This mascot will be licensed, not sold.

Designers of the Phillie Phanatic 'sculpture' have threatened to terminate their copyright transfer after 35 years, per a lawsuit filed by the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team.

Crucially, the Phanatic was not originally a "work for hire", but owned by its creators:

Initially we leased the Phanatic to the team for appearances and paid a royalty to them for the licensed products we did. The first year of licensing we did over two million dollars in sales in the Philly area. Eventually we had a number of successful programs with teams who wanted to be able to control of the characters and were able to enforce the copyrights so we sold the Phanatic and then others to the teams.

Many made light of the mascot's pending "free agency", with the Washingtonian promoting a move to D.C. But for teams in a similar situation, such disputes could mean serious payouts - at least for lawyers - and given the time periods involved, the issue might soon touch on works in furry fandom.

Philly Metro's "Inside Philly's first furries convention" offers a compelling summary of our fandom's latest (and quite successful) convention. But its title betrays a lack of research. While Drayne and his team are to be congratulated for bringing a new furry convention to the City of Brotherly Love, it is by no means the first… nor even the largest furry con held there.

The first honour belongs to Furtasticon, chaired in November 1994 by Trish Ny – which was also furry fandom's second convention, spun up in the space of a few months, allegedly after perceived anti-furry sentiment at Philcon. [Drayne was being born at the time, but was aware of prior events.]

Then there's Furstivus, which drew 238 – organized by SkippyFox and friends on short notice to replace 2012's New Year's Furry Ball. One must also consider the giant next door, Anthrocon.

The topic of anthropomorphic animals is coming to the Walking Fish Theatre next month, as it shows "Kiss Me Furry" – a Valentine edition of Revival Burlesque. [broadwayworld.com]

When the heir to the Yummy Pussy cat toy company fortune is kidnapped, her stepmother, Mrs. La Prix, hires a Private Jane to solve the mystery. One P.I. Martel and her boy Friday go undercover and infiltrate the secret nightclub, "The Fur Pile".

Explore the seedy underbelly of the world of ..."furries"?!?

The noir burlesque play – described as "like Hitchcock, but Grace Kelly is dead and there is more nudity" – was written by Max Guerin and is guest-directed by Madi Distefano (interview).

The show plays Friday 11th (8 & 10PM), Saturday 12th (8 & 10PM) and Monday 14th (8PM) at 2509 Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19125. Tickets are $15 online, or $18 at the door.