If you get your music news from the Internet-and if MTV makes you wanna (thank you, Beck) smoke crack, there aren't many other options-you may already have heard that members of Radiohead and Pulp are being sued along with Warner Brothers as part of a band naming rights dispute involving the upcoming film \Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.""
The story of the lawsuit: The Weird Sisters, a fictional band which appears in the Harry Potter novel ""Goblet of Fire"" and is currently intended to appear in the movie, has drawn the disapproval of the Canadian folk trio (and everyone knows how vicious those can get) The Wyrd Sisters. The band has filed a suit against the previously mentioned parties out of either a) righteous indignation or b) the logic that taking on the world's most beloved literary franchise and members of one of the world's greatest bands at the same time would be less of a public relations mess than sharing a name with some wizards in a movie.
An elaboration to satisfy the curiosities of fans of Radiohead, Pulp, Harry Potter and copyright law-the name, Wyrd (or 'Weird') Sisters was taken from Shakespeare's ""Macbeth,"" which took the name from the three fates of Norse mythology. For a reason that can only involve a hatred of spellcheck, someone at Warner Bros. decided to change from the ""Weird"" spelling used in the book to ""Wyrd"" for the film. Since the lawsuit was filed, they've decided to leave the band unnamed in the movie but the Canadian ""Wyrd Sisters"" are continuing with the suit, claiming that the damage has already been done.
No matter how the suit is resolved, this won't be the first time in recent years that naming rights have caused issues for a band, nor will it be the first time it's created a media buzz larger than the band itself might have been able to. Such was the case when the popular state and county fair act REO Speedwagon sued a little known punk/metal outfit going by the name REO Speedealer. Though this incident remains the sued band's biggest claim to fame, being forced to give up a name as great as REO Speedealer is a high price to pay.
Sometimes, due to a combination of the benevolence of the Wyrd Sisters (Norse ones this time) and the downright adorability of indie-pop, these kinds of disputes are resolved amicably. In August 2003, the electronic duo The Postal Service received a cease and desist order from The United States Postal Service demanding they abandon their name. Rather than yielding, the band met with government officials to negotiate an odd sort of cross-promotional compromise.
While some of the weirder provisions-like selling the group's album at Post Office locations-didn't pan out, the duo did get to keep their name in exchange for playing a private show for USPS executives.
In case you have dreams of storming the charts with LFO SpeedWeezer, keep in mind that not every band can count on being sued by such an easygoing bureaucracy. This past July, the popular Minneapolis-based act ""The Olympic Hopefuls"" was forced to switch to ""The Hopefuls"" by the U.S. Olympic Committee, who were apparently nonplussed by the idea of thousands of athletes from all over the world processing into a stadium in Beijing while singing the opening lines of ""Drain the Sea."" Fortunately, ""The Hopefuls"" were able to keep their matching track suits, but having to replace an entire stock of albums and merchandise can easily make copyright suits disastrously expensive for a group.
So whether you're a local band trying to get off the ground or an established national act, remember: I've copyrighted fire and all its derivative works. Royalty payments can be sent electronically to the e-mail address at the bottom.
Matt Hunziker is a sophomore majoring in political science and English. He can be reached at hunziker@wisc.edu.
