Lawyers Close Woodsboro Highschool?

Woodsboro Highschool has been closed for good and my guess is it was brought about by the power of studio lawyers but that is only my best guess since I do not know the owners. Last week Deth Banger told you about a really slick viral site for Scream 4 that was creating massive buzz for Scream 4 called Woodsboro High School.com.

The fictional school in the Scream film franchise is of course Woodsboro. Well the site has been shut down because it was not a studio site but rather a group of fans who were clearly incredibly excited about the upcoming Scream 4. The site now carries the following message;

This fan-created website encourages everyone to visit the official Scream 4 studio website at http://www.scream-4.com/

This fan-created site is in no way connected to the Weinstein Company or Dimension Films. It is a good faith, good will gesture on behalf of all fans who wish to promote the creations of the Weinstein Company and Dimension Films! However, despite positive feedback from a number of fans, out of a likely overabundance of precaution and a desire not to step on anyone’s toes without permission the site has been taken down and will remain down. All letters of support or complaint can be e-mailed to: [email protected]

Check out the official studio website at: http://www.scream-4.com/

Get to the theaters on April 15, 2011! It’s going to be a killer of a good time!

If there is one thing that really sucks as a fan of film who does it for the love of the game its when you try to promote a film and lawyers threaten to destroy your life for doing it. Of course we have no idea what happened to the site and whether the studio asked them to shut down but my guess is they did.

Whether a studio and a film benefits from going after fans who are promoting the film for free is not really clear to me. I understand protecting your intellectual property but it sucks when your the fan are trying to do nothing more then spread word for a great film franchise. The site might have been a fan site but it had gone viral and was generating buzz for Wes Craven’s SCREAM 4 not just on our site but on hundreds of other horror blogs.

Anyway we cut it though if you use something from a film, even if your promoting the film the studio has the right to shut you down whether it feels right or not. Thoughts?

Update: According to a commentor below the reason the viral site was closed is because they were selling bootleg movie materials. If that is the case well its a given that Dimension Films would not condone that!