If you want to know why I was dragged into this whole mess, this document will explain a lot of it. This legal filing for arbitration was served on me by Michael Mikel. To me, it was a complete surprise. In this document Michael names Larry as the perpetrator. Read the document.

Do you think Larry wishes he had Left No Trace?

News Flash: Larry, M2 & BRLLC settle dispute with Law.

My ex-buddies and their lawyers carefully scrutinized my complaint and, realizing the unassailable logic and legal correctness they notified my attorney that they’ll be dropping the “Burning” & will be calling the endeavor from now on:

“The Man™”

-kidding!

Marian Goodell, is the one person who joined the party after 1996 without whom the desert event simply would not have survived. I’m not joking when I say that her PR skills are excellent. I admire these skills greatly.

Marian Goodell, spokeswoman for Black Rock City LLC, of which Harvey and Mikel are partners, said the two have agreed to go to arbitration to sort out trademark ownership and are “disappointed and surprised” by Law’s legal action.

John Law:

Arbitration IS litigation. Complete with attorneys. It’s not a happy backslapping beer fest with your slightly PO’ed buddies. Trying to make this sound like my reaction is out of left field may be compelling messaging but it is not entirely the truth. Larry made a power grab for the symbols; M2 forced litigation claiming Larry & I had no rights to these symbols and I responded to being threatened by both of these actions.

Maid Marian:

Secondly, about the event. We’ve gotten questions from a number of participants asking “Is this the end of the event?” The answer is “No”. We are moving full steam ahead for Burning Man 2007, and we will be back in the Black Rock Desert this August — count on it.

John Law:

What I’m doing is the best possible thing for the event. None of this legal stuff should ever impede the actual financing (through ticket sales) and building of the event. Bringing the dealings of all parties involved, their intentions, motives and history into the light can only be good for the people who enjoy the event.

Maid Marian:

Finally, about the idea raised in the lawsuit of putting the Burning Man name and image in the public domain. While the concept is interesting, the reality is that we’ve been fighting attempts by corporations to exploit the Burning Man name almost since the first day we set foot on the playa. Making Burning Man freely available to individuals who would only use it to make money would go against everything all of us have worked for over the years. We will not let that happen.

John Law:

The first “corporate interest” in the event was Helco in 1996 (the seventh year on the playa - believe me NO business interest were taking us very seriously before that year at the earliest) and they attempted a leveraged buy out which, while not succeeding, sowed seeds of future board-room chicanery. Other “corporations interested” in the event while I was still Operations Manager were Port-O-San and the like, because we paid them well for their services.

Harvey did a power grab for no apparent reason. M2 named me in arbitration Why?? There was NO action by me that precipitated their surly moves. I made no request for cash, control or change. My litigation is a response to my business partners’ boneheaded moves and disregard for the community. Releasing the name to the public domain solves the disagreement and allows all the countless volunteers to continue the experiment and see if this really is a movement.

Maid Marian:

We’ve created a desert oasis free of corporate sponsorship and marketing, a place where interactions aren’t intermediated by commerce. More than that, we’ve created a global community of people who share values of radical self-reliance, self expression, and civic responsibility. Burning Man is more than a place or an event, it is an idea. That idea is worth protecting, preserving and defending, and that’s what we’ll continue to do while we work out this disagreement.

John Law:

Black Rock City LLC is a corporation. There is a marketplace on its website and commerce is occurring. The BRCLLC has set it up so that NO ONE except the BRCLLC can profit from the name created by countless volunteers. We are not talking Pabst Blue Ribbon here- a guy trying to sell his tent on Ebay mentions “perfect for Burningman” and gets a cease and desist. It is curious that the BRCLLC, with full knowledge of the Paper Man agreement, never offered to compensate one of the original BM partners (or Jerry James for that matter – look him up, he started the whole ball rolling so long ago.) Things that make you go “hmmm?”

Many advocates of the desert event (which IS a thing much bigger than a simple business) believe that the whole thing is a movement. They might be right, though for me, personally, the jury is still out. If it IS a movement anything Larry, M2 or I do (or any lawyers for that matter) cannot stop it.

Here is the great news kids. This law suit may just be the thing that can heal the Harvey/M2 relationship. … instead of heading for a divorce they just might start kissing each other with their mouths open again. I think we can all look forward to a unified front from the LH/M2 duo and a photo-op reconciliation as they try to slap my happy ass down. You’re welcome.

Stay tuned.

Three old white guys own the trademarks. They all hate each other’s guts.

