Alabama University football coach responds to LeBron James copyright warning
The coach of the University of Alabama’s American football team has refused to back down from a copyright feud with basketball star LeBron James.
Last week, the football team released on Twitter a trailer for “ Shop Talk”, which features former players having a roundtable discussion in a barbershop setting.
Cleveland Cavaliers player James has previously released two instalments of “ The Shop” through his multimedia platform called Uninterrupted. “The Shop” features James with friends and celebrities getting haircuts and talking.
Earlier this week, ESPN reported that Uninterrupted had sent a letter to the Alabama university over alleged copyright and trademark infringement.
“Your continued exploitation of ‘Shop Talk’ infringes Uninterrupted’s copyright, trademark rights and other valuable IP rights in ‘The Shop’ and significantly damages Uninterrupted’s commercial prospects for ‘The Shop’,” the letter reportedly stated.
The letter invites a conversation with the Alabama team rather than “rushing into legal proceedings”.
But, in a video posted by ESPN, it seems that Alabama’s coach Nick Saban is not backing down.
“I think LeBron James is a great player,” Saban said. “There’s been at least 20 barbershop-type things I’ve seen. I didn’t even know he had one. I’m sorry anybody could be offended by something we were just trying to have fun with. I enjoyed it and we’re going to continue to do it.”
LeBron shot back in a video, saying: “I built ‘Uninterrupted’ for a reason and for us athletes to have a platform to be able to speak about whatever we want to talk about. I respect him as a coach, but I’ll be damned if I’ll allow someone to use our platform or try to do the same thing we’re doing and just think it’s OK.”
It comes after WIPR reported on Tuesday, April 3 that a copyright dispute involving a video game’s depiction of tattoos on National Basketball Association players, including James, is set to proceed, after a US court rejected the game maker’s request for judgment.
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