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Fox's Response To 'Vampires Suck' Leak Makes Even Less Sense Than Response To 'Wolverine Leak'
from the please-explain dept
Last year, when a workprint of the movie Wolverine leaked, we pointed out that the studio producing the film, 20th Century Fox, could have responded in a way that would have built up a lot more fans, by saying something along the lines of:
Still, that makes 20th Century Fox's response to the latest film leak even odder. TorrentFreak points out that the Twilight-spoof film Vampires Suck was leaked a few weeks ago -- and perhaps because of the publicity around the Wolverine leak, this time the company is trying to threaten everyone and issue takedowns quietly, instead of going public with their displeasure. But, of course, that hasn't stopped the movie from being available, and TorrentFreak notes over 100,000 downloads of the movie. However, by staying quiet publicly about the leak, it seems like Fox doesn't even get the beneficial publicity. This response seems to make even less sense than the response to Wolverine.
Hey Wolverine fans! We know that you're all looking forward to the release of the movie next month. We're excited too! By now you may have heard that an early totally unfinished version has been leaked online. It's missing a whole bunch of stuff -- including some amazing special effects -- and honestly, this version isn't a finished product at all. We think you'll get a much better overall experience by waiting for the full finished product, but we certainly understand that some of you just can't wait (trust us, we feel the same way!). If that's the case, please, feel free to check it out, but please remember that this isn't even close to the final version. If anything, think of this as a "behind-the-scenes" peek of just what a movie looks like before all the real "movie magic" gets put in there. If you do check it out, we hope you'll join us May 1st to check out the finalized version as well on the big screen the way we intended for you to see this awesome movie. It's just a month away!Instead, they went ballistic, and got the FBI involved and made a big stink about how awful this was. In the end, however, some studies suggested that the leak and all the attention around the leak actually resulted in helping the movie at the box office. The movie did much better at the box office than better reviewed movies that matched multiple characteristics, including having loyal fanbases. There was at least some evidence that perhaps all the publicity around the leak got more people interested in seeing the movie -- even if Fox did little to position themselves to take advantage of that -- as we suggested.
Still, that makes 20th Century Fox's response to the latest film leak even odder. TorrentFreak points out that the Twilight-spoof film Vampires Suck was leaked a few weeks ago -- and perhaps because of the publicity around the Wolverine leak, this time the company is trying to threaten everyone and issue takedowns quietly, instead of going public with their displeasure. But, of course, that hasn't stopped the movie from being available, and TorrentFreak notes over 100,000 downloads of the movie. However, by staying quiet publicly about the leak, it seems like Fox doesn't even get the beneficial publicity. This response seems to make even less sense than the response to Wolverine.
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Thanx Fox
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Because the movie's going to bomb, and they don't want to be seen as outwardly defending a movie they know will bomb.
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Re:
That's what I'm talking about. This one has stinkburger written all over it.
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Re:
For all we know it might have been an intentional leak meant to be used in this way.
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mistake?
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will they ever learn
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Pot and Kettle
They steal the ideas from a number of movies under the terms of "fair use" because their movie is a parity, then the turn around and act like they can bully everyone around.
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Re: Pot and Kettle
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Re: Pot and Kettle
- Spelling Nazi
PS so is he only "little mikee" when you disagree with him?
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Valve + Half life anyone?
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Re: Valve + Half life anyone?
Valve has also been a bit more lenient with the released content, e.g. not going after the Missing Information team for releasing some of the early maps (after the game officially came out).
Of course, I may have more sympathy because I'm pretty sure Half-Life 2 is better than Vampires Suck (or Wolverine, for that matter).
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WONDER how many missing children would have been fund if the fbi weren't bothered with this?
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My pal the cop
A friend that I went to college with in Indiana, is not a cop. For most of his law enforcement career, his job was to troll chat rooms, pretending to be an underage girl, so that the cops could bust pedophiles.
I once asked him about the FBI arresting file sharers, like the Wolverine guy, and if he had ever been asked to participate in that.
"I would never do anything like that," he said. "Fuck those RIAA guys."
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Re: My pal the cop
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Re: My pal the cop
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Since the release of trade secret information is at the very least a civil law violation, and in many jurisdictions also dealt with as theft and subject to criminal prosecution, I see no problem with Fox going after at least the tortfeasor, suing his/her sorry a**, firing and blacklisting him/her within the industry, and then filing a criminal complaint with local law enforcement officials (and perhaps even federal officials if federal law is implicated. Merely FYI, there is no federal law pertaining to the misappropriation of trade secret information except in very narrow instances not applicable here.
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Re:
Um. We were not talking about the legal rights. Of course they have the legal right to.
The point is that it's a stupid idea to do so.
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Re: Re:
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Re: Trade secrets
Obviously Congress disagrees with me (as of 2005's ART Act), but I don't understand how they justify this. It's also, um, "interesting" that this act only applies to movies and software, not music, books, paintings, etc...
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Vampires Suck
All in all, my friend emphatically declared that Vampires Suck, does indeed, suck.
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