Man banned from WDW for life

[Soarin08]

A lifetime ban? Yikes. But a slap on the wrist? Perhaps if you were a guest roaming the guest halls of a resort you weren't staying at, but not full on trespassing of closed off restricted areas - documenting it, no less.

I do hope for his sake they reconsider.. but in the end..

I certainly hope they don't reconsider. He deserves it.

In fact we had another trespasser this morning... Orange County was on his butt quicker than you could blink. Tailed the guy all the way to a backstage area on Main Street. It's sick what people think they can do.

I guess picturing myself in his shoes. Heck, I'd rather be charged, arrested and locked up! Though, yeah, I don't think Disney is being unfair or anything like that. There's a lot more to it than just 'trespassing'. Leaking information that Disney doesn't want out, safety concerns + potential liability if they were to get hurt, encouraging this behavior, etc. Pretty serious stuff!

Do you have a link/article to the second person caught?

Considering I WORK at the turnstiles.... I witnessed the whole thing and therefore there is no link. You'll just have to take my good word as proof, which is good enough for most people.

[TTA Traveler]

Woah, I think you have me all wrong. I wasn't doubting you or anything like that. I was genuinely curious and wanted to read more about it because I thought it was another scenario like the one in the original post. Which it was only until dstrawn9889 pointed out to me that it was just your personal account and not something you yourself read on the internet.

So my apologies if the tone of my post looked like I was trying to call you out. That honestly wasn't my intentions.

[Soarin08]

So many people want proof these days I never can tell.

But it did happen. I've never seen four cops run so fast in my life.

[BuzzyFan]

I guess I'll have to be the dissenter here. I think everyone is really overreacting. I mean, yeah, if you work at Disney, backstage might not be cool to you. But there are lots of us who don't work there who find it really interesting. Would I ever personally go into an area where I am not supposed to be? Of course not. But seriously, to arrest this guy would be really silly, especially given that he was never given a warning (even if he obviously knew what he was doing was wrong).

I'm going to disagree with your disagreement, at least in part. We have become such a permissive society, that we think everyone should get a warning the first time they do something that is perceived as harmless for the most part. All that does is make laws negotiable. Disney has its areas clearly marked for cast members only, and to ignore those postings is to assume that Disney property, which is privately owned, is open for anyone's amusement. I'm really curious about my neighbor's new finished basement, but I'm pretty sure they'd have a problem with me entering their house without permission, even if the door was unlocked. And they like me.

I don't think an arrest is out of line, but I do think jail time is silly. Community service, or even better, service to the entities wrongly imposed upon, would be a good penalty.

This guy is a worse violator than the dude who made the movie in Disney parks without a permit. While it's probably not true, one could possibly argue that since it's not posted, the movie maker didn't know it wasn't allowed. In the case of our phantom trespasser-come-YouTube star, he knew exactly what he was doing and just didn't give a rip.

Um, just for perspective's sake... This is all being discussed on a website dedicated to the streaming of music and live performance recordings from said theme parks. Disney could very easily slap down a C&D/DMCA notice on stations like this one, especially for the live recordings. IANAL, but as far as I've been able to tell, streaming itself does not automatically equal fair use.

Jus' sayin'. No offense intended, but if you're going to take issue with people going where they shouldn't on Disney property, you might be picking and choosing on your own sense of entitlement quite a bit not to consider the music you're enjoying.

[Sharonofwindham]

By listening to music from the Disney parks here on Subsonic, no one is going to accidently step on a nail and sue Disney for not erecting a more effective barrier to keep the crazy people out of areas where they don't belong .

[cy1229]

Um, just for perspective's sake... This is all being discussed on a website dedicated to the streaming of music and live performance recordings from said theme parks. Disney could very easily slap down a C&D/DMCA notice on stations like this one, especially for the live recordings. IANAL, but as far as I've been able to tell, streaming itself does not automatically equal fair use.

Jus' sayin'. No offense intended, but if you're going to take issue with people going where they shouldn't on Disney property, you might be picking and choosing on your own sense of entitlement quite a bit not to consider the music you're enjoying.

I thought a long time about this, and from a literal perspective, you are right. By the most strict, literal interpretation, yes, Disney COULD shut Subsonic down. (Just FYI, I have no idea what C&D/DMCA or IANAL mean, they must be legalspeak that only mean something to those in the world of lawyers.)

However, there is a very important distinction. The music played on this website is doing Disney a favor. It advertises, promotes, and otherwise encourages people to think about visiting the visitor areas of Disney parks. There isn't any music or audio from training videos meant just for cast members. No one is posting in their trip reports photographs having been taken in restricted or prohibited areas. As a result, this website is pretty much like free advertising for Disney, and I'm sure they're loathe to spend money eliminating a website that promotes their product without them having to spend a dime. From a business perspective it makes absolutely no sense. No one here is naive enough to believe that Disney doesn't monitor what's going on here. Even the CM's who frequent this site are quite careful about what they post, knowing that Disney probably checks in on what's going on from time to time.

