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April 2008 - WWW, April 2008 - In september
2007, the Dubroom published a review of the
video "Rent-A-Rasta". The
aftermath of the Dubroom review uncovered
some interesting background information
surfacing on the Dubroom Message Boards as
well as from the producer himself.
Messian Dread reports.
When you write someone an email, it's
possible to add a subject to the mail. If
the recipient decides to reply, usually an
email program will add "Re:" to
the subject line.
When you have an email in your in-box
that says "Re: pirate rastas", it
means that someone is responding to an email
that originally had the subject "Pirate
Rastas".
I got an email that had "Re: pirate
rastas" as the topic. The fact that I
couldn't remember to have written an email
with that topic as well as the name of the
sender, drew my interest.
The email informed me, that the Dubroom
contact pages were not working. Still, the
sender somehow knew my email address and he
wasn't responding to an email I had send
him.
The email turned out to be written by the
producer of the video "Rent A
Rasta". The video was reviewed
in September 2007 and recently, some very
interesting background information about the
documentary surfaced on the Dubroom Message
boards that added, let's say, extra
dimensions to the whole thing and not very
positively.
The guy wrote me to remove a page from
the Dubroom website, claiming that it linked
to a "pirated copy" of the video.
Since the video was uploaded to Google
Video, I wrote him back that
if he thinks the video should not be on the
Google Video servers, he should write to
them.
This is where he became kind of nasty.
He wrote me back and more or less
announced, after calling Google a
"typical Babylonian corporation",
how he would start to spread a rumor that
the video was actually uploaded by the
Dubroom or at least in cooperation with the
Dubroom.
Strange...
I wondered why he would do such a thing.
Would he be writing this to all the websites
that may have his video embedded? After all,
it's simple. If he thinks the video
shouldn't be on Google Video, he should
write to Google and not to websites that
have the video embedded. If there's truly a
mention of a "pirated copy", then
Google will take it off and the websites
that have the video embedded will not
"link to a pirated copy" anymore
either.
I wondered if it had anything to do with
the things that came to the surface on the
Dubroom Messageboards after the review was
written. A positive review, by the way, for
which the producer of the reviewed material
had no interest whatsoever.
It was all about money, so it seemed.
Even spreading false rumors was apparently
allowed in that cause!
This was exactly the same vibe we got
from the information that surfaced on the
Dubroom Message Boards.
A visitor of the Dubroom told
us, how she saw the video
while in Jamaica. Since she knows some of
them personally, she came to know that the
youths who "eagerly participated"
in the film, were all paid $20 for their
cooperation.
"Hear-say", was the initial
response of the producer when I asked him
about this particular fact.
"Ethical", he said, after being
asked again. But he continued to call it
"hear-say" and said he had no time
to deal with it since he "wasn't a talk
show host"...
Apparently, though, he had time to write
to the Dubroom, even to find out the email
address, only to call us names ("Pirate
Rastas") and threaten us to spread
false rumors about us uploading material to
Google Video.
The producer of the video refused to
answer the question if he sent such
threatening letters to every site that may
have his video embedded. After all, there is
no (legal) reason to do so. When the
uploaded video truly is a "pirated
copy", you should write to Google Video
and not to sites that have Google video's
embedded.
Besides, he was responding to an email
that was not sent by me or from the Dubroom,
with the topic "Pirate Rastas". He
knew the Dubroom's email address as well,
since he informed me that the contact page
wasn't working and wrote directly to one of
the Dubroom email addresses.
Now, was that video uploaded to Google by
or in connection with the Dubroom? NO. If
you ever hear so, you know where the rumor
came from.
It came from a guy who is more interested
in making money than in spreading
information. A guy who is more interested in
spreading false rumors than in being happy
with a positive review.
A guy who "co-incidentally"
writes to the Dubroom exactly at the time
when his video is discussed and information
comes to the surface that puts his work in,
let's say, a different light and
perspective.
He wrote me, that he was only familiar
with that page on the Dubroom that had the
video embedded. Was he not even familiar
with the review? Was he not aware of the
things that surfaces on the Dubroom Message
Boards?
He said, no... But can you believe
someone who privately announces to be
willing to spread false rumors for money?
Nuff Said.
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