For nine years these symbols of power, these keys to wealth and celebrity have been dormant in a magic box equally controlled by each of the three. A while back the “man in the hat” (Larry) for reasons that could be guessed by the other two, decided that he alone should control the magic talismans that were the symbols and the property of the People and had been held in an uneasy trust for so long. He made a bold move to smash the magic box and solely possess the grails with-in. This man enticed his lieutenants into supporting his bold move for sole power with flattery, threats and manipulation. These skills he learned very well from an ancient Italian Prince. If the “man in the hat” succeeded, the other man, the thin “Ranger” (M2) knew he would be cast out onto the edge of the desert, alone and unrewarded for his life’s allegiance to and paradoxically, his sly manipulation of the Kingdom and it’s people. The third old white guy, a naked, mud covered lunatic who had run off to another land was dragged back to the Kingdom. He is wielding a lightning bolt. (note: for legal purposes this is a METAPHOR!! not a literal threat –DUH! Anyone who was in the Black Rock with me a million years ago will get the joke.)

If the Kingdom is true, it will easily survive and thrive despite anything any of these silly men do.

Is Burning Man a Brand or a Movement? Time to decide, kiddies.

I was dragged into this situation by Michael Mikel’s demand for arbitration a while back. That was M2’s legal response to Larry’s refusal to pay the nominal licensing fee to continue to maintain these valuable brands in an entity that had successfully kept them from being exploited for nine years. I had no choice in the matter since I was legally bound to the other two. I decided to fight to keep anyone from having an exclusive right to capitalize on these brands and the IDEA of Burning Man at some future date. Some people might think that both these guys have the best of intentions. I for one have absolutely no reason to believe that.

Larry’s initial maneuverings and M2’s subsequent demand for Arbitration were specific attempts by each to wrest sole control of the trademarks from the other partners. Just read the documents.

Sure if it’s all Public Domain, I.G Farbin or Anaconda Copper could use BM imagery/concepts to sell their stuff – they wouldn’t, but they could. If it’s a real social movement with “legs” and a destiny greater than being simply an awesome tailgate party then those who really are part of it and support it will never mistake the event, and their involvement in it, with “Burning Man condoms” or “Burning Man antacid tablets.” Anyway any “burners” –{yikes!!} or any just plain old regular people that simply enjoy the event will not be forbidden from “being” Burning Man.

Tamera sent me this last night:

Well, considering I (an unemployed SF artist) had eBay auctions (my only source of income) taken down because I said some vintage clothes would be “great costumes for Burning Man” and was then read the riot act and threatened by eBay because Burning Man was a trademarked name, the likelihood of these capitalist assholes relinquishing that is about, um, none.

But yeah! Good luck. I recently left SF after seeing the city change in ways I really could not stand. What Burning Man is now symbolizes a lot of that for me.

None of this would be happening if Larry and M2 weren’t so intent on total control over the trademarks. If Larry, M2 and BRC LLC are concerned about Coke or MTV using the brands, then diluting their money value by placing them into the Public Domain will decrease the likelihood of corporate behemoths wanting or needing the BM image. Smaller appropriations of these concepts (Burning Chicks with Guns) can be laughed off by people who believe in the event and who support what they think it brings to the world.

Burning Man “as a concept” has been out there so long anyway that it is part of the culture. Much like the song “Happy Birthday” which is owned by some corporation that continues to license it, BM is both a cliché to many and a belief system to others.

As I’ve stated before, the only reason to keep ownership of these brands is to capitalize on them, now or at some future date. Larry and M2 are profiting and intending to continue profiting from the trademarks. This fact refutes the argument that some have made about protecting these marks from the commercial use of others by retaining control of them. By vying for sole control of the marks, Larry & Michael are preparing to do just that (capitalize on them.) I don’t trust them.

My involvement in the underground art and pranks scene in San Francisco goes back thirty years, pre-dates Burning Man and has been financed out of my (typically) very thin pockets. Everything I had went into the event and this fact is one of the two or three primary reasons that the event exists. Anyone not involved in the early beginnings of the desert festival certainly can have an opinion about my claims. If they base their opinion on the facts and they are fair, they’ll realize and agree with my argument for Public Domain. The only alternative is to acknowledge and maintain the three partners’ rights to share ownership and control of the marks and share in a fair market value for their use. If that happens, my guess is we three will remain pretty deadlocked. Anyone who was THERE knows damn well what I’m saying is true whether they would admit it now or not. If there is any confusion about my interest in only money – had I really only wanted money- a backroom deal would have been done complete with cigars and backslapping and you would not be reading this now.

Nuff said for now.

Open source/public domain.

Burning Man belongs to everyone.

Burning Man is the sum of the efforts of the tens of thousands of people who have contributed to making Burning Man what it is.

The name Burning Man and all attendant trademarks, logos and trade dress do not belong to Larry Harvey alone or to Black Rock City LLC.

