THE 20th CENTURY FOX CAMPAIGN

News

Currently the biggest threat to internet fans are rumours suggesting that X-Men sites (both movie and comic-related) have been targeted by 20th Century Fox. As producers of the hugely succesful X-Men movie, Fox own the rights to the 38 year old concept, formerly belonging to Marvel Comics. Although we have received no formal confirmation of these rumours, the Bringers urge all X-Men webmasters to be vigilant and, as always, to inform us should they hear anything.

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Summary

For years, production company 20th Century Fox has taken legal action against non-profit fansites dedicated to their properties, particularly those featuring video clips, audio clips and transcripts. The trend began with Millenium and The X-Files sites, the first known victims, with The Simpsons and King of the Hill soon to follow. In response, fans initiated a letter writing campaign against the studio and Fox issued a statement claiming that all of the targeted sites had in some way violated copyright laws. This four year old statement (full of inaccuracies, inadequate and outdated) is still the only official response 20th Century Fox have issued.

In 1999, 20th Century Fox, makers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and spin-off show Angel: The Series, started taking legal action against these sites. In response, Solo84 founded "The Buffy Bringers", a group dedicated to halting Fox's inexplicable behaviour.

The internet Buffy community, like the X-Files community before it, was one of the largest factors in the show's international success. Ally McBeal fansites have also fallen victim to the company's overzealous approach to protecting it's properties. Webmasters as young as thirteen have received intimidating Cease and Desist letters (click here to see an example) demanding that changes are made to sites. In some cases, they have gone straight to the webspace provider and had the entire site deleted. Months of hard work have been wiped out in one move.

Methods of protest have been varied. Legions of fans have written to Fox and their lawyers, but it would seem that more success has been derived from writing to the media and making our plight public. In order to gain attention and show Fox what no publicity would be like, fandoms have staged "blackouts", whereby websites disappear for a specific amount of time and visitors are directed to protest sites.

Why Fox would want to take such action remains unknown. The internet community has provided free publicity for their shows and contributed largely to their success. Yet they continue to show no respect for the internet community by bullying and intimidating webmasters.

Click here to read Fox's statement on fansites.

Check out our articles section for more information.

Action

What you can do:

• Write a letter to the media and advertiser contacts on this list expressing your distate for Fox's actions.
• Write to Fox and ask them exactly what they think they're doing at: FOX Broadcasting Co., P.O. Box 900, Beverly Hills, CA 90213. Or e-mail them at askfox@foxinc.com
• Link to the Bringers by getting yourself a banner from our link to us section.
• Join our Newsletter list to keep up with what's happening.
• Wear a Bringers ribbon and hand out flyers publicising the cause.

Links

Last Exit to Springfield
Features a "Fox Update" schedule with details of Fox's war against Simpsons sites and what action the fan community took against it.

The X-Files/Millenium Protest
A site protesting against Fox's attack on the Millenium and X-Files communities.

Synapsis E-Zine's - No. 37
Another old X-Files protest site, with links to many others.

Just Say NO to Bullies
Buffy protest site featuring details of the conflict and a webmaster's personal opinion.

Fox vs. Graham Meade
A history of the "Buffied" font dispute.

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