If you were to go to fightclub.com right now, all that is left now is a page that links to Amazon.com, in stark contrast to the website that existed before. fightclub.com provided information well in advance of most other sources (and long before the creation of the official Fight Club websites by FOX) on all aspects of the movie before and after it's release. fightclub.com was the first to announce the early websites set up by FOX, tylerdurden.com and tinylife.com. Also included on the site before it was anywhere else on the web was the official Fight Club trailer, the two minute preview that was shown in theaters. fightclub.com sold the official Fight Club posters, sold the novel and the soundtrack through Amazon.com, and offered email accounts "yourname@fightclub.com" free for six months with the purchase of a poster. They also held a free "Fight Club" sweepstakes where they gave away Fight Club soundtracks (they also either gave away the poster or the novel, I can't remember which). They posted quotes/links from the national reviews of the movie, mentioned magazines that had articles on "Fight Club", provided answers to frequently asked questions, posted box office results for Fight Club, and listed Fight Club related websites. According to one of the last updates from the website, fightclub.com received over one million visitors in the nearly five months that it was online.
In the beginning of November, the webmasters of fightclub.com were contacted by FOX's legal department as to the use of FOX's property without permission. This apparently was a shock since the webmasters had obtained the information and the trailer from representatives of FOX, however, the use of these items apparently "did not go through the proper channels". FOX also apparently had a problem with the use of the Fight Club official poster. Although it is the official poster, it is not a licensed item. If it were licensed, FOX would have to pay Brad Pitt and EN a percentage on every poster sold because their images are used on the poster. The posters apparently say "for promotional use only". So in actuality, the poster itself shouldn't be sold anywhere, they should just be sent to movie theaters to advertise the film. It is, however, available for purchase through many large poster retailers (as well as two other posters one featuring just BP and one featuring just EN). In the last update from 11/9 they received a certified letter stating that they have infringed on FOX's intellectual property. FOX is now demanding that they transfer the domain name FIGHTCLUB.com and THEFIGHTCLUB.com (as well as minority-report.com) over to Fox, without compensation. [The Minority Report is an upcoming Spieberg sci-fi thriller which will star Tom Cruise and possibly Matt Damon]. The website itself was almost completely removed (with the exception of entirely different main page) on 11/11.
This information that I have posted on the is based on my memory of the updates posted by the fightclub.com webmasters, as well as some of the sections of the updates of the information that I posted in their entirity on the Edward Norton list. Therefore you are receiving a one-sided account of the dispute which relies to certain degree on my recollection. Things to note when you evaluate this account. FOX has repeatedly removed elaborate fan created websites on the X-files, Buffy, and the Simpsons. Many of these website were not selling anything nor were they doing anything harmful to the reputation of the particular show. They were created simply in honor of the show and they amounted to a bunch of free publicity. FOX chose to remove these sites anyway, and still continues to do so even though the practice has caused a great deal of anger from Internet-active fans. As mentioned earlier, fightclub.com had been in operation for nearly five months and was very easy to find online, however, it wasn't until weeks after Fight Club was released in the U.S. that FOX decided to shut them down. Why didn't they do so early on?
One important thing to mention that underscores the value of fightclub.com is that both of the official Fight Club websites are shockwave intensive, which prevents individuals using Webtv or older browsers, or browsers without the needed plug-in from accessing any part of the official sites. There were several people, including myself, who even with Shockwave experienced some technical difficulties when using the website. fightclub.com was largely text based with some images, and easy to access for almost anyone with a browser.
I think that FOX's demand of transferring the domain names is due to the recent passage of legislation (passed at the end of October) against "cybersquatting". Studios, corporations, and celebrities will now be able to sue people who register a domain name that too closely resembles the name of a studio, movie, song, famous person, rock group or trademark. "The bill approved by the House includes language expressly forbidding the registration of 'a famous personal name' as a URL if the buyer has 'unfair' intentions, such as selling it for profit, using it for pornography or misleading the public by falsely suggesting celebrity endorsement." Some people in the past have registered movie names as domains and tried to sell it to the studios at a unbelievably high price. Others have bought celebrity names as domains and started porn sites. This was even done to Edward Norton. I ended up with the domain name of "edward-norton.com" for my website because the domain name "edwardnorton.com" was already taken. Although their website is currently shut down, "edwardnorton.com" was previously used as a porn site: the source code contains the following in the meta tags "sex pics, adult pictures, xxx-pics,xxx-videos, x rated movies, pornos, porno movies- Looking for only the finest pornography on the net? It's right here!". The official website for Primal Fear was taken down fairly quickly after the movie was released- however, the domain name used by the official site (www.primalfear.com) is now used for a porn site. The legislation has been created for a good reason, whether it will be used for good purposes is something different altogether
If you have new information on Edward Norton (and you can provide a verifiable and reputable source), please email me- Susan
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