Wow, what a fire storm this has turned out to be! When WME filed suit against Level 1 on the 21st of September, I knew it was big, but I didn’t know just how much support Level 1 had in the industry.
After reading the message boards and some news stories, I wasn’t quite sure what was really happening, and it was clear most people were in the same boat. So on Monday, I decided it would be fun to spend my night reading a couple hundred pages of legal documents and hash out what, exactly, the lawsuit was about.
It was interesting what I found, most notably that Warren Miller himself was jumping head first into the suit, taking Level 1′s side with a strongly-worded filing. I was surprised to find that this had not yet been reported by any media outlets (that I could find).
So I put together this story, which is a brief overview all the information I could gather from the legal documents.
Then, with a little help from a friend, I was able to get a quote directly from the man himself, Warren Miller. This is what he said:
“Well Matt … I consider Josh my friend and I have been very impressed with his efforts as a film maker, and more so as a human being. He is a very nice young man, and I was honored to oblige his request to participate in Refresh. I have been invigorated by working with his group, whose passion for skiing matches my own.
WME made clear to me long ago that they did not want me involved in their films – so I’ve essentially cut all of my ties to them. I have a legal and moral right to freely use my name, voice, and likeness as I choose. By suing Josh, I feel that WME is challenging my rights as a person and public figure. I will not stand by and let a young, talented artist like Josh get shoved around by a group that, in my opinion, has no genuine regard for the fans.” — Warren Miller
I published that story here, and then social media burst into life with retweets and hundreds Facebook comments and “likes”. The story received as much traffic in the first hour as many of our stories do in their lifetime.
The most interesting thing about all of this to me is just how tight the freeskiing community is. I’m not sure WME had any idea of the magnitude of reaction it was about to face when it filed.
Ironically, WME claims in its suit that Level 1 “has and will” damage WME’s brand. Whatever damage may or may not have been caused by Level 1′s using of Warren Miller’s voice and name in its movie is now a distant problem, as the response from the community to the lawsuit is astronomically more destructive.
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