Splinters

Grumpy Old Bookman posts a disturbing story about Universal Studios trying to shut down Everyone Who's Anyone, a site which lists the contact details for hundreds of literary agents and film agents, all info which is freely available on the Net but which has been handily collated by the site's author, Gerard Jones, in the process of trying to get his own novel published.

Universal is now threatening EWA's web hosting service, Dotster, with legal action if they don't shut down the site. Universal claims that the contact information provided on EWA is "private" and they're being "spammed" by aspiring writers' letters of enquiry...despite the fact that the email addresses have been originally sourced in the public domain and it's those people's jobs to deal with writers. Basically, Universal are sick of hearing from people with unsolicited film pitches. If they're so incompetent they can't organise their email for an intern to weed out the whackos from the good stuff, that's their call. The monumentally arrogant act of threatening legal action over such a trivial issue - and depriving the Web of a vital resource for writers trying to get their work noticed by the right people - is breathtaking. Clearly the people at Universal haven't got enough to do if they're able to waste time and money on such trivialities in such a censorious manner.

Needless to say, it's a total outrage and Universal should be told to take their legal action and shove it. More importantly, EWA needs to stay up and running. I wish I could threaten legal action against Universal for all the vapid crap they've made me endure as trailers and promos at the cinema over the years. The godawful filmic junk they peddle is far worse - and far more endemic - than any spam.

More on Gerard Jones:
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