General Note from jms

[B5JMS Poster]

Subject: General Note from jms
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 No. | DATE        |  FROM
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*  1: Jul  9, 1996: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)

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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Lines: 74

A general round-up of stuff....

On the newsletters: via a misunderstanding, the first batch or two of
newsletters went out bulk rate.  We yanked back all we could get from the
post office, and are now in the process of re-stamping them by hand to
bring them up to the first class.  This is taking a bit.  The rest are
going out first class from the start.  And all subsequent newsletters will
go out first.  The membership kits are also going out first class.  

Allowing for time for the last batches to be delivered, we'll eventually
post a phone number for members who haven't gotten their newsletters to
call for resends.

For foreign memberships, even though the fan club form indicates ground
mail, we'll send out the material air mail and just eat the difference in
price rather than raising fees.

The poster should be getting final approval from WB over the next week. 
We're still waiting on final approval from WB on the web site, which is up
and fully operational on a beta-testing address.  We hope to get this
resolved soon.

The official B5 magazine will finally be coming out in the UK in about a
month, maybe less.  The publishers there are currently in negotiations to
do the magazine on a quarterly basis.

In addition, 4 or 5 major comics companies are now actively pursuing the
rights to do the B5 comic now that the DC deal has lapsed.  There are some
very exciting prospects here.

For all the convention-goers out there: if you see B5 videotapes,
bloopers, EA or other pins/insignia/badges/patches for sale, be advised
that these are not only unlicensed and illegal, they are shoddily produced
and over priced.  One of the reasons we want to do some of these ourselves
is to maintain the quality of the material.  When pins get made, they'll
be made by the same suppliers who provide them to us on the show, so
they're 100% authentic.  The bootleg video tapes are a particularly bad
ripoff since they're invariably several generations down, grainy and just
generally awful.

To the pirates out there who are selling/making these things, consider
yourselves put on notice.  WB has begun vigorously prosecuting and hunting
down pirated material.  WB doesn't just confiscate and warn; civil and in
some cases criminal charges are pressed.  Judgments have already been won
in cases in Chicago and elsewhere against pirates.  

Which brings me to a related warning.  There's someone producing framed
"official" B5 photos with supposed signatures of all the cast members on
them.  They sell for upwards of $500-$800, and while many of the
signatures look authentic (supposedly a limited edition of 100), we have
reason to believe they may be either mechanically reproduced or simply
forged.  I saw one of these at San Francisco, and initially was fooled
myself by the "signatures."  If you see these at a convention, beware.  If
you've bought one, try and locate the person from whom you bought it and
try for a refund.  These are bogus.

This is one of the reasons why we're clamping down on this sort of thing;
the ultimate victim here is the fan who spends large amounts of money on
inferior, unlicensed, or downright forged material that is absolutely
worthless.

Finally, to those who've asked, and seem rather exercised about the issue,
yes, the UK will be getting the final 5 episodes prior to the US, starting
around August.  On the other hand, the US will be getting the fourth
season starting in October, with 9 or 10 episodes in a row, while the new
season won't start in the UK until probably the following May or June.  So
it all balances out in the end.


 jms




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