Moriarty, one of the editors on Ain’t It Cool News, has written an apologia for a flamewar he started the other night when he vilified film-fans who had downloaded bootleg work-prints of The Hulk from the net and were posting reviews to AICN. Moriarty criticized the reviewers for their “piracy” and called them all sorts of nasty names. The “pirates” responded by pointing out that AICN’s stock-in-trade is stolen scripts, violated NDAs by test-screeners and leaked secrets, and what’s sauce for the goose should be sauce for the gander. AICN’s initial reaction was to delete some of the more critical posts, but Moriarty’s apologia is, to my mind, a much better response.
When I first met Harry Knowles… the very first time… we hooked up because I was looking for a way to get something onto the Internet for other fans to enjoy.
It was something I wasn’t supposed to have.
It came from someone’s office who had no idea I had it.
I was told by someone online to try Harry Knowles. I got in touch with him in Texas. He hooked me up with a guy in Australia.
Why?
To circumnavigate US copyright law. That’s why.Hello, kettle? It’s the pot. I’m black.
So mea culpa. No other arguments are really needed to convince me that I made a colossal mistake the other day. You don’t have to try to go through every single word on the site looking for just the right phrase with which to hang me.