Category: Strictly Spoiler

So unless you’ve been living in a cave somewhere for the last month you should have known that the BBC in their infinite wisdom had my Facebook page removed last month for apparently breaching their trademarks in relation to Strictly Come Dancing. The page was reinstated last week after I very lengthily pointed out that the page was not in breach of the Trademarks Act 1994 and the BBC relented although they did threaten me with the possibility of revisiting the issue if I continued to post information that was already in the public domain prior to them showing the results show. I’ve already gone into my response to that request/threat in quite some depth.

Shortly after the Facebook page was removed I sent the BBC a Freedom Of Information request asking how many complaints they had made to Facebook to request the removal of content due to alleged infringements of their Strictly Come Dancing Trademarks from 2006 until the present date and of those requests how many resulted in the removal of content. The BBC today responded to this FOI request. Here is their response:

Dear Mr Thorp 

Freedom of Information Request – RFI20151969 

Thank you for your request to the BBC of 18 November 2015, seeking the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“the Act”): 

“The number of requests the BBC have made to have content removed from Facebook for alleged infringement of any of the trademarks the BBC holds in relation to “Strictly Come Dancing” and of those requests how many resulted in the removal of content. I require this information for each year from 2006 to 2015 inclusive with the 2015 data covering the year to date and the data for the other years covering the year as a whole.” 

It may be helpful to explain in general terms how the BBC deals with alleged infringements of trade mark rights in relation to material posted on Facebook. Reports of such infringements may come from BBC staff, partners of the BBC or from members of the public. In all cases they are dealt with by the Intellectual Property team in the BBC Legal Division. 

The team considers each report, and where action is warranted, completes a Trademark Report Form provided by Facebook on its platform to request that the content is taken down. Facebook then responds by email confirming that it has received the request. Normally in the same email, Facebook will set out its initial position on the complaint. If it does not accept the complaint, Facebook invites the complainant to clarify its position and explain why it believes its rights have been infringed. Similarly, if Facebook requires further information or evidence before it can reach a final decision, it invites the complainant to submit that further information or evidence. At this point, the Intellectual Property team will normally submit further information or evidence to Facebook and further explain how the trade mark rights in question have been infringed and why the content complained of should be taken down. If Facebook accepts these further submissions, the content is subsequently taken down. 

In relation to your request under the Act, we confirm that, during the years 2006 to 2015 inclusive, the BBC has made one request to Facebook for the removal of content on the basis of an infringement of the BBC’s trade marks relating to Strictly Come Dancing. This request was made in November 2015 and was directed at “The Strictly Spoiler” Facebook page. The request resulted in the removal of the page. 

By way of background information, the limited application of the Act to public service broadcasters was originally intended to protect freedom of expression and the rights of the media under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The BBC, as a media organisation, is under a duty to impart information and ideas on all matters of public interest and the importance of this function has been recognised by the European Court of Human Rights. Maintaining its editorial independence is a crucial factor in enabling the BBC to fulfil this function. 

That said, the BBC makes a huge range of information available about programmes which it broadcasts and related content on the website hosted at www.bbc.co.uk. It also proactively publishes information covered by the Act on its publication scheme and regularly handles requests for information under the Act. 

Appeal Rights 

If you are not satisfied that we have complied with the Act in responding to your request, you have the right to an internal review by a BBC senior manager or legal adviser. Please contact us at the address above, explaining what you would like us to review and including your reference number. If you are not satisfied with the internal review, you can appeal to the Information Commissioner. The contact details are: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow SK9 5AF. Telephone 01625 545 700 or see http://www.ico.gov.uk/ 

Yours sincerely, 

BBC Information Rights

So just my page then. In 10 years! Think that tells us everything we need to know, not that we didn’t already know that this was nothing to do with Trademark but about the content of the page in question!

Well here we are again, it’s the end of the series at least as far as spoilers are concerned with just one more spoiler to come in later today. The Strictly Spoiler has had another huge year and I’d like to say a few words. I’m not going to do an 8 minute long video this year that 5 of you will watch and only 2 of you will watch in full though so instead here’s a post that hopefully you will all take the time to read.

I really didn’t think anything would top off 2014. That was a huge year when The Strictly Spoiler that I’d been posting to my personal blog since 2012 as a bit of fun suddenly got what I considered then to be massive interest. So massive that my previous web host couldn’t cope with the traffic. It took me by surprise just how much interest it was starting to get and I was blown away by the traffic my site was getting all of a sudden. However 2015 has just completely blown that out the water.

