insanity continues to spread

[mickeym]

For those of you who are much better at following and engaging in discussions of the whole fannish culture than I am (which would be pretty much all of you *g*), if you haven't seen it, you should go here and read the post, and the comments.

Someone has gotten the California Attorney General's office involved in the whole LJ/6A-fandom mess.

I'm...boggled.


*Link courtesy of giogio.

Comments

[raynedanser.livejournal.com]

I"m not surprised. They've really pushed their luck. I've lost the link (it was buried in comments in lj_biz), but basically - they're saying WE have to follow California law, but then are choosing to ignore a number themselves. They say they aren't responsible for notifying us, their users, of TOS changes and we should frequently check - except guess what. California law says yes, they have to notify us. They can not leave their TOS deliberately vague, which they have done. Their TOS is also contradicting, which isn't ok. And there's contract issues, too. How we've paid for their service and they're altering the contract (badly, too) and not... Notifying us? Something. Yeah, they've screwed up. A lot. Badly. OH YES.

All for their lovely IPO they were getting ready to make public. Oy.

[mickeym.livejournal.com]

I am in no way defending 6A here, at all. They have screwed up, and they've screwed up badly. But the potential fallout here is mind-boggling. Actually, my mind boggles at just trying to wrap around the idea, never mind calculate the fallout.

I don't want to leave LJ. I don't want to have to find another place where I feel as comfortable and as much a part of a community as I do here. But the main reason fandom is able to be what we have, is because we don't throw it into the faces of the people who are in a position to shut us down. So I'm very concerned about how ALL of this is going to play out. The consumer rights' issues, *and* the fannish issues that could be brought into play.

Gah.

[raynedanser.livejournal.com]

Yeah I know. However? I think Lj/6A thought they were going to be able to get away with it, TBH. I think they were expecting a bunch of young people that wouldn't know better, would back off or something. I don't think it occurred to them that people may actually stand up for themselves and hold them responsible for their actions. At ALL.

[pensnest]

Well, quite. I find myself thinking, any day now, 6A really will decide that it's more trouble than it's worth to allow fanfic here, and then where will we be? They've been so damn careful always to say that they only take action on stuff that is shown to them...

A sensible campaign asking for notice to be given instead of an out-of-the-blue ban is one thing. Screaming entitlement is another. Gah.

[strippedpink.livejournal.com]

Oh...dear. This cannot end well. :(

[mickeym.livejournal.com]

No, it really can't. For anyone. Consumers, fans, 6A...none of us.

[umbo.livejournal.com]

Why are people so stupid?

[stungunbilly.livejournal.com]

I wish I were surprised; instead all I can do is wave my hands around and shout WTF at the sky.

::sigh::

[ro-anshi.livejournal.com]

I have been in some form of organized fandom since dinosaurs roamed the earth 1973. What has kept us (relatively) safe all these centuries has been our ability to fly under the radar. 50 zines sold at a con in Tulsa weren't easily going to attract a copyright-holder's attention, thus it was extremely unlikely that how fast-and-loose fanfic technically plays with rights of ownership would ever become a litigious issue.

The internet has made us more obvious. (Duh. I found my last few fandoms with the help of Google - a far cry from the networking days of meeting someone in line at a movie or at a con and swapping addresses, and HOPING that would be a decent hookup.) But, still, WE NEED TO FLY UNDER THE RADAR. It can still be done; but not when folks poke authorities they feel are on "our" side, when that could bring attention to us from authorities who are NOT on our side.

Fandom, fandom, fandom. Grow a clue and a sense of history before you start threatening my crack. Then again, if we have to go back underground, I used to put out pretty wicked print fanzines. ;)

(BTW, everyone's talking these days about net content being so SHOCKING, but I can tell you I saw some things in print zines Back in the Day that made my eyes POP almost as much as Pondy's art that started this whole latest kerfuffle....)

[kaiz.livejournal.com]

Wow.

