Congratulations, Odeon! For the past three years, your web site has been a Flash-based monstrosity, crashing browsers left and right, and which currently comes up as a blank screen in the latest version of Safari. Thank goodness, then, for Matthew Somerville, who developed a site called Accessible Odeon. This site was simple HTML, viewable by even the most humble browser, and you could do everything except book tickets. Oh, and it was five times faster than the Odeon site. Hurrah! The site even got a mention in the Guardian.

Accessible Odeon is now off-line. Last year, Odeon said that they were aware of the site, but weren't planning on taking any action. This week, they changed their minds, sending Matthew a cease-and-desist order for violating Odeon's trademarks and the database rights of their movie times.

Yes, Odeon can control who prints what time they're showing films.

So I guess it's back to the paper for film times. Odeon don't seem to be in a hurry to redesign a site that is broken in about five different ways, and they've crushed somebody who was helping them get business. Bravo!