The Strictly Spoiler has received more views in 2015 alone than my blog has since 2007. Last year there was about 250,000 views attributed to The Strictly Spoiler. This year there will have been over a million after this weekend. I am completely blown away by how much this site has grown. When I first started to do this I did it purely as a bit of fun. I got a few hundred and occasionally a thousand or so views over a Strictly Weekend and I was pleased with that. I was also pleased (not to mention very surprised) when in 2014 I started getting about 30-40,000 views over a Strictly Weekend. At it’s peak in 2015 the Strictly Spoiler received over 180,000 views which to me is a mind boggling number. I never expected for this to become as popular as it has and I still can’t believe that so many of you come to a website I produce to read the content I produce.

Despite the success we’ve had a few dark times. Week 2 for the 1st Elimination was the first time The Strictly Spoiler got it partially wrong. I’ve spoken in depth about how and why that happened and what I’ve done to increase transparency about where each week’s spoiler has come from so you know if it is likely to be right. An overwhelming number of you supported me through that on here, Twitter and on Facebook.

Also with this site’s growth has come the attention of the BBC who in November launched an attack on The Strictly Spoiler resulting in the removal of the Facebook page I’d launched this year. This annoyed me to no end not least because I’d spent nearly £100 of my own money advertising the page to grow it into the community it had become and it also gave people somewhere on social media where they could discuss the spoiler without risking spoiling it for people who didn’t want to be spoiled. Also the BBC, as a publicly funded broadcaster, have no right to be curtailing my right to Freedom of Speech. I get that the BBC aren’t happy that the results leak out however this is purely of their own doing and they could put a stop to it in a heartbeat by simply reverting to a live results show. Instead they would rather use their corporate clout to bully an individual and have their content removed purely because they don’t approve of it. Quite a few of you, including a lot of names I recognised from Facebook, here and Twitter signed the petition I launched demanding this be reversed and it was reversed this week. Thanks to everyone who signed the petition and supported me and this site during this dispute with the BBC!

Moving on, there’s quite a few more people I would like to thank starting with the people who are actually reading this far into the post. You are the people who actually read and engage with the content I produce rather than reading the 2nd paragraph of the spoiler post and moving on as the majority do. This year we’ve had a record number of comments on here, on Facebook and on Twitter with people engaging with and discussing things with each other as well as me. I do read each and every comment I get and whilst I might not reply to them all I do take note of everything you guys say in the comments. This has become one of the nicer places to discuss Strictly with only a small minority making inappropriate comments about contestants or other users. I have taken a largely hands off policy with the moderation on here and you can count the comments that have been moderated on one hand so thanks to everyone who has commented but done so in a nice way despite differences of opinion. Given this site’s growth I may be looking into ways of improving the comments system for 2016 as the current one is pretty basic in terms of implementation and social features.

I also take note of the results of the polls (most of which have been won by Jay and Aliona this year) and often use stats from them when tweeting and facebooking along to the live shows. I ran a competition this year too which was my way of giving something back to the people that take the time to read the content and consequently actually noticed that there was a competition. The lucky winner will be enjoying their £50 amazon voucher in the next few days once entry has closed and the draw taken place! Hopefully if this site continues to grow I can offer bigger, better and more frequent competitions in 2016 and beyond.

I’d like to thank all of you who take the time to like and share the posts using the social networking buttons. I ask people to do this every week and a lot of you do. It is really important as it helps spread the word about the site and also helps out with a few behind the scenes things that I won’t bore you with. It is people like you who take the time to help spread the word who have contributed to this site’s continued growth and I am really grateful for all your clicks on the social buttons!

I also want to thank my sources. Most of you visiting this site won’t know this but a lot of work goes on behind the scenes to provide you all with a spoiler. I put a lot of work into maintaining this site and producing and promoting the content I produce however there are many more people at the forum where I usually obtain the spoiler from who put in much more work to source moles and provide the spoiler than I do and who are perfectly ok with me taking the spoiler from there to provide on this site. They appreciate my honesty as many other sources just take it without acknowledging it, or take it from here without acknowledging it. They also appreciate that I go to lengths to prevent the accidental spoiling of people who don’t want to be spoiled by not posting the result publicly to social networks and only posting it in the form of a clearly labelled link.

Without these people there wouldn’t be a spoiler here or indeed anywhere else on the internet. In particular a user called “Abigailsmum” puts in a lot of work organising the spoiler thread and finding audience moles and I, like everyone else on that forum, am truly grateful for the efforts she goes to in order to obtain and provide the spoiler.

Given how big 2015 has been for the Strictly Spoiler and how much it continues to grow I’m fully expecting to be blown away for 2016.  I have some future plans for this site obviously and I will also be looking at improving the comment feature for this site as a lot of discussion is now taking place on here.

Despite the BBC’s failed attempt at censorship, The Strictly Spoiler is going nowhere and it will be back bigger and better than ever in 2016 assuming the BBC doesn’t do something radical like a live results show. I will see you all then!

Complaints to the BBC!