Barry Manilow is suing Princess Cruises. The lawsuit, filed back in March, alleges that the cruise line is airing unauthorized performances of Barry Manilow’s “Music and Passion Live“. The suit claims that Princess has repeatedly broadcasting the Manilow performance on the lido deck of its ships. The showings are alleged to be a key component of the cruise lines entertainment package for its customers, according to the complaint. The suit claims that the Manilow trademark is being used without proper authorization. The entity filing the suit also named Swank Motion Pictures as a defendant in the suit. Reportedly, Swank sold the rights to broadcast “Music and Passion Live” without the authority to Princess Cruises, and other entities. Barry Manilow is currently on his farewell concert tour, and the suit claims that the “unauthorized” rebroadcasts are hurting the performers ticket sales. Suits of this nature are very difficult to win, because the defendant has to prove that the airings actually took place in U.S. Territorial waters. If the ship is in international waters at the time it’s shown, it is considered out of the jurisdiction of the United States.
Princess Cruises released a statement in response to the suit: “Princess Cruises licensed the Barry Manilow concert recording of ‘Music and Passion’ from OnBoard Movies (a division of Swank Motion Pictures, Inc.) in December 2010. Stiletto Entertainment, the company that had been previously assigned the rights to the content, claims that we did not have the rights to broadcast the Manilow concert onboard our fleet of cruise ships. Any disputes regarding licensing rights and fees are properly between Stiletto Entertainment and OnBoard Movies/Swank Motion Pictures, Inc.”
Barry Manilow sues “The Love Boat”
Princess Cruises was famously portrayed in the 1970’s hit TV show “The Love Boat“. The show ran for 10 seasons, and featured many famous guest stars falling in love on the high seas. The Cruise line was originally founded in 1965 by Stanley McDonald. He began by chartering a single ship from another cruise line, Canadian Pacific Limited. The ship was named Princess Patricia, and offered Alaska cruises starting in the Spring, and ending in the Fall. With the boat sitting idle for the winter months, Mr. McDonald used the ship to offer cruises of the Mexican Riviera from Los Angeles. Unfortunately, the ship was not equipped for tropical cruising, as it did not have any air-conditioning. In November of 1967, Princess Patricia was replaced by the relatively new Princess Italia, which had been sub-chartered by Europe’s Costa Line. She began a whole new era of Mexico cruises for Princess starting on December 15, 1967. The ship later was used to begin Alaska cruises sailing from San Francisco in 1969. The Alaska cruises were canceled in 1973, and the Princess Italia was returned to Costa. The next charter ship to be leased from Costa was the Carla C. This ship was then dubbed Princess Carla by the cruise line, and it was on this ship that Jeraldine Saunders would begin writing the first chapters of her famous book The Love Boats. The rest is history!
Image from www.ssmaritime.com