Bikram copyright lawsuits are the gift that keep on giving. As we learned last week, the year-round Santa of Sweat, Bikram Choudhury, was more or less triumphant over defender and former Bikram consort Greg Gumucio who, according to the settlement, will no longer offer a somewhat copycat class of 26 poses in a heated room at his Yoga To The People studios come February 2013. Faced with being sued by Bikram threatened to be “incredibly expensive as well as mentally and emotionally exhaustive,” but Gumucio fought on mainly on the principle that a sequence can’t be copyrighted (which the U.S. Copyright Office actually confirmed themselves in June). But don’t call Gumucio a hero. Don’t call him a victim or a martyr. Just call him a smart guy getting the hell out of bedlam.
Gregory Gumucio
Joy to the world, the latest Bikram million dollar lawsuit is over. Or is that ding dong, the yoga copyright witch is dead? Well, not quite. But at least the most recent ugly brawl between Bikram Choudhury and former student turned successful yogapreneur himself, Greg Gumucio, with bi-coastal studio chain Yoga To The People has been settled.
The two were at odds over Bikram’s “copyrighted” sequence of 26 poses, which Gumucio’s studios generously borrowed along with the heated temps and for a much cheaper price at the growingly popular YTTP. So, naturally, Bikram launched a million dollar lawsuit against Gumucio in November 2011 claiming copyright infringement, which as we learned, is kind of bogus. More on that later.
Breaking news: incredibly wealthy antivirus software magnate and budding “observational” yogapreneur, John McAfee, wanted for his possible connection to the murder of his neighbor may have been captured by Belize police whom he thinks will kill him, CNN reports. Yep, it’s kind of a crazy story.
McAfee whose name is synonymous with virus swashbuckling (or more likely nightmares of trying to remove the ironically plague-like program) and recently for headlines like Girls, guns and yoga: John McAfee’s odd life in “pirate haven” has set up residence on a tropical island in Belize, a place still known for, yes, pirates and its “party, party, work, party” atmosphere, according to a local waitress. In short, his neighbor was murdered and he is wanted for questioning but is afraid the cops have it out for him.
In the Case of Bikram vs Yoga to the People, Copyrighting Yoga, Who Wins?
Bikram is pissed. And when Bikram is pissy, you can bet he’s suey! The beef between B-Don and Yoga to the People went public a few months ago with the closure of a Penn Station Bikram Yoga location and the subsequent slinging of blame in the direction of YTTP in public letter form. The story’s [...]
