Marvel So Angry About Leaked ‘Ant-Man’ Dialogue That It Seeks To Unmask Google, Reddit Users
from the grilled-leaks dept
It won’t surprise any regular read here when I say that Marvel is notoriously aggressive on matters of intellectual property. Equally unsurprising will be my reminding our dear readers that this includes the company attempting to use IP laws in the past to un-ring the leak-bell when content has been leaked early. Hell, Marvel gets so frothy over this sort of thing that on no less than two separate occasions the company has DMCA’d to hell trailers for its own movies. Trailers that are advertisements and that it should want to be spread as far and wide as possible.
The company hates leaks, is the point, and so it’s not surprising that it wasn’t happy when dialogue for the forthcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania showed up in a Google doc, which was being discussed on Reddit. But now Marvel is asking Reddit and Google to unmask several individuals on those platforms as a result.
Marvel on Friday asked a federal court to issue Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) subpoenas to both Reddit and Google demanding the identities of people allegedly involved in the pre-release dialogue reveal, including Reddit moderators whom Marvel suspects of being behind the leak. The requests were filed in US District Court for the Northern District of California.
The Google document was deleted after Marvel owner Disney filed a copyright complaint to Google. The link to the Google document was also deleted from the Reddit thread. But Marvel still wants to find out who posted the Google Doc and who shared it to Reddit.
Okay, where to begin? Let’s start with the fact that, as Reddit pointed out in the Ars post, there was no infringing content hosted on Reddit as part of any of this. Instead, there was a Reddit thread with a discussion about the leaked dialogue and a link back to the Google doc that actually contained the leak. That’s it. And I frankly can’t imagine a single reason why any Reddit user should have their right to anonymous speech be infringed upon simply because Marvel doesn’t like what they were talking about. That really should be the end of it as far as Reddit is concerned.
As for Google, it’s worth noting that the company removed the linked content the same day the Reddit thread began, at Marvel’s request. It was handled quickly, in other words. It’s difficult to claim that the brevity with which the linked content was available makes it likely that the leak was fairly buttoned up, but I haven’t been able to find it by doing some quick Google searching.
But the larger point is that there ought to be a very high bar for unmasking anonymous speech. While culture and content is not without its importance, I’m having a hard time formulating an argument justifying the unmasking of a Google user over leaked dialogue of a superhero movie that was accessible for a period of time that is best measured in hours.
I get you’re pissed Marvel, but perhaps we’re going just a tad overboard, no?
Filed Under: dmca, dmca subpoenas, leaks, privacy, unmasking
Companies: disney, google, marvel, reddit
Comments on “Marvel So Angry About Leaked ‘Ant-Man’ Dialogue That It Seeks To Unmask Google, Reddit Users”
Typically in a Marvel story, the guys seeking to unmask somebody aren’t the good guys.
Re:
I submit that, during a pandemic, trying to unmask someone is itself an offense, regardless of “who”.
While the Google Doc – if it was a copy of a script, rather than an excerpt – would be infringing, there’s no way that commenting on the script could be infringing, even if select lines were quoted for reference.
As for the Google Doc file? The takedown notice for that might also be questionable. The leading reddit post described it as “based on a subtitle file in another language that was translated into English.” Not enough information, but if it was a fan’s re-translation, copyright is a lot less certain, even if Marvel’s script is an ancestor somewhere.
Re:
Copyright covers derivative works. The re-translation is a derivative work.
Even in the situation where the nature and purpose of the work aren’t infringing (which frankly isn’t evidenced here), Its transformativeness is low. Its an attempt to recreate the English dialog covered by copyright (implicating the right to deriviative works and the right to copy). The script itself isnt being transformed into a new purpose or medium. By your own admission, the doc isn’t where the critique or commentary was occuring, but in the seperate reddit discussion which never should have been taken down.
I’m not going to try to claim its a slam dunk against fair use, but I don’t see under the current jurisprudence a judge picking up the argument that a document containing the script of a film isn’t infringing because its a translation of the spanish dialog (which is also covered by copyright)
Oh FFS.
I bet the real reason they didn’t want people to know about the dialogue was because it was absolute shit.
As was the entire movie, from all reports.
Re:
If the title is any indication…
Maybe they’re upset because the last Ant-Man was so terrible that they don’t want us to know how bad the next one will be before we waste our money at the theater ¯_(ツ)_/¯
“I get you’re pissed Marvel, but perhaps we’re going just a tad overboard, no?”
I have a feeling that it’s not really about the leak. The Marvel production line is reaching the point of oversaturation, and the new Ant Man film has received a rather lukewarm reception, both critically and in terms of box office.
The way these things are being planned is that they’re already spending huge amounts of money on the next set of TV shows and movies, this being the first of the “phase five” movies, and a bad start here could indicate a lot of lost revenue.
So, they’re going to try and blame leaks instead of audience fatigue or that people who’s never read a word of the script beforehand just didn’t like the new movie all that much.
Re: Audience Fatigue
I definitely lost interest after End Game. That was a decent end to the build up they had made since Avengers 1. Since that though the shows and movies have gotten bland. The one exception was the spider man movies, they seemed to get better after End Game.
Re: Re:
Comic book writer Kurt Busiek once said:
I feel like that’s the direction the MCU has been heading in — too much emphasis on continuity and not enough emphasis on what makes the individual characters and stories interesting. I haven’t seen the latest Ant-Man movie, but from what I’ve heard it’s all setup for the Kang storyline and very little of the stuff that made the first two Ant-Man movies enjoyable. All frosting, no cake.
That’s not to say Marvel’s all bad. I liked She-Hulk a lot. It being different from all the other Marvel stuff was a big part of that.
Similarly, I think WandaVision was at its most engaging when it was playing with the format and fell on its face near the end when it turned into just another CG fight, and Multiverse of Madness was great when it was just Sam Raimi doing his thing and suffered when it became a game of spot-the-reference.
If Marvel had an actual leak suspect or two and asked if they had posted the doc, that would be one thing.
“Just give us everyone” is another instance of the trend that not only includes these corporations and vexatious litigants (perhaps i repeat myself), but also the cops with their reverse warrants and lack of particularity and third-party doctrine BS.
They’re asking for info that Reddit doesn’t have (e.g. real addresses).