Guy gets “sued” over bad review

January 15, 2008 D. H. McKee

Or rather, gets threatened by the director and writer and is issued a DMCA takedown notice. It may be a cheap publicity stunt by the filmmaker, but the whininess looks legit.
BJ Davis vs. Me â.. Two Days Later – Your Video Store Shelf

This sure has been an interesting two and a half days. As I begin to write this itâ..s about 5:30 AM Eastern on Monday night going into Tuesday morning. I feel that I should give a rundown of what happened from my side of things, along with some history on what appears to have led to this whole deal. Every fact in this article is backed up by documentation, and my opinions are just that â.. opinions. Comments are open on this post to anything but derogatory remarks.
Before I begin, since I know there are only going to be a few people with the patience to read this in full, let me point out that Forget About It is not a horrible movie. In my opinion it is unfunny and forgettable, or at least it was forgettable before all this happened. Itâ..s not a Uwe Boll movie by any stretch of the imagination. Please remember that while BJ Davis may still stand to profit from the film (Iâ..m not sure of this answer), there are other people who are completely innocent in this ordeal that may end up suffering as a result of the negative publicity created by the threats Iâ..ve received. The people at Big Screen Entertainment Group, as this article explains, appear guilty of nothing more than having a name that makes me laugh. They have been in court with Mr. Davis multiple times over the past several years and have been nothing but helpful in trying to get this mess sorted out. If you want to support them without renting Forget About It, feel free to buy stock in their company. Itâ..s at 7 cents a share as I type this so even I can afford it.

2 Responses to “Guy gets “sued” over bad review”

Ivana Truth
17 years ago

Internet Hoax by Gregory Conley and the website for â..Your Video Store Shelfâ.
Amateur reviewer hopeful Gregory Conley seeks to publicize an obscure website at the expense of the award-winning feature film â..Forget About Itâ.
Beverly Hills, CA – January 15, 2008 – Internet hoax circulating throughout the blogosphere prompted Producer/Director BJ Davis to release a public statement regarding a lawsuit alleged to have been filed against an amateur film reviewer Gregory Conley of Your Video Store Shelf, operating from Conleyâ..s New Jersey residence. Producer/Director BJ Davis stated: â..I have been informed that a hoax has been released throughout the Internet, claiming that I sued an unknown individual and his company for allegedly writing a â..negativeâ. review of the award-winning comedy â..Forget About Itâ.. In reality, no such lawsuit has been filed and such claims by Mr. Conley are baseless.
â..Your Video Store Shelfâ. website was used as a vehicle to publish Conleyâ..s personal opinions of the film as a fledgling film critic, apparently without ever watching it. Mr. Conley was exposed in numerous misrepresentations, as his commentary reflected on performances by actors who were not in the film, has shown Mr. Conley not being familiar with the plot of â..Forget About Itâ. and derailed his attempts to portray the film as a straight-to-video project. Furthermore, Mr. Conley made serious misrepresentations about the filmâ..s financing, falsely claiming that the stellar Academy Award nominated cast members were secured only due to the production companyâ..s alleged enrollment in the Arizona tax credit program.
Once Conley was confronted with the obvious false representations and claims, he responded that since heâ..s not a professional film critic, he should not be held to the same standard of truth, ethics and accountability. Gregory Conley asserted that as a beginner critic, he was entitled to take â..cheap shotsâ., incorrectly believing that being financially-challenged exempted Mr. Conley and â..Your Video Store Shelfâ. from any liability.
Gregory Conley admitted in writing that his original self-described â..bashingâ. of â..Forget About Itâ. contained numerous misrepresentations, which he was forced to amend. Desperate to obtain unwarranted publicity for his obscure website, Mr. Conley and Your Video Store Shelf commenced a campaign of harassment, Internet stalking and retaliation against our production team to do legal, financial, professional and critical harm to the project.
â..Your Video Store Shelfâ. published a number of messages, purporting to be written by Producer Guild and Directors Guild of America member BJ Davis and his spouse, Screenwriter Julia Davis. These unlawful activities by Mr. Conley resulted in a widespread Internet hoax, whereby various untrue claims have been made to garner unwarranted attention to Your Video Store Shelf.
According to the statements made by Gregory Conley, his website had a daily average traffic of 25 visitors, prior to Mr. Conleyâ..s hoax that was apparently designed to increase Internet traffic to his site. By engaging in these actions, Gregory Conley and â..Your Video Store Shelfâ. violated the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the California Computer Data Access and Fraud Act as well as other relevant laws and regulations. Producers of â..Forget About Itâ. are certain that authorities will promptly investigate these violations and take appropriate measuresâ..
The feature film â..Forget About Itâ. premiered theatrically and received the Best Picture Award at the New Jersey International Film Festival. The film was selected as a top contender for The Phoenix Film Festival, Worldfest Film Festival, Palm Beach Film Festival, Beverly Hills Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival, USA Network Film Festival, Moondance and others. The film recently received a favorable review from the critically acclaimed, internationally renowned film and television industry trade publication â..Varietyâ..
For additional information, visit:
http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6509067.html
http://www.bjdavisfilms.com
dmckee
17 years ago

It’s weird that this little nugget of truth originates from the bjdavisfilms.com website, which looks suspiciously like BJ Davis’s own website, though I wouldn’t suggest that it actually is. Any other pages referencing this supposed hoax are referencing this very comment or “press release”. Most of them have removed it already, but I’m leaving it here for consideration.
What’s really funny is that the videobusiness.com article does nothing except review “Forget About It,” calls the film a “silly but inoffensive comedy” and:
“Aside from marquee value, Forget About It doesnâ..t have much to offer, so it’ll have to be sold on the backs of more successful comedies with similar characters or themes.”

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