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July 07, 2006
Here we go again: Paramount stabs fan blog
Just when you thought that movie studios finally understood how to embrace citizen marketer movie fans, it turns out some knuckleheads at Paramount do not.
Last week, the studio asked John Campea, co-author of The Movie Blog, to remove a photo he posted from the forthcoming movie "Transformers." He complied, only to find yesterday that Paramount had dispatched its attack dogs, a DMCA shiv firmly clenched between their broken, smoke-stained teeth, to take down John's entire site. (This free-speech/fair comment assault weapon is used quite frequently.) They didn't like another image on the site, but Paramount neglected to tell John about it.
The irony -- or lack of it -- is that John had been a major evangelist for "Transformers." It's clear from past postings that John's enthusiasm was infecting his readership.
Now John is pissed, his readers are pissed, and Digg'ers are pissed. Boycotts of the movie, Paramount DVDs and theme parks are being discussed. Probably won't be long before the word of mouth jetstream propels this story to new heights.
One commenter on John's blog nailed it: "You can't buy good word of mouth, but you certainly can stop it dead."
Update: John reports a Paramount executive called him to apologize. Good step. The exec said the company will "take steps to make sure something like this never happens again, to either The Movie Blog or any other film site." Better step. John declined to discuss details of the conversation. Oh... not-so-good step. That's unfortuante. Lots of ruckus was raised in a short of amount of time on John's behalf, and he would do well by the community to disclose details of the deletion "accident" (his words) so other companies and bloggers can understand how to approach future situations. (Thanks for the tip, Mack).
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Jackie, John has posted on his blog that Paramount has contacted him and explained the situation, and he is comfortable saying it was an 'accident' that his blog was shutdown briefly.
Paramount deserves criticism for letting this episode ever happen, and kudos for getting involved with their community and attempting to right a wrong.
Wow, that is sad.
Hi, this is John Campea of The Movie Blog.
Thanks for the article. I just wanted to point out that the reason I declined to share even more details of the conversation was because at this point, there is no need for further finger pointing.
When someone apologizes to me, and if I believe it... then that closes the matter.
Paramount made a huge error on this, and got a lot of bad press (deservedly so). But they have also taken steps to apologize and try to make amends. And thus, I closed the book on it and considered the issue closed.
People may still converse about the incident, what it means and could mean in the future... but I think some positive lessons were learned by Paramount, and others in this fiasco... and I think it's time to focus on those lessons... rather than more blame.
Cheers folks. Glad i found your site!
~John
John,
I'm glad the issue was resolved, but I'm beginning to wonder about your intentions. Your initial blog post was filled with plenty of evidence, but now you've shut the door on the evidence of resolution. The people who jumped into the conversation were reacting to the injustice of your situation, but a quick phone call from a Paramount exeuctive somehow leads to your site being taken down as an "accident?" Accidents are the result of unintended actions. Something intentional happened with your site, making the intended actions misguided, or a mistake. It's a disservice to your readers who rallied to your defense not to recount the details that you were quite willing to share at the outset.
A skeptic might wonder if there's something in the conversation that's being hidden. A pact? Secrecy leads to mistrust.
