Warner Bros and a local company that took promotional photographs for the US horror movie Annabelle: Creation have apologized for using Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp’s (THSRC) facilities without permission, the corporation said yesterday.
The local company did not follow a request by Warner Bros that it obtain permission from THSRC before taking photographs at any THSRC facility, the operator said.
The firm subsequently allowed Warner Bros to post some of the photographs on Facebook on Aug.12.
Warner Bros took down the photographs after a request by THSRC on Aug. 15, the corporation said.
“Warner Bros and the company in charge of taking the promotional photographs apologized for the trouble caused by the incident. Warner Bros demanded that its contractor apologize to THSRC and promised to assist and coordinate with the the contractor with regard to any compensation required for the unauthorized use of images of the high-speed rail system,” THSRC added.
“We are again asking all media outlets that have photoshoot requests for the purpose of conducting interviews, covering stories, producing advertisements or filming TV dramas to file an application first. The permission to do so would only be granted after their applications are approved,” THSRC said in a statement, adding that media should respect high-speed rail passengers and its authority to review photography requests.
THSRC did not disclose the amount of compensation from Warner Bros and its contractor, saying that it was part of a settlement to keep the amount of the compensation confidential.
The settlement was reached after two-and-a-half months of negotiations, because Warner Bros initially insisted that only its contractor needed to apologize for the mistake, a source privy to the settlement said.
In separate news, the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) yesterday said that it would launch a trial program tomorrow offering 31 percent discount to university students traveling to Hualien on the Tzuchiang Express train departing from Shulin (樹林) at 6:40pm on Thursday and returning at 9pm on Monday.
The discount applies to university students whether local or foreign, the TRA said, adding that students must present their university IDs to buy the discounted tickets.
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