Buffy The Vampire Slayer

The Final Cut

As you may be aware, a few weeks ago I received a letter from the legal representatives of 20th Century Fox, asking that I remove any and all ’Tru Calling’ spoilage, as well as any links to other sites that had such spoilage. In addition, I was required to remove any copyrighted-images that linked to 20th Century Fox products (ie: The Amazon banners advertising the DVD sets). Since then, I have not posted an update while I did a great deal of thinking about the site’s future. With the request from 20th Century Fox, it was going to be difficult at best to continue.

While at first, it might have seemed that this letter only affected a single show, it has effects that may not have been readily apparent. Although Fox has no issues with the older Buffy and Angel spoilers and news, this does not mean there would be an issue with future series. They know that I am here, they are aware of the site, which means that I’m effectively barred from posting spoilers about any Fox property. This includes shows like the Buffy Cartoon, any Buffy or Angel movie, or any new property that may be introduced (’Wonderfalls’, if it was still on, would have fallen into this category).

In addition, without the banner ads and Amazon links, I have no means of paying the operating costs of the site. While they aren’t a large amount, I had always managed to keep the expenses covered by the banner ads. While traffic is not an issue at this point at time, if I were to cover any shows in the future that may be as popular as ’Buffy’, I would need this income to keep the site alive.

Late this week, I had finally made the decision to retire from the spoiler world. It was difficult, it is not the one that I wanted to make, but when I look at the big picture it was the only option that I had. I do not want to have to constantly be worried about what I am posting, promoting, or spoiling. Take it from one who knows, you don’t want to find a two-page letter from the legal representatives of a major media company on your doorstep some Saturday morning.

And certainly not more than once...

This morning, I received a second letter from 20th Century Fox’s legal representation. Although they acknowledged the changes that I had made to the site, they requested that I remove the still present ’Tru Calling’ spoilers, the copyrighted images that linked to products, and links to other sites that provided spoilers for ’Tru Calling’. Since I had already made extensive modifications to the site, and feel that I have removed any and all offending material, I don’t know what this latest request was in reference to.

Since it would take hours of work to comb through the archives of the site, to locate and remove any offending spoilage, links, or product images, I feel that the best choice at this time is to simply remove all the material that the site has ever posted. Although my original intention was to have kept the site up as an archive, this will not guarantee that I will not be getting additional letters in the future. It was painful enough to go through and cut out large portions of the site already, I honestly don’t have the energy to do this again.

I apologize the most to the fans of ’Dead Like Me’, as the show itself is not a Fox property and should not be affected by this news. However, I have heard that similar action has been taken against sites that featured shows produced by MGM. I don’t want to chance it, and I feel that this is the best course of action to protect myself from any legal action. Because of multiple requests for some of the Cafe Press merchandise, and to have the old links to Amazon itself (without the copyrighted images), I am leaving a link to both Cafe Press and Amazon.

I’d like to thank all of the spoiler sources that I’ve had over the years. While I would love to name you all, I know that most of you would like to remain anonymous. Rather than single anyone out in particular, I know that you know who you are, I can’t thank you enough.

I can’t forget those that went out of their way to promote the site. While again there are numerous people that I could name, I do want to take a moment to name three people without which, the site might still be a little side-page on my homepage. First, AngelX at the Buffy Cross and Stake. The site got its start there in late 2000, and it was her page that was the inspiration to create my own. Jennifer Godwin, who advertised the site on Buffy NewsWire in August 2001, and Hercules at Ain’t It Cool News who followed shortly after.

But most of all, I would like to thank ’you’, the fans of the site. Without you, the site would have never been as popular as it became. This site was always for you and it was because of you that it became such a great success. The Spoiler Slayer was always about the ’spoilers’, and always about you, the fans. I wanted to give you the best and most accurate information that I could, and to sort the foilage from the spoilage. I feel that for the three years that the site was active, this goal was accomplished. I hope you will agree.

Thank You, One And All...

Tensai - The Spoiler Slayer (August 21st, 2004)