"RENT-A-RASTA" PART TWO
DUBROOM IN-SITE PART 8
WWW, April 2008 - WWW, April 2008 - In september 2007, the Dubroom published a review of the video "Rent-A-Rasta". The aftermath of the Dubroom review uncovered some interesting background information surfacing on the Dubroom Message Boards as well as from the producer himself.
Messian Dread reports.When you write someone an email, it's possible to add a subject to the mail. If the recipient decides to reply, usually an email program will add "Re:" to the subject line.
When you have an email in your in-box that says "Re: pirate rastas", it means that someone is responding to an email that originally had the subject "Pirate Rastas".
I got an email that had "Re: pirate rastas" as the topic. The fact that I couldn't remember to have written an email with that topic as well as the name of the sender, drew my interest.
The email informed me, that the Dubroom contact pages were not working. Still, the sender somehow knew my email address and he wasn't responding to an email I had send him.
The email turned out to be written by the producer of the video "Rent A Rasta". The video was
reviewed in September 2007 and recently, some very interesting background information about the documentary surfaced on the Dubroom Message boards that added, let's say, extra dimensions to the whole thing and not very positively.
The guy wrote me to remove a page from the Dubroom website, claiming that it linked to a "pirated copy" of the video. Since the video was uploaded to
Google Video, I wrote him back that if he thinks the video should not be on the Google Video servers, he should write to them.
This is where he became kind of nasty.
He wrote me back and more or less announced, after calling Google a "typical Babylonian corporation", how he would start to spread a rumor that the video was actually uploaded by the Dubroom or at least in cooperation with the Dubroom.
Strange...
I wondered why he would do such a thing. Would he be writing this to all the websites that may have his video embedded? After all, it's simple. If he thinks the video shouldn't be on Google Video, he should write to Google and not to websites that have the video embedded. If there's truly a mention of a "pirated copy", then Google will take it off and the websites that have the video embedded will not "link to a pirated copy" anymore either.
I wondered if it had anything to do with the things that came to the surface on the Dubroom Messageboards after the review was written. A positive review, by the way, for which the producer of the reviewed material had no interest whatsoever.
It was all about money, so it seemed. Even spreading false rumors was apparently allowed in that cause!
This was exactly the same vibe we got from the information that surfaced on the Dubroom Message Boards.
A visitor of the Dubroom
told us, how she saw the video while in Jamaica. Since she knows some of them personally, she came to know that the youths who "eagerly participated" in the film, were all paid $20 for their cooperation.
"Hear-say", was the initial response of the producer when I asked him about this particular fact. "Ethical", he said, after being asked again. But he continued to call it "hear-say" and said he had no time to deal with it since he "wasn't a talk show host"...
Apparently, though, he had time to write to the Dubroom, even to find out the email address, only to call us names ("Pirate Rastas") and threaten us to spread false rumors about us uploading material to Google Video.
The producer of the video refused to answer the question if he sent such threatening letters to every site that may have his video embedded. After all, there is no (legal) reason to do so. When the uploaded video truly is a "pirated copy", you should write to Google Video and not to sites that have Google video's embedded.
Besides, he was responding to an email that was not sent by me or from the Dubroom, with the topic "Pirate Rastas". He knew the Dubroom's email address as well, since he informed me that the contact page wasn't working and wrote directly to one of the Dubroom email addresses.
Now, was that video uploaded to Google by or in connection with the Dubroom? NO. If you ever hear so, you know where the rumor came from.
It came from a guy who is more interested in making money than in spreading information. A guy who is more interested in spreading false rumors than in being happy with a positive review.
A guy who "co-incidentally" writes to the Dubroom exactly at the time when his video is discussed and information comes to the surface that puts his work in, let's say, a different light and perspective.
He wrote me, that he was only familiar with that page on the Dubroom that had the video embedded. Was he not even familiar with the review? Was he not aware of the things that surfaces on the Dubroom Message Boards?
He said, no... But can you believe someone who privately announces to be willing to spread false rumors for money?
Nuff Said.