Then those people are massive idiots who shouldn't be able to figure out how to breathe on their own. An Organization realizes they messed up and sent stuff out early and announces it and people think if they get their order in now (AFTER the announcement) they will get their set early too? It would take the king of all idiots to believe that BBCA would leave any stone unturned to prevent further orders from being shipped early.
Exactly. I'm sure the shipping error was due to bad data in the database; the date for when the product could go out was incorrectly entered or some such. (This is why Amazon runs insane sales sometimes; their system is prone to bad data, and things get sold at ridiculous prices before the data gets caught.) And when they discovered that the product was out before the street date, BBC America got the date corrected in the database.
The blog sounds like a PR plant because it reads more like marketing material. So, don't know anything about this person, but guessing that it's a plant. But, I am excited about the finale, so here's hoping that it turns out to be that exciting and "game changing". Mr Awe
So do 95% of fan websites/blogs/tumblrs/twitter feeds, but that doesn't make them PR plants. Also, I don't think a plant would use the phrase "HUGE mistake via BBC America," even as part of the cover story. People who imagine this is a PR stunt of some kind don't seem to get the scale on which actual PR works or the audience at which it's directed. If someone pitched "We'll leak the Blu-rays early to this one Tumblr nobody's ever heard of!" or "We'll invent a Tumblr and claim it got the Blu-rays early!" as a marketing tactic, the next pitch he made would be to McDonald's, about how good he is at saying "Would you like fries with that?"
Or to get people talking about it on the internet ? Chances are this is just innocent incompetence, but there's no such thing as bad publicity is there ?
No, I disagree, the voice of real people (and fans) who watch the show for entertainment do not sound like marketing material. I'm talking about the specific wording, not the enthusiastic tone. And, to be clear, if this was a planted PR piece, no blurays would've been released early. As it is, this guy just hypes the story, but doesn't say anything about it. Say's it's a "game changer". I hope he's right. Mr Awe
At which point, were I BBC, I'd assume that you are out to screw me anyway, say fuck it, hang up the phone, do exactly what they did (press release, we fucked up with the shipping), and then far whoever made the mistake in distribution.
If they were *really* sensible, they get their copy up on ebay for a 1 day auction - sure to get a few thousand.
Unlikely you'd make to much on it. The episode proper is only 5 days out. The only way to have crashed in would have been to get online and find a fansite willing to buy the disc set at a profit to you and overnight it to them
Plus ebay would pull theauction... Strictly speaking this would be copyright theft as posession ahead of release breaches that terms of licence screen we all ignor but cant fastforeard through.
Huh, hadn't considered that. So if I had a legal copy ahead of the release date, I could get my ass in the fryer for reselling it, even though they're the ones that fucked up and released it early?
No, First Sale Doctrine applies here. Once you've bought a physical good, the copyright owner can't prevent you from reselling it. The fact that the person has the Blu-Ray before he should is immaterial; the copyright owner got their money when the sale was made and the product is no longer theirs to control. That's not to say that eBay wouldn't pull the auction. They shouldn't because the seller isn't doing anything illegal. But one individual seller versus the BBC? Yeah, the conclusion here is foregone.
Yep, the fact that it was sent out early is an internal matter for the BBC, there is no copyright issue.
Yes. I have heard September for the release date. I'm not sure if it will have both uncollected Christmas specials (2011 and 2012), though.