OMG, the Script Index is gone

Have you been to the Script Index (http://www.thecfsi.com/) lately? It's been closed!

Did I miss the memo about this?

Warner Bros. shut it down, much like they shut down the Spoilers Forum at Angel's Friends Page last week. They're actually cracking down on illegal copyrighted material. Kind of unfair since all it really does is help make already obsessed fans more obsessed, but it is within their rights to do so.

Remember last May, when NBC asked viewers to guess the name of Rachel's baby? I guessed back then that they were having that contest to determine an approximate number of people who read spoilers. I may have been right after all...

--DanG

But the cfsi didn't HAVE spoilers, just transcripts of already aired eppies. And, why wait until now, and not a few seasons ago when the show was at it's peak.

I'm not bashing copyrights, but things have gotten too draconian, and Acts like the Sonny Bone-head Copyright Extension do not help matters.

J.

"Dan Ginsburg" wrote in message news:[email]...

On 24 Oct 2002 00:21:23 -0700, [email] (Dan Ginsburg) wrote:

I can understand that they asked for the Angels Spoiler forum to be shut down but Eric's site only had transcripts. I don't see what reason there could be for asking not to publish transcripts. No one's going to read the transcripts and not buy dvds because of that. Obviously, some big shot at WB has got in his/her head that the net can policed for pirated stuff. Why else would they ask to take off transcripts after eight years?

Priya

*p r i y a* :

As long as they didn't just copy stolen scripts, I don't. I thought the US had a right of free speech and a discussion forum, no matter if web based or Usenet, is exactly that, just not spoken but written.

Actually it only ha_s_ transcripts. Apparently <http://thecfsi.com/index2.htm> is still working, but *pssst*, don't tell anyone. I don't know if it'll be updated anymore, though. Anyway I, and presumable others, decided to publically back up the transcripts [1].

Maybe it's the name: "The Complete Friends Scripts Index", "The Complete Friends Transcripts Index" might have been fine.

Evil people could use the transcripts to produce subtitle files for their ripped/downloaded AVIs/MPEGs/DivXs. It's more comfortable to write a Closed Captions decoder, though.

I remember discussions about Star Trek fan sites being forced to close some years ago. The copyright holding company (Paramount?) said, it liked the fa support, but for some court decision, it was an evidence for waiving copyright, if you don't prosecute every little infringement. I.e. if you rip the DVD and get caught you could defend yourself by saying: "I thought WB didn't mind about its copyright, because they're not doing anything against Angel's spoiler forum, thecfsi.com or #downloadfriends." I hope my memory did recall that issue fair enough.

Christoph

[1] <http://home.tu-clausthal.de/~ktcwcp/friends/transcripts/>

In article , [email] (Christoph =?ISO-8859-1?Q?P=E4per?=) wrote:

The First Amendment says, wrt freedom of speech, "Congress may make no law..." It does not say that corporations with big lawyers can't harass the fans of their TV shows.

wg

On Sun, 27 Oct 2002 18:12:56 +0100, Christoph P�per wrote:

Well, maybe they think that if people read the filming reports, they may lose some of their audience that doesn't want to see any episode because the spoiler was't good. I dunno really..

is still working, but *pssst*, don't

I don't think saying that on the ng here is going to keep it secret. ;)

Right, okay.

Priya

It's still working for me. any chance they are blocking USA traffic? or maybe it was down for a few hours?

I'm outside USA (Argentina)

You're probably viewing a old page on your PC click refresh and you should see the notice Eric put up. That site has been about for about 8 years and now they suddenly decide to close it down. If they're being funny over transcripts then I can also see them asking fans to remove fanfic's and pictures.

Deborah

"Gabriel" wrote in message news:[email]...

news:...

I think it could be some sort of server error, there have been major hacks on ISP's during the last week, and many boards and sites are down. Although it wouldn't surprise me if WB have shut it down.

Owen

In message ,

Apparently Warner Bros demanded it was closed, because the transcripts were too accurate and allegedly violated copyright laws.

Well, duh, WB, did you check out the definition of "Transcript"...it's supposed to be accurate!

"Sean Black" wrote in message news:[email]...

"Michael Wilcox" wrote:

Jep, pretty sad. However, Eric mentioned this:

Go figure...

Stephan

hi!

i've saved during season 8 all scripts from s1 to s7. if anyone is interested it i can put it online, with kazaa or something like that.

bye. michael

"Michael Herzog" wrote in message news:u_St9.143192$[email]...

like

Michael... don't. Warner Brother's reaction has been very virilent, very suddenly. They will come after you. Sorry folks, but I think the days of having transcripts and spoilers on the net are gone for good.

abrahammy wrote:

Michael... don't. Warner Brother's reaction has been very virilent, very suddenly. They will come after you.

ok, thanks for warning.

