Fox Gives Band's MySpace URL To Fox TV Show

from the so-sorry,-Rupert-made-us-do-it dept

Wed, Nov 8th 2006 7:02pm — Mike Masnick

When there are disputes over who gets to own a domain name, they go to an independent panel to determine the outcome. A lot of the results are somewhat random (and not always that intelligent), but at least there's a process. When it comes to MySpace pages, it appears you're entirely at the whim of News Corp. and Fox. Take, for example, the case of an independent band from Louisiana called Bones. They (like so many other indie bands) had been using MySpace to help build up their fan-base, collecting over 2100 friends in about two years of using the service. And then, the other day with no warning, it appears that Fox simply took over the site and gave it to their own TV show, also named Bones. Of course, the good news is that there was a loud outcry from some of the band's fans, and MySpace eventually gave them back their page -- but just the fact that Fox/MySpace would even think it was a reasonable thing to do in the first place suggests they're not quite as in touch with the MySpace user base as they pretend to be.

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14 Comments

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Bob, 8 Nov 2006 @ 7:55pm

Shit happens.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Nov 2006 @ 7:56pm

of course they aren't in touch with the user
of course they aren't in touch with the user - they are like any other BUSINESS (especially hosting), they are in touch with profits. Is it really so shocking that a company that largely hosts a few million (at least) accounts for teenagers made an attempt to host something for an actual profit?

and on another note - isn't Fox part of whatever media corporation that now owns Myspace? so people never thought that the company would take a domain/directory on a site it owns and do something they want with it?

hell, maybe it's a publicity stunt - they figured if they only have 2100 "friends" over 2 years, not that many people visit the site. So, what better than to piss off 1 or 2 religiously devoted fans of the band so that they post to a major tech site, thus getting so many hits in 24 hours almost to the "slashdot effect"...

I'm not really trying to defend Myspace, Fox, and/or whatever corporation owns them both - but isn't this almost normal now for companies to try to pull this kind of stunt?

I could go on, and on, and on... but I'll stop now...
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Nov 2006 @ 8:00pm

Did anyone think that it may have been a simple mistake? A higher up decides it'll be good to advertise their new show with a blog and lackies down the road take care of it. They take care of it and it's done. No evil organization is needed, just typical big business incompetence.

I could also see miss communications between departments. It'd be easy for such an incident to happen in such a large corporation.

Of course what good would an article that actually involved some thought and fairness? That wouldn't sell now would it.

These blogs are like watching Fox 'shock' news.
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Kyros, 8 Nov 2006 @ 9:00pm

AS to post #2 - As owning a hosting company myself, not all are for profit; theres a good amount that are there to help people get somewhere and to make life easier for a few.

As to the actual thing - To an extent, it's expected. I mean, when you have alot of hits on a page and post your show on it, then you'll get alot of hits in the beginning. Sadly, they didn't care about kindness nor the common sense in doing that, and while I disagree with them completely - i have to go with post 2, This was kind of expected from a company like them.
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Myspace Sheeple, 8 Nov 2006 @ 9:51pm

Sad.. myspace is just yet another means for people to be target marketed. Too bad the sheeple there are mindless and can't see the bigger picture.

1 to 2 yrs.. myspace will be in the archives.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Nov 2006 @ 11:31pm

Re:
Bah. Someone had to take down the original site and post the new one. Somebody down the line knew and I'd bet they, more likely than not, said WTF and were told to do it anyway and not question. Big business isn't as incompetent as you would make it out to be - the reason they're big is because they're not stupid. They just don't give a shit.
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raggi, 9 Nov 2006 @ 4:55am

Clearly Out of Touch
The entire MySpace approach is out of touch in reality.

1. The userbase is too large to be in any way 'in touch'
2. The chosen technologies are weak, slow and VERY poorly presented.
3. The moral structure of the company has hat yet less thought devoted.
4. Myspace actually services as little more than a (very poor) free hosting service, and a simple (and again poorly implemented) friend / xfn style network.

You'd think they should be able to afford at least a decent design team to build a reasonable page presentation system. As it stands, a very significant proportion of the pages are unreadable on most monitors.
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Lonny Paul (profile), 9 Nov 2006 @ 6:00am

Re: Sheeple - Adversheep
The only advertisers that are getting any action are those offering FREE HP Notebooks and other "FREE" offers that kids complete 10 offers they really don't want, then cancel so they can get some gift.

Wow, that is great advertising!

The rest, does anyone really see?

The sheep are the advertisers who don't need a positive ROI on their campaign.
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Jeff, 9 Nov 2006 @ 6:45am

MySpace is the AOL of this decade. Remember how you used to see products advertised with their url AND their aol access? Now it seems that myspace has replaced the aol part
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james, 9 Nov 2006 @ 7:49am

stupid
Actually, big business is stupid, the biggest ones are just slightly less stupid then their competitor.

This was a truly ironic move because, if you recall, MySpace was started as a music site, for musicians to share their music. So who gets boned? The people using the service for what it was designed for.

Sorry for the pun.
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Charles Griswold, 9 Nov 2006 @ 9:48am

WTF?
What in the world would possess Fox to pull a bone-headed stunt like this? Did they really think that no-one would notice, or that people would not be pissed about it?

And another thing: Why the hell did they need a MySpace page for their crappy* show anyway? Don't they have enough web space to create a site for Bones on their own servers?

Are the show's ratings bad enough that they needed this kind of (ultimately negative) publicity stunt. If that's the case, why don't they just put the show out of its misery.

*Only a surmise; I've never actually seen it.
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Solo, 9 Nov 2006 @ 8:38pm

Question of expectations: "I use myspace service and yet, I pay nothing for it, therefore they owe me."

You get what you pay for.

If you're not happy, ask for your money back and take your business somewhere else.
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Andy is pissed, 19 Dec 2006 @ 1:18am

IT'S BULLSHIT!
cmon, im not really thinking anyone is really getting how screwed up this is.

News Corp is a bunch of selfish greedy republicans. Yea, I understand that we, using a free service, have no control over what happens, and should appreciate what we have. But does that just excuse large companies to go and step on everyone smaller than them?

I'm a photographer. I use myspace as a networking tool to help advertise my services, and you have no idea how much it has helped. And I dont have anywhere near 2000 friends yet.

America is controlled by corporations. And frankly, i'm sick of hearing everyone say myspace is a fad and will eventually drift off. Look at ebay, google. They just got bigger, better. And so far, that's all myspace has done.

It's going to grow, it's going to span out into more, it's becoming part of the american culture. It's rare anymore to find someone under 40 w/o a myspace.

And of course aol went downhill as far as popularity goes, what is it? a monthly pay internet service. What's the point anymore? I've got highspeed, firefox, and aim. why would I need to pay extra for aol. its obsolete.

myspace is free, fun, great way to network, and effing addicting.

The show is pretty good, i've seen it. But that's no excuse to just up and delete someone's profile for a stupid url name. I mean, i'm sure fox would be able to find a name besides bones for there url, and im sure they could advertise it easily enough.

but hey, check me out haha.

AndyW PHOTO
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MYSPACE SUCKS, 31 Jan 2009 @ 1:32pm

MYSPACE SUCKS!
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