Look at the flowers, spoilers?

"The Walking Dead" is currently filming Season 7, and AMC's Ricktatorship is reportedly cracking down on leaks, specifically about Negan's Season 6 finale victim via his baseball bat BFF Lucille. It's no surprise that The Powers That Be would want to tighten the ship after that major cliffhanger, but The Spoiling Dead Fans -- a Facebook site with more than 360,000 spoiler followers -- posted on June 12 that AMC's attorney actually sent them a "cease and desist" letter.

Here's the start of the latest post from TSDF:

Well Buttercups, we have some sad news to share today. After two years, AMC finally reached out to us! But it wasn't a request not to post any info about the Lucille Victim or any type of friendly attempt at compromise, it was a cease and desist and a threat of a lawsuit by AMC Holdings, LLC's attorney, Dennis Wilson. They say we can't make any type of prediction about the Lucille Victim. Their stance is that making such a prediction would be considered copyright infringement. AMC tells us that we made some claim somewhere that says we received "copyright protected, trade secret information about the most critical plot information in the unreleased next season of The Walking Dead" and that we announced we were going to disclose this protected information. We still aren't sure where we supposedly made this claim because they did not identify where it was.

There's a lot more to the post, including this section that shares their plan of action:

Basically what it all comes down to is if we post our Lucille Victim prediction and we're right, AMC says they will sue us. Whether there are grounds for it or not is not the issue, it still costs money to defend. That is the way our justice system works. Would we have defenses? Sure. But it also costs money to mount that defense. If someone brings us a potential Lucille spoiler and we confirm it and it turns out accurate we could get sued. That doesn't mean they're right and we're wrong, but like so many other situations in this world, they have the money and power and we do not. So we lose.

They added that they will continued to post Season 7 filming updates, eyewitness reports, and "all photos taken legally throughout the filming season," as they always have.

"We are by no means getting shut down. It's still business as usual here, we just won't be spoiling the biggest moment so far."

Read the full post:


Spoilers have been a hot topic for TWD for a while, but especially after the Season 6 finale cliffhanger, which will be resolved when Season 7 premieres sometime in October. The actors and Powers That Be have pretty much circled the wagons in a strong anti-spoiler stance, with Norman Reedus most recently expressing his frustration to the Daily Beast:

"When there's 200 people who've all driven [to set] from other parts of the country just to sit there and get a picture of whoever's there and wreck it for everyone, you're like, what—what are you guys doing? Why? Why? Why do you want to do that? Why do you want to spoil stuff? I like the enthusiasm and stuff but, you know, if I knew what you were gonna get for Christmas...I seriously doubt I'd put it on the internet. I wouldn't want to wreck that for you."

UPDATE: The co-owner of the Spoiling Dead Fans, known as "Shinyfirefly," responded to Reedus's claim about "200 people" coming to set for spoilers:

"I just want to make sure that people are aware that there may only be 5 to 7 there at any given location where the public can gather that are doing that. We rarely 'send' anyone to a location. That holds true for other spoiler sites as well. The rest are there simply to see their favorite actors and take a selfie. With [that] statement Norman really stepped on his fans. Spoilers do get out to unsuspecting people. I've occasionally stumbled across a Christmas present hidden in the closet too. But even though he doesn't understand why some people want spoilers, that doesn't negate the fact that they do, and they obviously have their reasons."

There's no official premiere date yet for TWD Season 7; that October date is usually confirmed (along with the first major trailer) at San Diego Comic-Con, which is being held this year from July 21-24.

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