Guest Slapnuts00 Report post Posted July 17, 2003 I realize it is addressed in a previous post in the replies but I wanted to make sure everyone knew that the ludicrous story about Metallica suing some band for stealing chords is a FAKE created by NoSoul of ScoopThis. I'm actually a member of the Metallica Club (Im a big fan I dont feel like getting into a Metallica argument, so save it), and from the club boards it appears several mainstream places most notably Jimmy Kimmel LIve have picked up on the story and spreading it as real. Can we say lawsuit? I seriously hope for 411's sake that nothing bad happens, but just the feeling I'm getting over from the club board that the shit might hit the fan. I know it was just a joke article but MANY people appear to think it's real and its being picked up on mainstream sites like Blabbermouth spreading some serious libel. Just a heads up to 411. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Smell the ratings!!! Report post Posted July 17, 2003 Is it just me or does the rate of dumbasses on this planet seem to be increasing every day? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rob E Dangerously 0 Report post Posted July 17, 2003 As Jerry Falwell can tell you, Parody is protected speech. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Edwin MacPhisto Report post Posted July 17, 2003 As Jerry Falwell can tell you, Parody is protected speech. But is it protected when it's presented as legit news? I didn't see the original posting on ScoopThis, but regarding 411's take (and that of many other sites who took it as truth), I'm pretty sure parody has to be obvious--either in the framework of an entire parody paper like The Onion which makes its intentions apparent, or with a disclaimer attached. As far as I know, anyone who takes something false and defaming of character and prints it as factual news can get some hefty trouble in the form of libel, even if the source material is parody. I know very little about official legal precedent, of course, so this mostly apocrypha and rumination. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest starvenger Report post Posted July 17, 2003 There's probably a disclaimer somewhere about the ScoopThis! stuff. However, I believe that NoSoul is based in Canada, so I wonder how this might affect things. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rising up out of the back seat-nuh 0 Report post Posted July 17, 2003 So Metallica are going to sue over a stupid pointless little thing because they're no talent dickwads? Delicious! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest mesepher Report post Posted July 17, 2003 normally, you'd see news like this and automatically know its a joke... but when Metallica is involved, you never know what to expect. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest starvenger Report post Posted July 17, 2003 normally, you'd see news like this and automatically know its a joke... but when Metallica is involved, you never know what to expect. I'm sure the settlement will result in Erik Ashley getting "I (heart) Metallica" tattooed across his back... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest kkktookmybabyaway Report post Posted July 17, 2003 Thetrendsetter, better open up your wallet. I'm sure Lars frequents TSM, and you just added to the media mayhem with your thread spreading this vile libel... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Plushy Al Logan Report post Posted July 17, 2003 Thetrendsetter, better open up your wallet. I'm sure Lars frequents TSM, and you just added to the media mayhem with your thread spreading this vile libel... He does? Can and will he sue me for puting him in an e-fed as part of the Dungeon of Doom? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest FeArHaVoC Report post Posted July 18, 2003 Here is more..... From Metal-Sludge...... This is the statement from Erik Ashley, who wrote the Metallica hoax about Metallica suing the band Unfaith for using the chords E and F, and is actually in the band Unfaith. We should say that Erik is a Sludgeaholic who sent this to us and has written to us in the past. This whole situation is a good laugh. Just goes to show you how the press doesn't do their homework and will report anything as fact. Kinda like what we do! UNFAITH'S OFFICIAL STATEMENT ON THE METALLICA E-F CHORD CONTROVERSY by Erik Ashley You might have heard about this on CNN, MSNBC, Ananova, or on one of the thousands of radio stations across America since Wednesday. International rock superstars Metallica is suing an independant Canadian band over unsanctioned usage of the E and F chords ; that band being Unfaith ; us. Let's make this clear : This story is SATIRE. But as with most parodies, it is also a statement in sheep's clothing ; one that inadvertantly ended up making a point FOR the band, as much as anything else. We all know about the Napster issue, the perfume company, the lipstick company, the tire makers... Metallica has sued them all. Rightly or wrongly, no one is judging that. However, the idea behind this parody was to gauge, after all that litigation, just how willing America was to buy a story as extraordinay -- as outlandish -- as them claiming ownership of a 2-chord progression. If this week was any indication, America is all too willing to believe it. It all started here : http://www.411mania.com/music/news/article...hp?news_id=3586 The story was originally planted on 411mania.com, who were in on it. Within minutes, literally hundreds of message boards lit up, including those of legitimate music news sources. Then, Fark.com jumped on board and promoted the 411 link. With the help of these two websites, the story got rebroadcasted from one news source to the next. Jimmy Kimmel treated the story as fact on his ABC talk show, his researchers never bothering to contact any of the parties involved. MSNBC's Jeannette Walls printed the story as fact in yesterday morning's "The Scoop" column... and retracted it minutes later with no explanation. Dotmusic.com did the same, as did Ananova.com in the UK. Radio stations across America have been broadcasting the news as fact for days, going so far as organizing boycott petitions against Metallica on the stations they work for... and even playing our MP3 samples on the air simply to spite them. What is wrong with this picture? If you want to play us because you enjoy our music, that's one thing. But playing us just to spite another band..? Rolling Stone was the first publication to contact the parties involved. Then came Court TV / CNN, and MuchMusic. They took the time, and got the real story. As for the hoax itself, it generated over 200,000 hits in just two days, and crashed our