For the past three years, Mark Pollard has been writing reviews and posting news on his website Kung Fu Cinema.
But while he's used to feedback from fellow fans of kung fu movies, Pollard was caught by surprise recently when he heard from a new correspondent – Miramax Film. In a letter drafted by its legal affairs department, the studio demanded that Pollard stop selling copies of a Chinese film for which it owns the distribution rights.
Pollard said he found the letter particularly shocking given that Kung Fu Cinema does not sell films. It merely links to websites that do.
"It's pretty hard-core as far as I'm concerned," said Pollard, a Seattle bookstore employee. "I don't sell anything except my Kung Fu Cinema T-shirts."
The cease-and-desist letter from Miramax landed on Pollard's doorstep last week, demanding that he stop selling copies of Hero, a 2002 film starring Jet Li. The movie was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, and is scheduled for release in the United States in April 2004.
"It has come to our attention that you are selling, distributing and/or otherwise exploiting copies of the film Hero on DVD and/or VHS," the letter reads. "Please be aware that Miramax Film Corp. is the exclusive licensee of the right to distribute Hero on all home video formats, as well as through other forms of exploitation in, among other territories, the United States and Canada. Your actions in this regard are completely unauthorized and violate valuable rights held by Miramax."
The allegations were a revelation to Pollard.
"I wasn't aware that I was an accessory to any wrongdoing," he said. "I want to be legitimate; I don't want to do anything shady."
The Hero review page on Pollard's site linked to HKFlix.com, a U.S. company that sold Hero and other films. But the company stopped selling the film in June, months before Pollard received the cease-and-desist letter. The link remained on the Kung Fu Cinema site, but those who clicked on it weren't able to purchase the film.
Jeff Stockton, CEO of HKFlix.com, said Miramax routinely informs his company when it purchases distribution rights to movies, and the site complies by removing those films.
Nonetheless, Miramax contends that its decision to send a cease-and-desist letter to the Kung Fu Cinema site was a sound one.
"The letter served its purpose because Mr. Pollard stopped linking to the sites," said Matthew Hiltzik, a representative for Miramax. "By removing these links, he's making it more difficult for people to purchase these films, thereby allowing us to protect our interest in these properties."
Hiltzik said Kung Fu Cinema was encouraging people to buy the film when it linked to HKFlix.com. He declined to comment on the dead-end link.
After receiving the legal notice, Pollard deleted the link and voluntarily deleted the link to Shaolin Soccer, another film to which Miramax owns the rights. He sent a statement to a Miramax lawyer assuring the company he would not link to any sites that sell import versions of films owned by Miramax.
But he also registered a protest with the company for failing to offer the films in their original versions to U.S. consumers.
In the past, the films have been edited to suit an American audience's taste, Pollard said, but forbidding access to these films in their original version is frustrating for many Asian-film fans.
"I understand that they feel the need to make changes to these films to market them to an American audience," he said. "But by not allowing the original version to be made available to U.S. and Canadian residents, I feel they are saying you don't have the right to see this film in the way it was originally intended to be seen by its makers.
"If they own the rights to this film, then this film is not available to U.S. consumers – period."
Pollard believes that delaying Shaolin Soccer's release has sent many martial-arts film fanatics online to download the movie illegally. Shaolin Soccer was one of the top 10 downloaded films for four months running in 2003, according to BayTSP, which tracks downloads on peer-to-peer networks.
Pollard said that limiting the availability of these films just drives more people to bootlegging or file swapping.
"The other thing that really irks me is that I would be happy to support a U.S. release," Pollard said. "I just want people to see this film. I think it would be very well-received. It has some terrific action sequences in it."
Jason Schultz, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said Miramax got its facts wrong when it targeted Pollard.
"Once again this shows how overzealous enforcement of copyright has an effect on free speech," Schultz said. "This guy clearly runs his website to give his opinion about movies that he loves, and links to more information on the movies, such as where you can buy them."
Links are "a part of a discussion ... you're not only writing what you think but you are providing additional information about what you think and it's all interwoven together as speech," Schultz said.
Other Asian-film fans defended their right to link to information about the films they critique.
"We don't know what the customer will buy from these links," said Janick Neveu, co-founder of Kung Fu Cult Cinema, located in Montreal. "We don't have control over that."
