Ahhhh... It's amazing how a story like this can get as out of control as it seems to have gotten. I've sat back and watched article after article get the story completely wrong... even after talking with me.
First off, I never hacked into anything. I wouldn't even begin to know how to do any hacking. Not only that. But the source that provided me with the alleged list... Well that person also never hacked into anything. In fact... Well, let me start at the beginning.
Sunday Afternoon-Evening I received my first email from my source. This email was sent to not only me, but Matt Drudge as well. And this is what it said:
"*** INSIDER INFORMATION! ***
As of February 12, 2000, the Academy Awards nominations have been narrowed down to the attached list.
(Please note that there are slightly more nominations in each category, because the vote counts are very close in those categories, and recounts are being finalized right now.)
An updated list will be sent as soon as possible, if available before the 5:38am announcement on Tuesday morning."
This email had that big mass of text that I printed after the nominations on Tuesday: CLICK HERE TO READ THAT BIG MASS OF TEXT.
Having read that gigantic ton of text, it seemed as though it might possibly be some sort of preliminary press material created by the Academy, So I wrote the source back with the following: "What can you tell me about the source of this info? How did you come by this? Please answer asap."
To which, the source responded with:
"I happen to have access to one of the computers at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences, where they are keeping tabs of all of this stuff in an UNPROTECTED, MULTI-USER FileMaker Pro database. Totally open to the world, if you know the IP address of the computer! (It's currently offline as I type.) The text file is in pretty shabby shape, I know, but it was the best I could do -- I had to export the information very quickly.
I only wish that:
1. I would have gotten it sooner, instead of just the day before the "official announcement."
2. I already had the "finalized list" of 5 nominees per category, instead of this preliminary list.
Hope this helps you out somehow!
See ya,"
At this point, I contacted some folks to begin to help me to research the information in that giant hunk of text. We went over every name... checking their credits to make sure that they indeed did belong in the possible nomination lists. Then I pulled some Reuters/Variety/Hollywood Reporter stories about the nomination process, and found the press release stories about how the nominations in SPECIAL EFFECTS and SOUND EFFECTS EDITING had been narrowed down to... well, the names and films that were listed in that big text.
I had a friend that claims to know the tech side of things pretty well take a look at the I.P. Address that this stuff allegedly came from. I wanted to be assured that it did come from an Academy Server or Computer. And this person assured me that it did. HOWEVER, IT DID NOT! And this was the key mistake that allowed the material to be printed.
I then had one more additional correspondence with my original source. And this is what it had to say...
"Hey Harry!
The database is back up and running!
You'll need FileMaker Pro to see it for yourself. Go into FileMaker Pro 3.0 or 4.0 or 4.1 (not 5.0), and change the network preferences to TCP/IP. Then, quit out of FileMaker Pro and re-launch FileMaker Pro. Then, pull down from "File" to "Open..." Click on "HOSTS"... specify that IP address... choose oscar_nominations.
(Sorry I couldn't export the titles of all the films at the time, and you had to subsequently go through all of that research!! Great job, BTW! The system was shutting down, and I had to do a very quick export of the fields that I could get a hold of within just a few seconds!)
It turns out that this is the database earmarked for the Oscar.com webmaster -- she's getting ready to export this info and upload it to the oscar.com web site tomorrow morning. I certainly hope they haven't been feeding her database red herrings, or else I'm gonna be pretty damn embarrassed for snooping around their machines!"