But the videos posted by the dude running around in restricted areas are entirely different scenarios. By not pursuing this guy, and by not setting an example, they would be condoning by their silence. And Disney does NOT want to condone allowing guests to enter restricted areas. Otherwise, why have restricted areas? Why even attempt to maintain the illusion with "stage" and "backstage"? The whole point of the way the MK in WDW was constructed was so that you wouldn't have a cowboy walking through Tomorrowland. If Disney hadn't pursued this guy, it would be like saying it's ok for anyone to go anywhere, and *poof* there goes the whole point of going to WDW. Then it becomes just another amusement park, with very few thrill rides, that's overpriced in comparison.

[Wizzard419]

Cease and Desist, a legal notice that is often used as a scare tactic to make you stop. DMCA, Digital Millennium Copyright Act, an act that Disney is a huge fan of that sort of screws over the consumer and makes piracy more attractive. It also is tacked on to many cybercrimes because it adds more years/fines on to sentences.

The concept of "we are doing them a favor" is incorrect, this page does not move the needle either way in terms of trips and purchases. Also, the big factor is that the rights holders (Disney and the actual composers of music that were licensed for loops) did not give permission. In addition, as it is broadcast and no royalties are paid, it can have a stiffer penalty than simple piracy.

It used to be that if you were violating IP laws, the wronged party would just take civil action against you, now the feds have started acting without complaint (as it is within their realm) and take out sites at the hosting level, leaving them with splash pages like this.



Long story short, subsonic isn't legal, it can be shut down, and it does not provide a service to Disney or the rights holders.

[JenMuse]

You'd be surprised at the many ways I can find people in our system. And how many different ways we can discover when people are cheating the system...

This, this fascinates me. The rest of the thread is interesting, and I've had some recent experience with C&D letters from FOX regarding a silly, cunning hat...and I've been in the utilidors (escorted by cast member of course) long long ago when I was a kid. Cool, but yeah, smelly and the novelty wore off fast. The park is so much more interesting to look at than the underground corridors.

I'm super curious, as both a consumer and a business intelligence professional, how far Disney records on individuals, screw it, I mean me, go back. Of all the "evil" corporate empires out there, Disney is the only one I want to know about me so they can predict and cater to my every wish.

How much info do you need to find our Disney records Soarin'? Cause that is cool stuff. I figure they've got all my adult activities (especially those tied to credit cards and room keys), but what about cash purchases and/or trips as a minor?

If I didn't hate the heat and humidity, I'd seriously pursue a career in my field at Disney. Would be soooo much fun to work in their databases.

[Wizzard419]

I would imagine a phone number would suffice, even a name, but at the same time she probably doesn't have access to all info since it isn't relevant to her position.

Cash purchases would most likely not be tracked, but if it were a reservation tied to your stay it might show up. Minors would also show up in the system if their info was entered (since they have park tickets too). I would also imagine, since billing information is shared, purchases made on non-linked credit cards would show up as well. Similar to how stores will send you junk mail even if you did not provide information to them.

[theBIGyowski]

Things like MyDisneyExperience will make it much easier to track and cater to guests. I remember registering with Disney.com ages ago when they first launched their website. I still use the same username and password as I did back then...even though my email address has changed several times. So they at least have a historical file on me back to the turn of the century. Now that you make your ADRs online...that are tied to your username and profile...your eating habits can be tracked. Of course anytime you pay with your room key that gets filed as well.

The Disney Co. is good at two things: catering to guests...and convincing guests to want what they want you to want

both of those things end up making the guest happy

[Wizzard419]

Very true, they have always been in the business of that, and also making that suck, such as waiting in line, suck less by researching flooring surfaces, providing in line entertainment (audio, visual, and interactive), even utilizing AC and indoor waiting areas vs outdoor.

With the new system, I wonder if they are going to start having hidden readers in the lines to track wait times? It would be semi-unethical (gathering data without knowledge of it being tagged) but it would be more effective than handing out the RFID cards.

I am waiting for someone to start a fight with a worker, demanding paper/plastic tickets because they don't want to be tracked.

[Amy]

I would imagine a phone number would suffice, even a name, but at the same time she probably doesn't have access to all info since it isn't relevant to her position...

I would guess this to be very true. When I worked at the Sheriff's Department, we could access almost any info we wanted on just about anyone, but it didn't mean we were allowed to do so!

[Wizzard419]

Translation, Amy passed up a massive blackmail opportunity.

[Amy]

Translation, Amy passed up a massive blackmail opportunity.

I actually wanted to check out a guy who asked me out on a blind date...but since he didn't have the good fortune to get pulled over in our county, I didn't have the opportunity to do so

[theBIGyowski]

I have done software testing at several large banks...and had access to their customers' information...not in the sense that I could change it...but I could get their private information if I wanted it. With that came a level of responsibility which I respected as a professional. I presume that the folks at Disney feel the same way.