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The Cyberattack on Alongside Night
by J. Neil Schulman
[email protected]

Special to L. Neil Smith's The Libertarian Enterprise

The last showing of Alongside Night was Oct. 23, 2014 in Spokane, WA. The movie is not yet available on Blu-Ray, DVD, VOD or streaming. As of now the movie is two-and-a-half months past its last public availability, awaiting general release via wider theatrical and the above-mentioned home-entertainment media later this year.

So how is it that within the last ten days—two-and-a-half months after its last screening—there have been 75 IMDb ratings for the movie, a dozen of them posted in the last 24 hours, 22 of them from non-U.S. users—and 59—78.7—of these votes are the lowest possible rating of 1 out of 10? This gives Alongside Night an IMDb rating of 2.4 out of a possible 10 and gives a false-flag impression that an audience that has seen the movie has rejected it. The intent is an attempt to discourage further distribution by giving potential vendors the impression there's no market for it.

Alongside Night Official Movie Poster

This trolling of Alongside Night on IMDb is nothing new for the movie's writer/producer/director—me. It follows from the same action against my previous movie, Lady Magdalene's, by anonymous attackers with multiple sock-puppet accounts.

I haven't been subject to lethal terrorism such as the firebombing then shootings at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, but there are Internet-based opponents to my libertarian-themed film-making who have had me in their sights for years and they're still at work.

I don't have the resources to penetrate their anonymity and stop them as was done with the cyberattacks on Sony for producing The Interview.

Alongside Night portrays the Dark Net as an asset for free speech and free communications. Is there no one at Anonymous to out these anti-libertarian trolls?

Addendum January 15, 2015:

I wrote to IMDb's Help Desk:

Spoofed IMDb ratings for Alongside Night (2014)

by—[email protected] (5 Jan 2015 12:52:16 PM)

URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1667061/ratings

Alongside Night is not yet in general release and has only had limited screenings via TUGG, the last of which was October 23, 2014. The movie has never been available on DVD or VOD or any streaming service. Yet, in the last week, 56 IMDb ratings have appeared, 41 of them a rating of "1", and 8 of them from outside the United States where the movie has never been seen.

These IMDb ratings have appeared at the same time trolling of the IMDb message board for Alongside Night has resumed

If IMDb has any interest in making sure its ratings are by individuals who have seen the movie these ratings are clearly from anonymous spoof accounts from trolls who wish to launch a cyberattack on the movie to create an artificially low rating that can be quoted across the Internet.

I request that IMDb investigate the accounts posting these spoofed ratings and remove any rating that can not be linked to a real person.

J. Neil Schulman
Managing Member, Alongside Night LLC

IMDb's Help Desk responded:

Re: Spoofed IMDb ratings for Alongside Night (2014)

by—IMDb Help Desk (7 Jan 2015 01:52:15 PM)

Thank you for contacting us.

Once we determine that a film has been completed and released (or screened at least once) we allow users to vote on it.

Based on our information, the film has been screened at least once. Therefore we can't remove or block votes for it.

Please be aware that individual votes have different weight on the user rating, and that our voting system is design to detect attempts to stuff the ballot and adjust the rating accordingly when generating the weighted average for a title.

For more information, please refer to faq

--
Regards,

The IMDb Help Desk

IMDb has zero interest in honest user ratings for movies. They defend anonymous sock-puppet trolling of their ratings. Nobody interested in accuracy in media should give IMDb's ratings any credibility whatsoever.

See my earlier articles here:

"Je Suis Charlie"

Become An IMDb Troll in Ten Easy Steps!

A Warning to Indie Filmmakers About IMDb

First published at jneilschulman.rationalreview.com

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