Warner Bros have done a good job of showing how out of touch the Hollywood old guard still is when it comes to today’s fans. Last month they issued a cease and desist notice to a Harry Potter themed dinner party being run by the ever charismatic food blogger and underground restaurant spokesperson @msmarmitelover.

While her home restaurant is undoubtedly a fantastic success (it’s very tasty indeed, I can attest) and she has been featured in the press all year, the event remains a very small, living room based affair. Hardly a major case of copyright infringement, but the dinosaurs are not going to let individual facts get in the way of a good bit of blanket protectionism.

Meanwhile across London in Bethnal Green, the infinitely more savvy TV channel FX have embraced the fan themed party concept. They happily allow the promoters of club night Fangtasia to use their proprietary name from the series True Blood (it’s name of the bar). Their involvement even stretches to permitting the use of authentic signs/logos and donating prizes including branded bloodsucker lollipops and holy water!

Bringing brands alive for fans promotes the kind of long term engagement with characters that most TV/movie franchises can only dream of. We simply don’t live in an era where heavy-handed control of brands is the best way to protect your assets and copyrights anymore. With so many companies seemingly rushing to adopt social media practices across their online and offline activities, it’s amazing to see that some of the biggest media brands in the world are still stuck on their old model, fighting an uphill battle against the boundless creative input of their audience.

And so in this particular case, stories ridiculing the ancient corporate overseers at Warner v the supperclub host were a gift to the press and circulated widely, even making it onto Perez Hilton’s blog. What good is that kind of coverage to the Harry Potter brand?

Read MsMarmitelover’s account of the eventual evening on her blog. (Unbelievably enough, she has since received a letter from London Underground objecting to her use of their trademark in calling her dinner parties the Underground Restaurant! These companies really need to get with the disruptive times…)