The lack of morale among Moffatt fans         February 3rd, 2006

On January 24th, it was announced on scottmoffatt.nu and on a journal fan community that there would soon be a video interview with Scott available, in which he talked about the coming year, his plans for the future and answered some questions. The video was filmed by the girls behind scottmoffatt.nu and scottmoffatt.org for one purpose only: Sadly there's been a lot of wrong information spread in the past regarding bands Scott has been in, and this has caused some distrust among fans when it comes to information posted on message boards, journal communities and fansites. Even when we put up information that we know to be 100% true, many fans remain sceptical until it can be confirmed by other sources as well and in these times where there hardly is any other source, this can be a problem. We wanted to set the record straight on some key issues and get it on film so that there could be no doubt whatsoever.

We asked Scott long before the Holiday Train if he'd mind being interviewed during it, and he said he'd be happy to. The interview was made in Sparwood, BC on December 13th, near the end of the train tour, and was transfered from a DVD disc to video file shortly before Christmas. The only reasons it was not uploaded and shared immediately was that Scott had asked to see it, and we wanted him to have the chance to okay it before it was put up. Everyone is busy around Holidays, and it wasn't until the new year when he finally got the file, and unfortunately he was unable to view that type of file so we had to change it to a different format for him which delayed things even further. In addition to running it by Scott first, we wanted to provide a full transcript of the interview at the same time as uploading it, so that if anyone else were unable to view it, they could at least read the questions and answers in text format and not be left out. After Scott had seen it, the transcript still wasn't completely finished. Scottmoffatt.nu was updated to let everyone know about the fact that the interview existed and would be uploaded soon, and we had planned to get the file approved and the transcript up within a couple of days.

That same day, a girl on a message board posted a link to our interview, uploaded on a free fileshare server. She'd found where we'd uploaded it for Scott to download. The link spread to another message board and also to the journal fan community we'd posted in.

It isn't the fact that someone managed to find the file that we're upset about. If she'd downloaded the video, watched it and shared it with a few friends nobody would have known and they would have had the file 2-3 days before everyone else, that's all. It is the fact that this person went and uploaded the file on a separate server for the sole purpose of spreading it (so that we couldn't just rename or delete the file and thus stop the spreading) and did so without saying where it was from. When asked if she'd stolen it, she lied at first and said she got it from someone else. Lateron she admitted that it was indeed she who had downloaded it without permission. She claims her innocence now, and has yet to apologise to any of us. We'd be willing to believe that she genuinely didn't know that the file wasn't supposed to be spread if it wasn't for the fact that before we began tracing where it came from, someone had asked her where she got the link and she said she got it 'because I'm bad, lol'. This makes it clear as day that she knew what she was doing was wrong, and she did it anyway.

Copyrighted pictures and video files have a history of being stolen and displayed on other websites without permission in the Moffatt/Hidell/Boston Post/Scott fan community. It's happened to us before. What most people don't realise is that copyrighted material is protected by the law. The ISP of the message boards were contacted to have the link forcibly removed (but thankfully the moderators were very helpful and made sure the links were deleted as soon as we let them know the file had been spread without our permission), as was the journal host for the fan community (the poster removed her entry immediately upon finding out it ws stolen), and the fileshare website it was uploaded on. All links were swiftly removed, and the fileshare website administrators deleted the file from their servers, and put a ban on anyone uploading it again. We don't think this girl or anyone else that steals copyrighted material realises that they can't just get in trouble themselves, but they can also get the websites, message boards and communities they post the link on in trouble.

In the aftermath, the girls of the WB forums, the girls in the fan community and the mods from one of the forums the file was spread on have been nothing but supportive. We're not going to name that forum here, because we do not wish to draw any more negative attention to it and don't want anyone to go there to troll against the girl who spread the file. Almost completely without exception, our decision to not upload the interview was met with understanding. Several fans expressed sadness that they wouldn't get to see it, but still they understood where we were coming from and respected out feelings on the matter. It was upsetting to see how all the patient, respectful fans who had waited for the video were the ones who never got to see it, and the ones who spread it and talked negatively about it (most of those fans later apologised for doing so) were the ones who got to see it. We decided to let the matter die down and then we'd bring up the subject again and decide what we wanted to do.

What it comes down to is the fact that we worked hard and put a lot of effort into getting this interview done. We took time out of our time with Scott to do this for the all fans who wanted to know what was going on. We transfered, edited, changed formats and uploaded the file, and wrote out a transcript. We did not do this for ourselves. We were there, we could have asked him all those questions, said thanks and gone on our merry way. We'd know, and those that had the chance to go to a show and were lucky enough to get to talk to him for more than 2 minutes would know, but nobody else. We did this interview for you, who are reading this right now, and for all the fans out there who still care about Scott and his music. We didn't have to. And after all the work we put into it, we had our efforts stepped on in such a way. It might not seem like a huge deal to some of the fans out there, but most of you understand and we're very thankful for that. We honestly did not and still do not feel like going through all that trouble again at a later time, in order to upload interviews or show bootlegs, when this is how our work is treated. We're still waiting for that apology, over a week later. We doubt it's ever going to come.

Some fans are disrespectful and see nothing wrong in stealing others hard work to get some credit to themselves. That shouldn't get in the way of those fans who do know what respect is though, and above all, it should not come in the way of spreading information about the musician we're all here to support. We have decided that it is in the best interest of Scott and all the cool fans out there that the video is uploaded again and made available to everyone, and so it has been. We ask that you understand how hurt and angry we were, and that you kindly do not hotlink the file, or upload it anywhere else. We will take the file down for good if this happens, and we will go to the measures we see fit to get the file removed from any website that does not have the permission to have it (and none do, except ours). If you find anyone doing either, please contact us immediately.

Lastly - because this became such an issue in one of the message board threads - we would like to explain that no, Scott does not hate us. Obviously he would not bother letting us interview him if he did, nor would he waste time talking to us at all. The reason he keeps looking away from the camera and to his right during the interview is not hatred or boredom, it is the simple fact that the person asking the questions is standing there, out of view of the camera. It isn't more complex than that.