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Discovery Threatens Fan Site It Also Promotes
An anonymous reader writes "It seems the lawyers and the marketing people at The Discovery Channel don't talk to each other much. The marketing people behind the show 'The Deadliest Catch' have been supporting a fan community called DeadliestCatchTV.com for a while now. They've regularly sent the site info, free clips, previews and information about the show. On top of that, they link to it from the official site, including it in a list of 'fan sites' as a part of the 'Discovery Network,' and even will frame the site with the show's own dashboard for those who click through. Discovery's lawyers, on the other hand, have threatened to sue the site out of existence and have demanded that the owner hand over the domain name — which he is going to do, because he doesn't have the money to fight this. While there may be a trademark issue (which could be easily resolved with a free license), the lawyers are also making the ridiculous argument that posting the videos Discovery sent him to post are copyright infringement. They're also claiming that embedding the official Discovery Channel YouTube videos (which have embedding turned on) is copyright infringement. This is exactly how you turn lots of fans into people who hate your entire channel."
Can't he just fill the site with porn and get the site blocked by most internet nanny software?
Relax folks, this is all just promotional groundwork for Discovery Channel's next big reality TV show, in which a few thousand lawyers will be released onto a remote, arctic island with no survival gear beyond an iPhone, some designer shoes, and a briefcase full of legal documents and moist towelettes.
The project has tentatively been titled "If you live, you get to sue our asses for putting you there."
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
I'd like to see a cast of nothing but attorneys go all "Lord of the Flies" on each other. Or maybe a lawyer could stand in for Buster on Mystbusters. Or Mike Rowe could make them clean up some kind of poo.
Duh.
What else do you do during Shark Week.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
ROFL. The dyslexic part of my brain took over for a second there and I read that as
The novelization of the Deadliest Crotch?
My office has been taken over by iPod people.
IMHO, they are all just acting crabby.
IMHO, they are all just acting crabby.
There's something fishy about your reply...hmm...
I love my trademarks
I love DMCA
I love to sue fans
I love to make them pay
I love the whole world
And its litigiousness
Boom-de-ah-da
Boom-de-ah-da
Boom-de-ah-da
Boom-de-ah-da!
The Bering Sea gets nasty weather - but you can't produce a full season of TV off that.
Maybe Discovery can't, but The Weather Channel could probably make a series about people who thrive in nasty weather. They could call it something like "Cantore Stories".
"It's like any other reality show, just on a boat."
Dear T-Pain,
You'd be a perfect addition to our show. We think the kids would just love it. Let us know what you think.
XOXO,
The Discovery Channel
P.S.
Are you friends with Xzibit? Because we've got a show about trucks that he could really revamp...
Try not to take me more seriously than I take myself.
Ah yes, those important parts of our history are shown brilliantly on the History Channel... like Top Shot, Axe Men, and Ice Road Truckers.
<spit>
What doesn't kill you only delays the inevitable
Your comment has no bering on the question.
Who let you out of your strait jacket?
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Yeah, but at least the "H" in "HGTV" stands for real estate. Not sure whether law enforcement could rightfully be seen as an Art, but when someone's getting tased, it's damned good Entertainment!
MSIE: The world's most standards-complaint web browser.
"I have a great idea!" exclaimed a Discovery Network top executive. "It's a new postmodern marketing strategy called whiplash marketing. It works like this: we make everyone like us and act cool and spend a lot of money appearing one way, and then we suddenly pull a 180 in a separate area of the company and inexplicably negate those expectations. In the process of realizing the essentially futile nature of pursuing one's interests in a humanly pointless effort to feel a sense of advancement, it will have the side effect of really getting the Discovery brand out there. Vote?"
"Aye."
"Aye."
"Aye."
"Aye."
but have you considered the following argument: shut up.