RIAA and RPGFilms: Pt. III

Quick Update: Good news - looks like RPGFilms is back online.

Wow, this blogging 3 days in a row thing might become a habit...

Continuing on the RPGFilms/RIAA story, is a posting over at TribalWar, where Rayn has conversed with Hadriel (owner/admin of RPGFilms) about the events that lead up to his taking down RPGFilms.

A quote from Hadriel's statement:

To sum up, everything looked real enough to me, and after speaking with several people in the online community they would have done exactly as I had done which was to take down the content per the request and to contact an attorney that would look into it further.

Most interesting is this statement:

Also I would like to say that I had the reporters contact me and have had no contact from the RIAA saying it was a hoax.

While Cory Doctorow's contact with the RIAA stated that they never issued the takedown notice, Hadriel's report of the incident doesn't synch with Cory's findings. It could be that the site was targeted by the RIAA in a mass sweep, and when pressed to acknowledge that its content was possible fair use, the back-pedaling began (which, could also be a "scare them out of existence" tactic). Or it could still be a case of the right hand not knowing what the left is up to.

The one thing is that it's sounding less likely that this was some sort of hoax. As Hadriel stated, they approached his ISP first, who then contacted him about the site. Sure, it could still be a prank, but if it were, they were being really methodical about it.

Right now, Hadriel is undecided as to whether RPGFilms will be back. That would be the real shame/damage here - as RPGFilms was one of the more popular Machinima sites. We need sites like his, and it just plain-out sucks that this took place - joke or no. For whom ever wanted this result, surely got what they were looking for.

More news as it develops...