(***DEFINITELY CHECK THIS OUT NOW**) Austin Live Theatre: Fan-Produced DS webseries beginning in January

[David]

I thought the acting improved tremendously with episode 3, with Liz & Willie being the best. Mrs. J in a fat suit was hilarious!
Loved the portrait effect.
I'm really digging this, so I hope the makers don't have trouble eith the Curtis estate.

[DarkLady]

I'm glad to know Mrs. J. is in a fat suit!

Jason seems to be settling into Collinwood quite nicely, thanks to dopey Roger. I wonder if we'll get to see a reiteration of Biker Buzz!

[loril54]

Went to website they have all been marked private. Interesting??

[Sara Monster]

Seems the series is no more. 

On the home page, it read:

'Unfortunately, we will no longer be producing Dark Shadows The Web Series. Representatives of The Dan Curtis Estate, while complimentary of our achievement, have asked that we pull our videos and we wish to be fully compliant with them. '

& the youtube videos have been removed.

Damnit, KNEW I should had saved them while they were still online!

[Gothick]

Well, it was fun while it lasted.  Yet another sign that the suits who work for DCP have ZERO sense of humor--did they actually see these little treats as a serious attempt at a remake?

It's kind of tragic that we'll never get to see the main guy play Barnabas since it all seems to have been his idea...

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

You know, I honestly wondered if this might happen - but I thought it would have happened soon after the first video was released and certainly by the second. When the third was allowed to come out, I thought perhaps they were going to look the other way - but I suppose it just might have been that they hadn't gotten wind of it yet. Oh, well. But regardless of what any of us may think, they were certainly well within their rights to put a stop to it...

[The Doctor and K9]

Maybe they could change the names of the characters and continue it that way. I know, the vampire can be Grenville Hawkes. Willie could become Jaime Summers, and they could call the series Hawke's Harbor...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

  

[DarkLady]

How very sad. I thought it was very creative and lots of fun!

[Gerard]

I just don't get the corporate mind.  Yes, of course, DCP is well within its legal rights to go after anyone and anything that it considers an "infringement" upon its material.  But, for crying out loud, get the stick out of the patoot.  These were fans that were creatively giving another tribute to the company and its work and wasn't making a penny of money from it.  This is something called free publicity.  It not only keeps current and long-time fans interested (and thus making them want to go out and buy more DCP products) but opens the market up to possible first-timers who will then check out the "real thing" and purchase DCP stuff and at no cost whatsoever to the business.  And whatever happened to "imitation is the highest form of flattery?"  Exactly what is in the heads of the DCP heads?  If you want to keep and gain customers, treat them right; if you want to lose them, treat them like criminals.  Does DCP have a full-time member on its staff that does nothing but google "Dark Shadows" all day long looking for stuff so it can go after them with threats?

Gerard

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I strongly suspect that someone saw this topic here or similar ones and/or articles on other Web sites and informed someone connected with the Curtis estate. That's all it takes (and someone tattling about YouTube videos that use footage from the MPI DVDs is also how MPI finds out and has them pulled). And unfortunately for the Austin group, that person had a very different opinion of the existence of the Web series than what a lot of us might have. It's not like we shouldn't have seen this possible reaction from the Curtis estate because we're not the first fandom to have a Web series/tribute pulled for infringement - and we surely won't be the last...

[David]

One of the reasons DS is so far below Star Trek in popularity is because DCP has a long history of crushing fan produced tributes that might otherwise have raised the show's profile.
A stupid, self destructive, policy if you ask me.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Though it's not just when it comes to DS. Very few intellectual property holders are willing to look the other way these days - especially when fans are posting their stuff on Web sites like YouTube that can potentially give it a great deal of exposure. I'm sure there are many different reasons for having fan tributes squashed, and we can't be certain what the Curtis estate's reasoning is. Though in other cases one reason that seems to come up frequently is the fact that, even though the fans may not be making money off of it, neither is the intellectual property holder. It's often the case that money and self-interest trumps everything else. And even though Gerard makes an interesting point that fan stuff can actually bring greater expose to the original and potentially generate revenue for it, that rarely seems to be a persuasive argument...

[Gerard]

I strongly suspect that someone saw this topic here or similar ones and/or articles on other Web sites and informed someone connected with the Curtis estate.

Zooo, zomeone here is zee mole, eh?  Now, who could it be?  Letz zee.  Hmmmmm.  You all look zo zuzpeezhoiuz.  Well, I think...oui...yez, zat's it!  It eez none other than..................da-da-da-DAAAAAAAA!

Gerard

[Lydia]

Perhaps if Dan Curtis Productions doesn't stamp out everything like this, then when something comes along that is truly objectionable (for whatever reason) then they will have lost their legal standing to complain.  Sort of like those public paths through estates in England that people take care to travel once a year to keep them public.

And now Gerard's absolutely certain that I'm the mole.