Odeon Orders Takedown Of Copycat Site

Tuxedo Jack writes "The Register reports that Odeon Cinemas, a British theater chain, has ordered a takedown of a copycat version of its site that was made by a disability activist. The original didn't work outside of IE on Windows and was in violation of the Disability Discrimination Act; the activist-recoded one worked on everything. Odeon has flip-flopped on the issue, too; they liked it when it was first up, and now they don't."

And since Odeon couldn't take down the site...

[Tezkah]

... a slashdotting will. :\

Re:First post

[Anonymous Coward]

This first post must be taken down immediately.

Regards

Odeon

Outraged? So am I!

[goldspider]

Let me save you the effort of expressing your angst! Just fill in the blanks!

I am ___________ over this article!
a. saddened
b. outraged
c. bleeding from my ass

___________ is once again treading on my rights, and I'm fed up with it!
a. Microsoft
b. SCO
c. The RIAA
d. The MPAA
e. George W. Bush

I am entitled to ___________
a. free software,
b. free music,
c. free movies,
d. other people's money,

and should not have to risk being ___________
a. thrown in jail!!
b. held responsible for my actions!!
c. called a terrorist, socialist or communist!!

In this FREE (as in beer, er I mean SPEECH) country, I should be able to take comfort in knowing that ___________
a. society will pay for my personal shortcomings.
b. industry exists to provide me with stuff regardless of whether or not I can't afford it.
c. the law doesn't apply to me.
d. the United States answers to an organization comprised 2/3 of dictatorships.

When will this tyranny end? We need to stand up and fight for a world where our children can ___________
a. treat their parents and teachers as equals.
b. learn that Christianity, and all who practice it are better off dead.
c. watch clown porn from the comfort of the elementary school library.
d. revel in the freedom of moral relativism.

I for one am going to do my part TODAY by ___________
a. writing an angry letter to my congressmen... yeah right!
b. doing another J.
c. living in my parents' basement in protest!
d. post to inconsequential blogs like Slashdot.

Depends on the disability

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

The original didn't work outside of IE on Windows and was in violation of the Disability Discrimination Act

Well, I for one liked the original. I suffer from mental retardation you see, and as a result I only use and swear by Microsoft products. As a disabled person, I can testify that the original website worked perfectly.

The new page on the other hand, which was aimed at open-minded people who used other, non-Microsoft browsers, was constantly reminding me of my disability and as such was totally discriminatory. And not just to me, but to all the disabled IT guys at Odeon also! I am so glad it's not accessible anymore, so I can go back to my comforting illusions.

Pedantic Britsh Englishness

[Fred Or Alive]

I know this is an American website, but Odeon Cinemas is a chain of cinemas, not theatres (which are this marvellous new thing where actual real people act the story out in front of your eyes, no film involved!)

Bloody yanks... ;-)

Coming to Hollywood?

[katsiris]

Someone should make a movie about this.

Let's see the spelling NAZIs jump on this!

[Thud457]

How Odeous!

Re:Outraged? So am I!

[mekkab]

I am outraged that you:

A) think I am so predictable that 4 measly options will cover 99.999% of my reactions

B) glossed over other important issues

C) didn't fill in the blanks for me

D) there is no D...

Yep, B it is.

Here we go again.

[Beardo the Bearded]

Every time someone orders a site down, it gets posted on Slashdot.

Guess what - the sites go down.

Answers:

[Anonymous Coward]

a,d,a-c,b,c,c,d.

What's my score?

Thank God for his efforts

[gpinzone]

Maybe the blind can't see the movie, but at least they can buy tickets! Thank you Accessible Od*on!

Re:Slashdot

[Anonymous Coward]

Right on the money. Anti-Slash [anti-slash.org] also criticizes Slashdot for its lack of standards compliance. Yet, Anti-Slash itself is not HTML compliant [w3.org].

Re:The website...

[SoSueMe]

A developer asked me today "How many blind people access our site?".

I answered "God forbid, if the wrong thing happened to you today, tomorrow we could have one more."

True quote.
I test web accessibility, BTW.

Re:So What...?

[tabrnaker]

umm, view source??

Re:Welll

[red floyd]

But this "Act" would seem to make it illegal to make a site that is all flash

Seems to me that's an argument in favor of the Act.

Better yet...

[sterno]

Kill two birds with one stone and hire the guy to fix the website. I guarantee that he's cheaper than the lawyers. It'd also make great publicity.

Re: wrong priorities here...

[SpaceLifeForm]

Yes, Odeon has messed up in a SCO fashion, but I can imagine that MS actually pressured Odeon to do this.

Re:$1/GB? I doubt it...

[sharkey]

I do, however, feel that having a fully-complaint website should be about more than just cost savings.

Considering the amount of bitching that goes on here, I'd say that Slashdot is mostly-complaint, but will likely never make it to fully-complaint outside of SCO/MPAA/RIAA/Microsoft articles.

Re:Answers:

[PsiPsiStar]

You are kind and sensitive and enjoy talking to strangers. You bear a healthy disregard to political issues and are not offended by most things you see in the news.

While your friends view you as somthing of a pushover, they also respect your intelligence.

Your lucky number is 7
Your sun sign is Leo
Your lucky day was 2 years, 3 months ago

Re:The website...

[dasmegabyte]

visually disabled (who do go to movies, believe it or not)

Oh, I believe it. In fact, I've got the sneaking suspicious that many modern films are DIRECTED by the visually disabled.

Re:Wrong priorities here...

[Tony Hoyle]

I used to have a .tv email address. The odeon site refused point blank to allow me to book because it was 'invalid'. I started going to other cinemas instead... Great marketing guys.

Re:Open and shut, IMO

[Nogami_Saeko]

Might be worth sending the company itself a letter saying that their "Marketing Director" is doing a fine job of representing their company on the web and should be commended for their "no-nonsense" attitude towards making sure that websites designed for the disabled were crushed without compromise.

Ah yes, nothing says "savvy PR technique" like having your Marketing Director make your company look cold and heartless towards disabled people when it's "featured" on one of the busiest websites on the planet.

But on a totally different level, I can understand their frustration. A guy who's not employed by the company designed a better and more usable system than their presumably well-paid webmonkies could create.

I'd put my money on "the source of the complaints" coming from Odeon "in-house website elements" that didn't like the free competition outdoing them...

N.