Caffeinated Clint : Hello Again!

Update : Seems our host did the SHUTTING DOWN. ‘They tell me they received a couple of complaints about Moviehole linking to the Indiana Jones Story Details on another site (I only heard from them the once, and was sure I complied; I always do). As they were threatening to take it further if it didn’t go down, the ISP shut us down. So, in essence, Paramount didn’t directly take us offline – the ISP did it for them (he probably got scared, I’m guessing?) STILL…I just don’t understand what the big deal was? I was linking to a dead link? didn’t have anything on my page infringing anything…. weird. The WHOLE ISSUE of “not being allowed to link to anything on another site” still very much exists.

Long Story Short : I posted a story a couple of weeks ago about the “Indiana Jones” story spoilers that popped up online (which we first noticed at Dark Horizons, and probably gave credit to as well). I didn’t mention any of the spoilers, nor did I discuss anything in the ‘other site’s article, I simply LINKED to it – suggesting to those who don’t want the movie’s surprise spoilt for them to not look (I mentioned that I wasn’t going to look – and still haven’t – because I hadn’t waited 20 years to see the film just to see all the surprises taken away from me). It was such a non-story… and a very short one. It was simply “Click here or Don’t, I don’t care”.

OK, so maybe the site that ran the storyline details shouldn’t have, but that’s got NOTHING to do with us. We linked to it. That’s all. We didn’t publish ANYTHING from it.

Anyway, our host shut us down immediately. That happened yesterday morning. It took us a good day to get back online. Half of the day was spent trying to work out what the heck was going on… it wasn’t until we contacted the Host did we find out that the studio had threatened them with some sort of email.

Personally, I don’t think this is right. Just for linking to a story on another site your business is taken down? A day of revenue is lost, readers miss out, and for myself and co-webmaster Pete, as I said, it was a day of trying to work out what the heck has gone on (Could they not have dropped myself an email here at the site, or via the contact form, to simply ask him to remove the link?). (And I tell ya, it hurt not having access to my main email account for the day – missed out on heaps of important emails).

Interestingly enough, you’ll find that a lot of other film website’s on the net are still linking to those Indiana Jones story spoilers – and after talking to a couple of them, they’re don’t plan on removing them either; I say fair enough. They say they shouldn’t have to – they’re just linking to someone else’s site. “Paramount, I do believe, does not own my opinion. I haven’t used any of their copyrighted material. So No, I’m not going to remove them. Let’s them just try take us down”, one of them tells me. “And further more, aren’t we promoting the movie? There’s nothing negative about this at all. For all we’ve down for them on films like Iron Man, Star Trek and Transformers they treat us like shit. Things will quickly change, if this continues”.

All of the web guys are pissed about the treatment we’re receiving from some of the studios.

Film School Rejects nailed it on the head. In a recent article, they wrote “If Hollywood as a whole would like to really reach its audience in the future, they must realize that we are all here to help, not to hurt. That said, they must change their mental models around “blogs” and “online press” and realize that we are as important as any other outlet. We want to help, we really do, but it is increasingly difficult to do so when you keep pushing us away…”

Kelvin, from Latino Review wrote on his site, following the “Iron Man” incident, that Sumner Redstone’s crowd don’t realize we’re on “their side”.

“Hey Paramount! When will you guys realize that we in the online community are YOUR ALLIES!!! We want to get people talking about movies… YOUR stupid movies. Sometimes that will be good… sometimes it will be bad… but we will get them talking. We’re on your side! Just because you can’t manipulate and control us like you do with Print and TV media, doesn’t mean you should try to bully us into submission. It won’t work. Learn to work with us… and working WITH us doesn’t mean you’re in charge. DEAL WITH IT.”

The online media will never be as respected as the print or broadcast media (A Disney publicist recently tried to tell me that “The Internet will be dead in a couple of years. Magazine’s are still the way of the future”). By not forging good relationships with the film websites, they’re missing out big time though. We’re here to speak about your movies. That’s all.

Jon Favreau, director of the #1 hit movie “Iron Man”, tells Moviehole that the webbies are partly responsible for the success of the movie.

“That’s their doing”, says a thankful Favreau. “I owe them a great deal of gratitude. It’s great that they’ve been so vocal, because now more and more people are aware of the character – and the movie.

“I think it becomes a bit of a game of cat-and-mouse between the filmmakers and the online community, because you want to keep surprises, but you want to keep it fresh” and obviously, by websites constantly talking about your film, the film remains fresh. “There’s a whole rhythm of give-and-take that goes on between the filmmaking community and the Internet community. Some people get it, some don’t.”

“It’s a well known fact among webmasters that studios dislike the internet. Traditional media, newspapers and television, are given full access to just about everything, but anytime a website comes across something it’s considered an interloper”, Film.com recently wrote. “The suits that run the studios don’t seem to grasp that the internet’s reach is far superior to any local paper or even nationally televised programming. Thus, the internet is considered somewhat of a hassle to put up with, and cease and desist notices are the norm, not the exception.”

What will become of all this? I dunno. I’m too tired to think about it – it’s been a long couple of days – but hopefully there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. If humans and Cyclons can get along – well, some of ’em- why can’t the online media and the film studios?

Moviehole is snagging millions of hits at the moment, and its increasing by the day…. you really think you’re going to get more coverage and good word for treating us like the colour green in a Tim Burton movie?

Like it or not, the public – your film going public – listen to us. They listen to all of us. Aint it Cool, Dark Horizons, CHUD, IESB, Coming Soon, Latino Review, Cinema Blend, Bloody Disgusting; the list goes on..

TAKE IT UP WITH THE OFFENDING SITE, NOT THE SITE SIMPLY LINKING TO IT!