Yikes! A Frank Ocean fan, who claims the singer “has had a massive amount of influence” on his life, has just been slapped with a cease and desist after getting busted for sharing a film he created of the headlining singer’s Coachella set on April 16, 2023.
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Frank Ocean Fan Slapped With Cease And Desist After Sharing Film Of Coachella Set
According to Variety, Brian Kinnes, a 26-year-old filmmaker who is based in Los Angeles, California, received a cease and desist from AEG, the entertainment company that owns Coachella Music and Arts Festival, plus Goldenvoice, the company that promotes Coachella.
The news publication noted that while Kinnes created the unofficial film of Ocean’s headlining set, he actually did not attend the music festival. Instead, he took 80 hours to download about 450 videos (uploaded to Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) from 300 other fans that caught Ocean’s set in-person. From those videos he downloaded, he ended up stitching together 150 of them to create his unofficial film.
It is reported that Kinnes’ film, which was uploaded to social media last Tuesday (April 25), shows the “Novacane” singer’s Coachella set in its entirety, which spans about one hour and 20 minutes.
Apparently, Kinnes’ reason to piece together the clips and make his own concert film was in response to YouTube announcing that they would not be airing Ocean’s set as part of their official Coachella live stream. The notice came just hours before the singer took to the stage, marking his first live performance in six years.
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The same day that Kinnes, who is a lead editor at Simone Films, uploaded his footage online, he was issued a cease and desist order from AEG. The company demanded he “remove and destroy all audio and video content […] of musical performances from the Festival.”
Variety claimed that in the letter they obtained, AEG wrote, “Anything short of full compliance with this demand will lead to the initiation of immediate formal legal action.”
Kinnes’ film has since been pulled off of YouTube after a report was filed by third-party copyright holder Rico Management. However, there was an external ink created on Kinnes’ website that sent people to Google Drive and Dropbox, where eager viewers could download the film and watch for free.
Since the cease and desist, all of these external links to the unofficial concert film have been removed from the internet.
Speaking prior to the cease and desist, Kinnes told Variety, “I’m not concerned with any legal repercussions because I do not plan on making a single penny from it. I will continue to upload it in places that [Ocean’s] legal team will not be able to find. I don’t know if I should tell that to a reporter… but it deserves to exist online. I just [combined] what’s already publicly available. Essentially, [AEG’s] claims are pretty frivolous and almost completely baseless.”
According to Variety, the cease and desist warned Kinnes, “You cannot use our logo, our artwork, our imagery, or any of our other intellectual property for your own commercial benefit.”
AEG noted,“The contents of your social media posts, use of our Festival name, use of our Festival content, and other circumstances clearly indicate that you are using the Intellectual Property with intent to trade on the Festival’s name and reputation.”
Elsewhere, it also reported that this ins’t the first time that Kinnes created a video compiling clips of Ocean. Back in 2017, he shared footage of Ocean’s set at the former festival FYF Fest.
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