What, if any, statute of limitations exists on movie and books spoilers?
This has been an issue lately because my husband never read Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. We bought the book when it was released. We even got an audio version of the book that he could listen to while at work if he wanted. He still insists that he never had time to read it, and gets really mad whenever the rest of the family want to talk about it, and then finally last night his mom flat out said the ending in front of him.
I sympathize with him, and I went out of my way never to spoil for him, but it really makes me angry that he's so self-righteous about it but never made an attempt to read the book. He'd rather play his video games than pick up a book, which is FINE by me - but does he then have the right to complain?
That's the first example, here's a different one. I never saw the movie 'Psycho' until my second year of college. I sat down and watched it by myself all day, and when it was finished I realized that no one had ever spoiled the ending for me. Which was pretty cool, but considering how old the movie is, is rather unexpected. Who, for example, doesn't know the spoiler to the end of Citizen Kane?
So there you go; what is a reasonable statute of limitations on spoilers for books and for movies (since I'm assuming they're different). With something like Harry Potter, especially - can you consider it invalid once the movie for a particular book comes out? Before that? Is there a year limit on movies?