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Monday, August 29, 2022
Texas Church To Pay Unspecified Damages For Altered ‘Hamilton’
Deadline: The Texas church that staged two performances of a highly altered and “Christianized” version of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical Hamilton has apologized for the unauthorized productions and will pay unspecified damages.
Door McAllen Church without obtaining rights illegally produced and altered Hamilton to serve their own message and story apart from the one Lin Manuel Mirianda intended. McAllen’s actions are wrong on so many levels. Producing shows without rights not only indirectly takes money and opportunities away from other local and community theaters by making free unauthorized theater which struggling companies are not allowed to do and end up spending hundreds on right but steals money out of the pockets of the people who created Hamilton from the technicians to the actors. Perhaps what is more important is McAllen stealing from the cast and crew of Hamilton is McAllen changing the integrity and message of the story. This is important because if someone had not heard of the original production of Hamilton and was just exposed to McAllen's production they would have a false sense of what Lin Manuel Miranda wrote.
I would love to know if this church has been producing unlicensed shows for a while and, if so, if they knew it was illegal. I found the apology to seem insincere in tone, but I wonder if that was implicit bias because I know I approached the article on the side of the creatives behind Hamilton. Although, I must admit I do want to know what biblical references they added out of pure curiosity.
I hope that this church does take this as a learning opportunity as they claim to, and not just use this as a way to become more sneaky in their methods to get around copyright. I also hope that other places will stop illegally producing shows because of the scale of this debacle. I hope that when sites do productions unlicenced, it is more of an "ignorance is bliss" unaware of the copyright issue rather than done with malicious intent. However, it bothers me that so many places and people seem to have never learned about copyright and how to respect artists.
I cackled when I first saw videos of this christian Hamilton circulating on the internet because, while very illegal, it reminded me of my catholic school past. I went to catholic school from kindergarten all the way to 8th grade and throughout that time I encountered many songs that were cut up and remixed to then worship Jesus. Many times, I wouldn’t find out the original version until years later. One of the ones that truly lives in my head is the Addams Family song as a prayer before you eat. I promise you I can’t recite 50% of the original lyrics but I’m ready if I ever have to say grace again. I understand that this specific situation regarding the Texas Christian version of Hamilton is very different due to the fact that they were performing these unauthorized edits to an audience and posting online. It’s clearly wrong and I’m surprised anyone thought they would be able to perform that with no consequences.
3 comments:
Door McAllen Church without obtaining rights illegally produced and altered Hamilton to serve their own message and story apart from the one Lin Manuel Mirianda intended. McAllen’s actions are wrong on so many levels. Producing shows without rights not only indirectly takes money and opportunities away from other local and community theaters by making free unauthorized theater which struggling companies are not allowed to do and end up spending hundreds on right but steals money out of the pockets of the people who created Hamilton from the technicians to the actors. Perhaps what is more important is McAllen stealing from the cast and crew of Hamilton is McAllen changing the integrity and message of the story. This is important because if someone had not heard of the original production of Hamilton and was just exposed to McAllen's production they would have a false sense of what Lin Manuel Miranda wrote.
-Theo Kronemer
I would love to know if this church has been producing unlicensed shows for a while and, if so, if they knew it was illegal. I found the apology to seem insincere in tone, but I wonder if that was implicit bias because I know I approached the article on the side of the creatives behind Hamilton. Although, I must admit I do want to know what biblical references they added out of pure curiosity.
I hope that this church does take this as a learning opportunity as they claim to, and not just use this as a way to become more sneaky in their methods to get around copyright. I also hope that other places will stop illegally producing shows because of the scale of this debacle. I hope that when sites do productions unlicenced, it is more of an "ignorance is bliss" unaware of the copyright issue rather than done with malicious intent. However, it bothers me that so many places and people seem to have never learned about copyright and how to respect artists.
-B Hanser
I cackled when I first saw videos of this christian Hamilton circulating on the internet because, while very illegal, it reminded me of my catholic school past. I went to catholic school from kindergarten all the way to 8th grade and throughout that time I encountered many songs that were cut up and remixed to then worship Jesus. Many times, I wouldn’t find out the original version until years later. One of the ones that truly lives in my head is the Addams Family song as a prayer before you eat. I promise you I can’t recite 50% of the original lyrics but I’m ready if I ever have to say grace again. I understand that this specific situation regarding the Texas Christian version of Hamilton is very different due to the fact that they were performing these unauthorized edits to an audience and posting online. It’s clearly wrong and I’m surprised anyone thought they would be able to perform that with no consequences.
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