Wrath of Spielberg smites Welsh uni leaflet

Unauthorised use of image, lawyers thunder

By Lester Haines • Get more from this author

Posted in Bootnotes, 8th January 2009 16:18 GMT

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The "little-known" Lampeter campus of the University of Wales is certainly now familiar to Steven Spielberg's lawyers after they fired off a letter to the seat of learning accusing it of using the director's image without his permission.

The offending snap appeared as part of a "collation of pictures" of course students, the Independent explains, used on a flyer to punt the uni's Masters degree in creative writing and scriptwriting.

Cue swift cease-and-desist, and Lampeter quickly bowed to the Hollywood bigshot's will. A spokesman said: "It was included by error - we were just trying to represent the scriptwriting aspect of the course. Although of course as soon as we heard from Mr Spielberg's lawyers we destroyed all the leaflets and sent Mr Spielberg a personal letter of apology."

He concluded: "I have no idea how he found out about it, but all we can say is that we're very pleased to see our marketing techniques have such a far reach." ®

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