Fan Power: Hunger Is Not a Game, Revisited - New York Times (blog)

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Fan Power: Hunger Is Not a Game, Revisited - New York Times (blog) Mar 31st 2012, 21:01 "The Hunger Games" film, which debuted just over a week ago, has exceeded all box office expectations, taking in nearly $200 million to date and making Lionsgate, its distributor, very happy. But it isn't just the on screen battle that has caught the attention of fans. On Thursday, March 22, just one day after a column I wrote for Fixes on the surging strength of fan activism appeared here, Lionsgate contacted Oxfam requesting that they immediately remove any mention of Hunger Is Not a Game — Oxfam's campaign to mobilize "Hunger Games" fans to learn about international food justice — from all of their Web sites because it was "causing damage to Lionsgate and our marketing efforts." Lionsgate's lawyer, Liat Cohen, claimed that there were intellectual property infringements and pointed to their own efforts to drive fans towards charity causes, such as the United Nations World Food Program and Feeding America. They also stated, some thought disingenuously, that they were "truly making an effort to work with you on this." Oxfam, along with the group Imagine Better, and their fan activist core discussed their options via a flurry of e-mails sent via iPhones and Blackberries; they were in the long, giddy lines already forming for opening night of the film. They decided not to back down, and even more, to teach Lionsgate a lesson about what it really means to "dialog" with a campaign such as Hunger is Not a Game, which is truly "owned" by fans — not one entity. Holly McCready, a 26-year-old "Hunger Games" fan, created a Change.org petition on Friday, March 23, which read, in part: "We're advocating to feed the hungry and change the rules of the real-world hunger game, and that should be celebrated. Lionsgate needs to stop bullying its fans into complacency." Thousands of signatures poured in. The film director and producer Judd Apatow started tweeting on behalf of the fans, as did prominent activists like Eli Pariser, formerly of Moveon.org. Within seven hours, Lionsgate not only backed off, but suggested that they would be interested in pursuing formal partnerships with fan activists groups for future films in the Hunger Games series. To date, nearly 18,000 people have signed McCready's petition. This isn't the first time that this new generation of netizens has put Hollywood in its place using the power of social media. Warner Brothers has frequently sent cease-and-desist letters to Harry Potter fans creating Web sites, fan fiction and wizard rock bands in honor of their favorite fictional character, though attempts to control the brand have mostly proven futile. Turning the tables, the Harry Potter Alliance now encourages its members to send Warner Brothers cease-and-desist letters regarding their use of Harry's name while selling chocolate created under allegedly unethical labor conditions. Their Web site states: "Warner Brothers may legally own the copyright to Harry Potter but we have something better — we own the love and bravery of Harry's name. Because we have loved and been changed by these stories, because we used their inspiration to change the world, Harry's name belongs to us." The incident can be seen as part of a larger developing story about the ways in which the Internet and its savviest fans are threatening corporate control (think, for example, of the response to the highly controversial Stop Online Piracy Act last October). Slack explains, "Hollywood was not sending an olive branch to the youth demographic that they depend on; they were attempting to whack us over the head with a large branch, rendering us unconscious consumers. It's simply not going to work this way anymore." Courtney E. Martin is the author of "Do It Anyway: The New Generation of Activists" and a founding director, with David Bornstein, of the Solutions Journalism Network. You can learn more about her work at her Web site and follow her on Twitter @courtwrites. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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