Fall Out Boy apologizes for ripping off Where The Wild Things Are book for tour

Fall Out Boy has apologized to author Maurice Sendak for using images based on his famous children’s book “Where the Wild Things Are” in visuals for their “Young Wild Things” tour. They have removed all the infringing images from their tour visuals, but their website is still up with the old Wild Things style. The header image features a photo of a room that looks like the enchanted boy’s room of the book, complete with the night sky and a tree.

As you may have seen in our most recent concerts, we’ve changed the staging and visuals. We were using Where The Wild Things Are and, unintentionally, infringed on the rights of Maurice Sendak, the author of this timeless classic. We have great respect and affection for his book and it was our intent only to pay homage to it, not to infringe any rights. FOB sincerely apologizes to Maurice Sendak for using images from Where The Wild Things Are in our concerts and elsewhere without authorization.

[From Fall Out Boy’s blog via Rolling Stone]

Ads for their tour show a kid in bed with a monster under it, tentacles reaching out. There are no octopus-like monsters in “Where the Wild Things Are,” they’re more like bear-like beasts with claws and horns, although some have scales. It looks like they were paying homage more than blatantly ripping off the book since the imagery is similar, but not close enough to be the same.

Rolling Stone notes that the visuals used on tour were potentially infringing on author Sendak’s rights, as they showed Fall Out Boy members as characters from the book:

Each night of the tour, fans saw graphics depicting Pete Wentz and Co. as characters from the book — Wentz as main character Max, and Patrick Stump, Andy Hurley and Joe Trohman as the imaginary creatures Max envisions within the story. The graphics were also used on T-shirts and other tour promo, some of which still appears on Fall Out Boy’s site.

[From Rolling Stone]

They might not get sued since they were quick to apologize, but they should have realized that it was illegal before they built their entire tour around the book. 79 year-old author Sendak might be particularly sensitive to copyright infringements because his brand is about to blow up thanks to the upcoming film version of Where The Wild Things Are. It’s directed by Spike Jonze and is due out in October, 2008. It looks cool as hell from the still that’s been released.

Thanks to I Watch Stuff for this image

Fallout Boy’s fifth album is due out in three to six months, according to MTV’s buzzworthy blog.

Oh and there’s a “Pete Wentz sex tape,” according to Perez, but it’s really just a segment from a short film called Goodnight Moon starring Pete. I think it’s pretty hot, I wouldn’t mind smacking that guy:

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