How Warner Bros. Should Have Responded To Harry Potter Leak
from the seriously? dept
Not this again. With the news that the the first 36 minutes of the new Harry Potter movie have leaked online, Warner Bros. has gone the traditionally braindead, clueless path of demanding the heads of the leakers:"Last night a portion of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 was stolen and illegally posted on the internet," Warner Bros. said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. "This constitutes a serious breach of copyright violation and theft of Warner Bros. property. We are working actively to restrict and/or remove copies that may be available. Also, we are vigorously investigating this matter and will prosecute those involved to the full extent of the law."This is, of course, reminiscent to the leak of Wolverine last year -- except even more ridiculous on the part of Warner Bros. As we noted when Wolverine leaked, there were plenty of ways that the studio could have responded to this that didn't involve acting like overprotective children, but instead got fans excited. I came up with a "suggested" response at the time, and I'll do the same for Warner Bros here (no charge!):
Hey Harry Potter fans! We know how excited you all are for the next installment of the Harry Potter movie series this weekend. We're pretty excited too. Obviously someone here was so excited that they went and leaked the first 36 minutes of the film online. We didn't authorize this, and really wished it didn't happen, but it's out there. We're sure many of you will probably want to check it out, but we think that the full movie experience in the theater is really something quite special. If you really must watch the leaked clip, be forewarned: you're going to have to wait until the end of the week to find out what actually happens, and you're going to be dying in suspense, so we'd suggest you hang on and see the whole thing in the theater this Friday...Or something like that. Once again, can you imagine how much better fans would respond to that sort of thing than to the chest-thumping silly threats? Besides, this is only 36 minutes of the movie. A bunch of movie studios have already released the beginnings of various movies to try to get people interested. If I remember correctly, all the way back in 2000 or so, the movie Chicken Run released the first 30 minutes or so to get people to go to the theater and other films have done that as well. So I'm having a really hard time figuring out exactly how this could possibly be bad for Warner Bros.
Well, unless the first 36 minutes absolutely sucks... But if that's the case, it shouldn't be about running to the authorities, but to the folks who made the bad movie.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: harry potter, leak, movies
Companies: warner bros.
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Dawn of the Dead
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Dawn of the Dead 2004
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I dont believe any of it
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Agreement
A 'controversy' due to its theft though, that's advertising gold.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anyone else surprised....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Anyone else surprised....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Ummm no they should protect their IP from dirtbag thieves
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Ummm no they should protect their IP from dirtbag thieves
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Ummm no they should protect their IP from dirtbag thieves
It's an extended trailer that will get people excited and buying up all of the Harry Potter stuff they can get.
Even if you and the movie studios are not smart enough to know how to manipulate the fanbase, you really should learn how to take advantage of these situation's. Instead of killing off the fanbase that funds the industry.
Sheesh. Get a clue please!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Ummm no they should protect their IP from dirtbag thieves
Do you live in the US? Have you seen the unemployment rate?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Ummm no they should protect their IP from dirtbag thieves
Are you some sort of agent provacateur? 'Cause everything you said was so wrong, you're just making "your" side look bad.
Either way, I LOL'ed.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Ummm no they should protect their IP from dirtbag thieves
It certainly is. However, that doesn't make it infinite. It could in fact be very little in real terms if you bother to weigh in all the factors. Glad to see one of you people admitting that we can't really know, however.
As for "too cheap to buy a ticket or too lazy to get a job", you have such a ridiculously faulty premise it's not surprising that your industry's "solutions" to the problem as so harmful to themselves. At least, I assume you're paid by the industry - nobody's honestly this clueless, right?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Dirk Belligerent
Re: Anyone else surprised...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
I too hate Harry but jail? I say make them pay for and sit through the entire movie 5 times in a row instead.
I'm betting they beg to be forgiven before the 2nd showing is over.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
I cannot wait until the day that all of these movies are out and this craze is over and done with.
Thank you for agreeing with me on the word "rabid", even though you resent it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Sure normal trailers are all well and good, but I for one never watch them, having learned not to trust them to accurately say whether the movie is any good or not. Should I waste my money on a bad product/service, or should I be an informed consumer and find out as much as I can, before laying my money on the table?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Someone got ahold of it and leaked it, pure and simple. Even if it was the whole movie, it's not like it's going to affect the bottom line - it will still gross at least $500 million worldwide even if a bootleg DVD was dropped on the doorstep of every home in America.
The amount of money WB will lose because of this leak is far less than they will spend in legal costs fighting it.
THAT is usually the irony of these situations.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Unfortunately, as of 2008, pre-release of movies is now a federal crime. WB will not pay a dime in legal costs.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Harry
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Harry
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
You people know there is a theatrical version and DVD versions right?
All those bad jokes, cussing, gore, nudity and etc get in the DVD but not in the theaters.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
In a harry potter film ??????????
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Stupify!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Let's see:
So.... It must be good then, right?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Just saw it
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Seriously people, can we stop using the word "stolen" when referring to copyright infringement!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Harry
Bif Fan Here
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Why can't there be a security check at movie theaters (just like in airports) to prevent people from bringing the digital camcorders, search and confiscate them?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
He's the most useless & stupid (shit) character created.
Harry Potter is scum, dumb moron & arrogant asshole.(His brainless fans, actors & actresses, JK Rowling, etc are weak-minded, sore losers with low IQ)
All of his storybooks, movies, etc are all shit, all dump, garbage, & rubbish.
He must be removed from this face of this planet.
Harry Potter (forever) SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS & SUCKS!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]