It has come to our attention that some of the recent screen shots posted by Team Negative1 are from a scan of a print that has been obtained by unethical means without the owner’s knowledge or consent. The administration of originaltrilogy.com would like to make it clear that this behavior is totally unacceptable and has no place in our preservation community. We have therefore decided to ban the Team Negative1 account permanently.
Edit for clarification (as much as possible, anyway):
There has been no contact or directive from anyone at Disney or Lucasfilm that has driven this decision.
Our decision also has nothing to do with the “grey areas” in which fan preservations operate or the avoidance of publicity that comes from allowing fan preservation discussion here. Harmy’s Despecialized Edition has already heaped a ton of visibility on ot.com and we’ve seen very positive results for our cause and the community brought about by that visibility; the suggestion that we’d kick a community member to the curb just to spare us some exposure is offensive.
However, I understand the reaction due to the vagueness of the original post. I apologize for not being more specific. There are standards and ethics within the fan preservation community and that’s what this is about. Team Negative1 did something they shouldn’t have. Posting more details could make life harder for other members of the community, so we can’t get into a lot of detail right now, but given Team Negative1’s prominence in the community, we had to say something.
We’ve always been open with the community about every challenge we’ve faced, so we’ll share more details if we are able.
Edit #2 for actual clarification:
mverta, who was one of the parties whose privacy we were trying to protect, posted the following in the Legacy thread:
http://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/910141
Legacy ultimately features the contributions of 4 (really 4 1/2) Tech prints in addition to various Eastman prints. Early on, I was loaned the “Spanish” print by -1. I didn’t end up using much of it, but I had it scanned at 4K. I was also loaned a “so-so” Tech by Person #2, and a really nice Tech by Person #3. For safety, Person #2 was given digital copies of both his AND Person #3’s scans. Person #2 was, at the time, assumed trustworthy, if for no other reason than self-interest. But then things changed. Person #2 decided to give ALL the scans in his possession to -1. Person #3 rightfully freaked the fuck out - he wanted nothing to do with -1, for all the reasons which should now be clear, but it was too late. Of course, relationships have been severed and damage done. Interestingly, in the middle of this process, a member of team -1 reached out to me because they didn’t have the Greedo scene for shit. To be cool, I actually gave them a nice Tech scan of that scene, not knowing they already had it, or were in the process of getting it. So no good deed goes unpunished, I guess.
So -1 ended up with scans they were not supposed to have, and did precisely with them what people were afraid of them doing. However, that’s spilled milk. -1 is in possession of some decent scans, which, when examining their work, should pretty much put to rest any question about how important ability and experience is in film restoration. Clearly, having decent scans ain’t enough.
The topic is now open for discussion again.