If you were one of the many people disappointed because you couldn’t watch Frank Ocean’s first headlining set in over six years, well, sorry to say but it’s not going to get any easier. Editor Brian Kinnes took fan footage of Ocean’s set during Coachella Weekend 1 and spliced it together to create a complete look of his concert, similar to Beastie Boys’s Awesome; I Fuckin’ Shot That! concert film. However, according to Variety, Kinnes received a cease and desist from Coachella’s parent company AEG for uploading a version of Frank Ocean’s Coachella performance using fan footage found online. He published the film online on Tuesday, April 25, and allegedly received a cease and desist the same day. Kinnes estimated he used about 150 videos found online from the show in order to create his concert film. He made it available online to stream and download and claims “hundreds of people” saved the concert to their computer before it was removed from the site.
According to AEG’s ticketing policy, concertgoers cannot upload footage from Coachella without the artist’s permission; however, as seen by how easily accessible the footage was, it is rarely enforced for short videos. However, because Kinnes complied as much footage as he could, it got the attention of AEG. The fact that Kinnes didn’t attend the festival and therefore didn’t agree to the policy, AEG instead warned Kinnes that he “cannot use our logo, our artwork, our imagery, or any of our other intellectual property for your own commercial benefit.” While Kinnes claims he made the film as a passion project and not for profit, he tells Variety he still consulted with legal representation on the matter. Vulture has reached out to Coachella and Frank Ocean’s reps for comment.
