Forum - View topic

Oh COME ON! [April Fools Jokes]

You can do a better April Fool's joke than that DDR article! Even the DOA Volleyball nude code was more believable than that!

It's because I pre-empted them on the board and predicted that they'd do an article about Ghibli having to give back the Oscar due to a recount, so they couldn't do it.

You can do a better April Fool's joke than that DDR article! Even the DOA Volleyball nude code was more believable than that!

Greetings all. This is Joe, Otakon Con Chair.

I just received some disturbing information. A
fan who distributes AMVs
from his web server has been arrested and his web
page seized by the Federal
Government. I'm not posting his name or the web
page here out of respect
for his privacy (due process and all), but this
has serious implications.

Here's an exerpt from the message from the
Department of Justice that comes
up on his web page:

"---- was arrested at 5:16 PM, Monday March 31,
2003 and is scheduled to be
arraigned in the United States District Court in
Baltimore County, Maryland
on Tuesday, April 01, 2003. The Department of
Justice plans to charge Mr.
---- with conspiracy to violate federal copyright
laws by running ... a site
geared at illegally distributing 'Anime' in the
form of 'Music Videos'.
Many of the titles are licensed within the United
States, prohibiting the
distribution of these files. Additional charges
may be filed by the
affected companies. ---- and other
co-conspirators used ---- as the
exclusive outlet to distribute this pirated work
to individuals in the
illegal 'warez' and 'fansub' scenes. Much of
this work was taken directly
from DVD and downloaded by other such pirates.
As a result, American
businesses have found it harder to market these
titles legally to the United
States public, resulting in an estimated
$3,000,000 in losses from this site
alone. Due to the seizure of the domain, the
---- website is now the
property of the United States government.
Individuals involved in this
conduct face up to eight years in federal prison
and a fine of not more than
$700,000 for each count charged. Based on
evidence found at the scene of
Mr. ----'s arrest, expect other similar shutdowns
and arrests in the coming
weeks."
The thing which disturbs me most is that last
sentence about "similar
shutdowns and arrests in the coming weeks." I
view this as a serious threat
to AMVs in particular, and possibly anime fandom
as a whole. I hope I'm
overreacting, but I'm not sure.

Joseph Foering – [email protected]
President, Board of Directors, Otakorp, Inc.
Convention Chairman, Otakon 2003 – www.otakon.com

PS: Now that I think of it, this could all be a
big April Fool's prank. If
it is, I'm going to shoot the individual in
question.

Misinformation is the worst thing a site like this can do. I don't care if it is April 1st.

"I don't appriciate that a legitamate site such as this would stoop as low as april fool's jokes. I read the news here for a reason, to be informed. Misinformation is the worst thing a site like this can do. I don't care if it is April 1st."

Oh for crying out loud, grow a sense of humor. Yeesh.

Some people.

-Zac