*abrahammy* :

I thought about that, too, but don't think my university would be too happy with the download volume. Plus, I can't find my saved files right now.

In Austria or even over a P2P-network? I doubt it. WB might have the power to shut down US based sites, but that really doesn't mean much.

Who could prevent anyone from posting spoilers to ATF? (With spoiler space and/or [Spoiler]-tag in the Subject, please.) Spoilers are even less a matter of copyright issues than transcripts are. You're way too pessimistic; and I thought that was a typical German habit.

Christoph

"Christoph P�per" wrote in message news:ap90ls$6l9$[email]...

If you do this, please indicate that you're posting spoilers about episodes that have not yet aired in the U.S., so that we can differentiate from spoiler warnings for those who are elsewhere. . . .

Belphoebe

In article , [email] (abrahammy) wrote:

It's not clear to me how WB can go after anyone for spoilers.

And actually, I'm not sure what IP law says about *transcribed* scripts, which these were. It certainly would have been a copyright violation for someone to get a copy of a script, photocopy it or scan it, and place that online. But what WB is counting on is fans not arguing back because no one wants to deal with lawyers funded by deep pockets.

I will point out that if you use Google to search on "complete friends script index" and click on the cached versions, you can in fact get at all the old pages, including the scripts. eg: <http://216.239.37.100/search?q=cache:s5HQy-_Ey_kC:www.thecfsi.com/main.ht m+complete+friends+script+index&hl=en&lr=lang_en|lang_fr&ie=UTF-8>

Some of you may want to take advantage of this to retrieve a few scripts while they're still in Google's cache.

wg

*[email]* :

Also, the mirror site at <http://thecfsi.msmith.net/> seems still to work.

Christoph

I would agree with this poster. While WB could conceiveably make a case regarding the transcripts (which brings up other questions below), how does one claim copyright on a spoiler, unless said spoiler contain huge chunks of script lines? It would be like Paramount going after Roger Ebert for reviewing a movie, and describing plot points. I think WB is using brute force intimidation, and it is shameful, SHAMEFUL!, of them to do so.

And why wait until the final (or penultimate, if they plan another season, which I recommend they do not) season to call out Guido, the Hit-Man Anti-Piracy lawyer NOW, and not say 3 seasons ago? Probably because they knew that the site generated a fan base to build on, and with no more seasons, decided "who the fuck cares about them now?".

Well, there's a whole 'net out there, and the cfsi was not the sole depository...(thanks google)

I would hope enough people make a stink about it to WB that, even if it doesn't restore the site, gives WB the bad press it deserves.

I don't think it will kill the NON-PROFIT transcript fanbase though, there are IPs that are out of reach of the US copyright laws, or that are not enforced in such a Gestapo manner.

The only other option you have is to boycott the advertisers or the show (which would be self-defeating, and besides, it's not the actor's fault).

And, of course, there is P2P, and despite Metallica and RIAA, it ain't gonna go away...RIAA et al is, at best, the poor Dutch Boy with it's fingers in the sieve-like dike...

J. "Christoph P�per" wrote in message news:ap99ii$goc$[email]...

I will not be surprised if someone decides to just upload transcripts (and spoilers) to Usenet instead, ala the OTs and Scientology.

J.

wrote in message news:ap97ot$48f$[email]...

On Thu, 24 Oct 2002, an infinite number of monkeys, masquerading as [email] typed this -

Then someone with virtually no money should try it. It'd be like the McLibel case over again - the big corporation spending millions on legal fees they cannot possibly get back even if they win - and destroying their good name by appearing to be nothing more than corporate bully- boys.

On Thu, 24 Oct 2002, an infinite number of monkeys, masquerading as abrahammy typed this -

WB are fighting a losing battle - if there's *anything* people hate it's being bullied by big corporations! :(

For every site they close, 5 more will spring up!

"Michael Herzog" wrote in message news:u_St9.143192$[email]...

like

Michael... don't. Warner Brother's reaction has been very virilent, very suddenly. They will come after you. Sorry folks, but I think the days of having transcripts and spoilers on the net are gone for good.

This is interesting... Well, the execs do have that right because the it is copyrighted... Why doesn't someone get smart and have the site, but change the names? Remember TOW Phoebe is writing her book and it's about Chandler and Monica, and in her book she just changed their names around?

"Michael Wilcox" wrote in message news:EQIt9.1800$[email]...

Overdosed on Teletubbies, Michael Wilcox thought it'd be a good idea to post this:

So when is www.friends-tv.org going to be taken down?

The way they are apparently going about it right now makes me think this site will be gone soon too

Andr�

OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the second time Warner Bros. closed down a site in the past 2 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm getting worried ............