April 29, 1999...
Ok, this will most probably be one of my shortest ones ever, but I think something ought to be said about the marketing tactics of Fox, Paramount and Porsche.
If you've ventured to my Porsche page, then you know that it isn't up and probably won't be around for a while. This is due to the tactics that Porsche has recently taken toward sites that use it's "trademarked" logos, including the cars, crests, sunglasses, bicycles and everything else that Porsche (or Porsche Design) makes.
Paramount and Fox seem to have started this trend with their Anti-Star Trek sites (Paramount) and Anti-X-Files/Anti-Millenium web sites (Fox). Is it just me, or does it seem like the companies have lost sight of what fandom does?
These companies spend MILLIONS of dollars in advertising each year for their products, yet they seem to over look the obvious. The internet. Fans flock to the internet looking for information and if they can't find it on the OFFICIAL Home pages, they go to fan pages. Now these fan pages are not looking for money, or "charitable" contributions... they exist merely to promote their fandom. And a lot of them are real good sites. And... it's FREE ADVERTISING. It's money that a company didn't have to put out to have their show or product promoted on the web. Yet these companies are cracking down on these fans saying they are infringing on the company's "copyrights". I could understand if someone was selling bootlegs or MP3's of real bands stuff over the net, but over the STAR TREK LOGO? Give me a break.
The other things these companies don't seem to understand is that for every web site that gets shut down, hundreds of thousands hear about it. And most of those people are disgusted by the company's actions. So, not only are they wasting their legal department's budget, but they are forcing themselves to spend more in ADVERTISING to regain some viewers after shutting down a fan-based web site.
How truly sad... I bet George Orwell is laughing to the bank.... Maybe we should just merge all these companies' petty copyright legal departments and create the "Big Brother Ministry of Copyright Protection on the Internet"...
Warnie