I can't see many details online but Joel Veitch and his band Seven Seconds of Love have won in their battle against Coca Cola. The tooth rotting bewitchers (and I mean that in the best possible way - though I do prefer Pepsi) have settled out of court with an undisclosed yet hopefully very healthy payment. Cardboard cutout cats everywhere must be jumping for joy.
B3ta have a teasing snippet on the whole Joel Veitch vs. Coca Cola front. They say:
JOEL / COKE COPYRIGHT THING - There's been some pretty f***-off major developments behind the scenes on this. We're sworn to secrecy until the lawyers sort it all out, but we hope to bring you some good news soon.
Rather Good mastermind Joel Veitch appears poised to tussle with Coca Cola - because they are running an ad in Argentina that blatantly plagiarises his music and video. And I mean BLATANTLY - not just the lower case-blatant plagiarism Veitch suffers on a daily basis. The original work was his video for Ninja, a track by his own band, Seven Seconds of Love.
I know somebody who went to art school with Veitch, but I don't think they're still in touch - so no inside scoops there.
According to the BBC, the musician-animator isn't sure if he can afford to sue Coca Cola, or the agency responsible for the ad. According to Veithc, any court case runs the risk of some cruel tactics, who also noted, "Spending many thousands of pounds on a lawyer on the other side of the world to fight a case in a different language, while we're all trying to hold down our day jobs and pay a mortgage, sounds a bit difficult really. But if we could do it on a no-win, no-fee basis in England, we'd be laughing."
Thankfully, I couldn't find the ad in question on Coke's Argentinian site, just some other spots that could just about pass of their bursts of plagiarism "homages". To see the criminal clip, the excerpts on Rob Manuel's report are your best option.