servers repeatedly. Beyond the numbers, however, I think it was TANSTAAFL - one of the thousands of internet message board posters discussing this story this week - who said it best : "I'm not sure what's worse, that the story is a fake, or that it was actually conceivable that Metallica would do that." In truth, none of us ever expected the parody to reach as far and wide as it did. What originally began as something of a psychology study on Metallica's reputation instead turned into an exposé on how dangerous the internet - and its media - can be. "Because if it's on the net, it's got to be true" T Both the supposed "MTV.com" and "Metallica.com" pages were painstakingly recreated for the parody to be effective - just as Saturday Night Live goes through great lengths to recreate a celebrity's facial features and voice - but both pages have a clear "ScoopThis.com" notice at the bottom. And although ScoopThis.com had been technically offline since 2000, its documents still very clearly state that anything found on its domain is fake. So who should Metallica be St.Angry with over this? Us, for what we thought was an obvious parody (we didn't even bother masking the url fields)... or every single so-called legitimate news outlet for spreading it as truth? It's hard to ignore the fact that the runaway hoax ended up exposing the internet for what it is, with legitimate news sites spreading one of the most incredible fictional stories we could come up with without pause, much less research. You would think it was 1938, and this was War of Worlds. I can't help walking away from this whole bit actually sympathizing with the band. Because even as the hoax was exposed, diehard Metalli-bashers maintained their positions on the grounds that this was something Metallica COULD have done. Overlooking one very important fact : They didn't. In the end, I am left wondering... is this the kind of unbiased journalism I can expect if I become a public figure? Reactions now that people are slowly catching on to the hoax have ranged across the board from people thinking it was a brilliant and well-executed prank, to people being upset by what they feel is a cheap publicity stunt... to those people, I can only offer the reminder that we have nothing to sell. No CD's were printed in preparation for this, and we haven't responded to a single donation offer made to us towards our fictional upcoming legal battle. Unfaith may have received some short-term exposure out of this, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't think this was great. Wouldn't you? Sure, some people will stick around with us when this is over, but most won't. As James Hetfield once put it, however, the Memory Remains. As for the fallout, Jimmy Kimmel has already apologized for spreading an astonishing story as truth. MSNBC, Ananova and others, however, haven't - content in simply laying low after eliminating the evidence. To each their own. As for me? I'll quote from an interview I did with UGO.com last year, which you could easily Google-up. On the subject of my influences, I answered, among other names, "the 'commercial era' Metallica. Everything since the black album. Yep, that includes Load and Reload." I didn't mind saying it then, and I don't mind repeating it today. This hoax was merely a joke that America wished so hard to be true, that it slowly stopped mattering if it was or not. In the end, this leaves us with two ultimate ironies : First, none of our songs were ever based on an E-F progression (I can't sing that high). And second, MTV.com remains the only entertainment news website never to have touched this story. Erik Ashley Singer/Songwriter Unfaith | www.unfaith.net Montreal, Canada Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Vyce Report post Posted July 18, 2003 I laugh at this. Fuck Metallica. The fact that this story could even be treated as factual and be BELIEVED by so many peoples speaks volumes about them. Don't whine and cry to ME about how they're getting some sort of raw deal here. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Ingram Paladin Report post Posted July 18, 2003 I wouldn't blame Metallica for suing 411. They posted the article as FACT amongst other musical articles that WERE fact. It was a bone head move, and I'd be shitting myself if I was them. Just downright stupid. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Vern Gagne Report post Posted July 18, 2003 Metallica should of played along with this. Not for too long, but hold a mock press conference with James and Lars irate about this no good son of a bitch band using their two cords. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest CoreyLazarus416 Report post Posted July 19, 2003 That would've required the guys to be cool again, though. 15 years ago, I could see them doing this. Now? Lars would be checking his Rolex while Rob wanders around behind them, Kirk meditates, and James goes "YEEEE-AH!" Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest thetrendsetter Report post Posted July 19, 2003 I got lars ulrich's settlement right here *points at dick* anyways, Now Me and Metallica are even... They owe me something for having to sit through Load And Re-Load... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Agent of Oblivion Report post Posted July 19, 2003 and Kill 'em all, and Master of puppets, and ride the lightning, and And justice for all, and... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest CoreyLazarus416 Report post Posted July 19, 2003 Oh, shut up and listen to your incoherent growling. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest FeArHaVoC Report post Posted July 19, 2003 I think it's funny 411 doesn't have the balls to mention it. None of the writers on the site have mentioned it in their columns either in the last few days. Widro is running scared! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bobobrazil1984 0 Report post Posted July 21, 2003 they did a parody like this in the wrestling section of 411 a while ago, did an authentic looking WWE.com mockup and all, it was about Bradshaw. I thought it was pertty funny but I did email them saying that putting it in the news section isnt the best idea. Its funny as a joke, but people read the news section, expecting, you know, news, except on april 1st. So yeah if they get a lawsuit, i'm going to be all 'nyah nyah i told you' (but if they dont and their stock rises really high, i'm going to pretend like i never said this and be all "411 rulez and metallica sux! lmao!!!" EDIT Psst, it's mentioned here http://www.411mania.com/music/columns/arti...columns_id=1100 and hyatte talks abotu it also in the wrestling news section. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
