is that "but for" Sean's production of the car, profit from its use does not occur.
My guess, in this situation, however, is that the rapper will indeed pull the car from the video and therefore, Sean will be relieved of any liability.
Also, as a side note, by having someone sign an agreement according to the terms I mentioned above, Sean may not be completely relieved of liability. While Columbia could still go after Sean, Sean would retain the right to seek damages in the amount of the judgement taken against him by Columbia (or more). In essence, he would be able to file suit against the signor of the agreement for breach of contract.

B.T.W. Hi guys, I'm a new supporting member to the site!!

Interesting... sound too complicated though...

I thought the videos are gone but the videos are still up on YouTube. At least one of them is. MTV still have it on their site if you knew what the link was before.

I haven't heard any further news on this matter. Maybe Sony changed their mind about taking legal action against the rapper.

Man, what a stupid concept that lead to too many needless deaths. I am thankful this fad was shortlived.

Here's the link : http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=hJDLRCXR2ZM

Yep, Still on YouTube.
Hello, Sony, hello?
Anybody home?

Guess not.

They should really sue him and force him to remove the video for copyright infringement!!

People are still gonna upload it to YouTube.

How can people conduct their lives like that?

Take a look at that video.... What a Joke!

Lawrence

i know this is old but...

"ghost riding" is a concept/action that was done in the streets WAY before mister fab did it in this video. The only reason fab even used the ecto1 was because of him using the instrumental keys of ghostbusters in his album single(song) If anything, to me, its a homage to ghostbusters for him to have did what he did. It shows how everybody loves ghostbusters, even cali bloods and crips : )

As for people mimicin it and crashing and dying ETC they are just retards... It is supposed to be done slow (no foot on the gas) and down a strip (straight street no turns) - and since when are you supposed to even do stuff that you see on tv and movies? ( notice also that almost everybody that is doing it and crashin/dying is looking like somesort of hick wigger too)

Now i am in no way condoning the action of ghost riding bcuz either way i think its retarted and this is coming from a dude who grew up in long beach cali crippin.

I just feel people should be easy on him - he was just trying to show ghostheads sum love.

Irregardless, he caused several thousands of dollars to a near perfect Ecto replica.

if I loaned someone my car for a music video and the guy stood on my bonnet like that doofus is, and got all of his idiot friends to hang off the roof and on the doors like those idiots are doing I certainly would not be happy!!

I hate the fact that younger generations idolize these clowns.

Lawrence

The upside of course, without having cleared it with Columbia it sent the whole thing crashing and burning, and sinking from sight a heck of a lot quicker... so whilst it was a 'carbunkle' on things, at least it was only a temporary one.

Fab deserves to get slapped with a lawsuit for the sole reason that he disrespected an Ecto replica. If there isn't a law protecting replicas of famous movie cars, there should be.

That doesn't really make any sense, because while they carry a high dollar value in most cases, the true value of "replicas of famous movie cars" is sentimental. It's ludicrous to believe that you could create a law protecting replica cars specifically, because there are alot of new model cars that would retail for more. Do they deserve a special protection law too? That's what insurance is for.