Last year's MuchMusic documentary 299 Queen Street West capitalized on the thick cloud of nostalgia that has permeated through popular culture seemingly more than ever over these past few pandemic years — but now the doc has been pulled from its scheduled premiere date on Crave, the Canadian Press reports.
Yesterday (January 29), representatives for Bell cited a "scheduling change" for their decision to quietly remove 299 QSW from its planned debut on the streaming service and TV channel last Friday (January 27). They did not offer any more details on its removal.
Back in October, director Sean Menard revealed that he had been contacted by Universal Music Canada with threats of a possible cease and desist being filed against the film. 299 Queen Street West features footage of about 80 artists, many being (or having been) signed to the label.
The documentary was created in collaboration with Bell Media, which owns Much and the majority of its tape archives. This, plus the fact that Menard claimed to have only used 10-to-15-second song clips, means the footage should constitute fair use in Canada, which has laws that allow for the limited use of copyrighted material without permission in some cases (like news reporting, review and criticism).
Universal, however, contested this — but said in a statement at the time that licensing negotiations were underway and no legal action was being pursued.