If they don’t belong to anyone, they belong to the public domain. If they are in the public domain, the event can still go on and the trademarks, logos and trade dress can still be used. But the event organizers don’t own those things and each and every one of the event participants are free to use these things as they want without permission or interference from the event organizers. There’s nothing to stop the party from being as big and wild as ever.

Some of you know this history, some don’t.

In 1986, Jerry James cobbled together an 8 foot tall human figure and burned it on Baker Beach with Larry Harvey. They got the idea after they had attended Baker Beach Solstice bonfires & art soirees hosted by Mary Grauberger in the early 80’s. Jerry James looked me and the Cacophony Society up in 1988 and asked for our help and by 1990 we were integrally involved in the Baker Beach party.

The Baker Beach parties were beach bonfire parties with little planned “participation” other than attendees picking up a rope to help raise the figure before torching. I recall on the Solstice of 1990 (the last and by far biggest event at Baker Beach) that the entire music presentation consisted of one rock/jazz drum kit ably commanded by Dean Gustafson (god bless him!) Cacophony dubbed the events Burning Man in 1989.

The Cacophony Society was conversant in organizing strange and intense events in dangerous and unusual locations. Once involved, Cacophony influence encouraged and inspired the event to attain much greater and more ambitious goals. The original event organizing at the Black Rock was easily 90% Cacophony members or alumni. My involvement was crucial to the survival.

Kevin Evans and I were planning a Cacophony Society event in the Black Rock Desert for late summer 1990. Earlier in June of that year we all helped out with the Baker Beach party. The police came and would not allow us to burn the figure. A small hand full of us helped Jerry James deconstruct (literally – OK?) the figure of the man and stored it at a lot Jerry had secured.

Unbeknownst to me and most everyone else, Jerry and Larry were in the middle of a very rancorous falling out at the time. Jerry, one of the most honorable and fair people I’ve known over the years withdrew from organizing the event. Michael Mikel had joined Cacophony recently and the two of us developed a fast friendship becoming defacto event organizing partners.

Cacophony events were not for profit at all and the early BM was anything but for profit. M2 (or “Danger Ranger as he became known) and I stepped into the breach after Jerry’s departure and became, along with Larry, the primary organizers of the rapidly expanding event.

By 1994 the three of us formalized our partnership into a business and became legal owners of BM when it became clear that we needed to do things like pay taxes since we had started selling tickets in an effort to finance the ever more ambitious event.
It’s difficult now looking back on those days to realize just how broke we were. All monies taken in by the event were spent immediately on expenses, supplies, transportation, etc.

Although then as now many people contributed much to the event often with no concern for money, M2 & I were putting so much time into the event that we were broke and starving. We needed some assurance that if the event ever got in the black that we would become paid organizers – it would “become our job.” Larry agreed. Two years later on the heels of the disastrous (for the organizers) 96 BM I resigned from active involvement in the event.

A more detailed account of the preceding story can be found in Brian Dougherty’s history of BM: “This is Burning Man” Little Brown Publishers.

In early 97 Larry, M2 and I formed “Paper Man LLC” in order to own the name Burning Man. From that year til 2005, Black Rock City L.L.C., (this entity comprised of M2, Larry and four others became the managing entity for the BM festival) paid Paper Man LLC the minimum amount required (around $800 a year) to pay PMLLC’s annual filing fee. M2 was the managing partner of PMLLC & handled the paper work.

Larry chose not to meet his obligations and convinced Black Rock LLC to default on it’s obligations to PMLLC in 2006. At that point M2 and Larry found themselves at loggerheads and secured legal council to duke it out. M2 filed an arbitration demand naming me and Larry a couple of months back.

Burning Man, since it’s inception has depended upon the gratis efforts of many. Since my leaving active organizing of the event in 1996, it has become a huge business generating more than 8 million dollars a year. Some people are paid quite well for their efforts. If the organizing core of the event believes, as they say quite clearly in their literature that the BM concept is a true movement, and has an opportunity to really make a difference in peoples lives and ideas around community, the arts, etc., then they shouldn’t have a problem releasing the protected trademarks Burning Man, Black Rock City, etc to the public domain where ANYONE can then BE Burning Man. Doing this will not impede their ability to manage and organize the event, sell tickets, pay themselves, and any artists, vendors and tradesmen as they choose using ticket sales receipts.

The only thing that would change is that NO ONE would be able to capitalize on “Burning Man” by licensing the name or selling it or using it as an advertising pitch. There is no other reason to retain these legal ownership titles other than to capitalize on their brand value at some later date.

I was defrauded by Larry and Michael’s actions. I hope they choose to do the right thing and give Burning Man to the people.

If they prove unwilling to do that, then I must insist that Larry and Michael honor their contract with me and honor the intent and letter of the law of our earlier agreements.