While I agree that LJ/6A has treated its paying customers (e.g. me) like shit, I just can't see this sort of legal action ending well for fandom. Not at all. I sincerely hope that they all prove me 110% wrong. *crosses fingers*

[fromyourashes.livejournal.com]

oh for fuck's sake. sure. let's attract some more attention to our perversions. lol.

people broke rules.

they got what they had coming to them.

and as for non-repayment (is that a word? lol) - there are millions of LJ users. i seriously doubt there are enough people employed by 6A to take care of things as expediently as is wanted.

and people are freaking out over a few bucks, then maybe they shouldn't have spent that money to begin with.

fuckin' bunch of retarded crap. this is the internet. it's not something that is governed properly, THANK GOD. or everytime i said i was gonna shoot the president - well hell, i'd likely have been put in jail years ago.

can't we just chill?

[flambeau.livejournal.com]

Okay, fandom has finally driven me to drink. *raises egg cup of punsch*

[chrismm.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I just. Between this, and the siccing of fandom's hordes on the proana groups, I'm spending this weekend in a state of horror that I didn't realize fandom could inspire in me.

[rainbow.livejournal.com]

state of horror. yes. exactly!!

[elucidate-this.livejournal.com]

ohfuck.

[kimonkey7.livejournal.com]

As a Californian, I'm appauled and ashamed. This only contributes to the already ridiculous prioritiy-assbackwardness the rest of the country perceives West-Coasters having.

Overall, and I'm probably expressing an opinion that'll get me cyber-smack, itmakes me sick how many LJ people are so up in arms at not bieing able to access fanart with naked (whatever-age) sex. If these same people raised their voices about WAR or FAMINE or THE ACTUAL CIVIL RIGHTS GEORGE BUSH has banished from our collective whole...

But that will never happen. Too hard to hotlink to.

sorry for jumping in here - saw this on janissa11's flist

[rainbow.livejournal.com]

what are ppl thinking? fandom is under the radar for a reason.

yes, let's get on the news and then involved the attorney general about mean old livejournal enforcing us law. they are so not fair to us! we will show them!

and all this "they changed the tos"...they did NOT. it has said something like "or other objectionable content" for a long long time, i think. fandom forced lj into a corner before they said yes, okay, underage erotic art is objectionable, and then they are complaining that it is.

i think lj messed up bad in communicating, but fandom really tried to force them to say "oh, no, we were wrong, your art is fine" when legally they CANT DO THAT.

where did all these entitlement babies come from and why do they have to be fandom? can't we kick them out? i think they are objectionable, after all....

[trumpeterofdoom.livejournal.com]

...the stupid. IT BURNS.

Why can't people just realise that the only thing LJ/6A have done wrong is not inform people of TOS changes, instead of campaigning to keep HP chan fic/art/whatever on LJ?! GET SOME PERSPECTIVE, PEOPLE.

[fishbaum.livejournal.com]

I've really been trying to stay out of this whole issue -- I've got a free account, never really thought about paying, and my main "fix" is text-only.

But....

Anyone who thinks that fandom is under the radar now is mistaken. Henry Jenkins is only the most visible of the academics who has spent time publishing about fandom. Hell, I did my Master's thesis in library school on Simon & Simon fandom!

Copyright is a slippery concept, changing all the time in the law, and in reaction to evolving technologies. And that's not to mention in the sensibility of studios and creators pissing off their fannish bread-and-butter.

Ah, I remember fondly (not!) the old Starsky & Hutch zines pubbed with no names or identifying features at all. I remember the Star Wars S&M cease & desist letters from Lucasfilm.

As someone else said (either in this thread or the one Mickey cited), if we all put this amount of angst, time, and energy into real-life poverty, war, civil rights issues, I'd feel more confident about people's desire for making the world a better place.

Basically, I guess I'm saying the Attorney General bit won't kill fandom, LJ/6A won't kill fandom, more influential minds than ours are already entangled in the evolution of intellectual propoerty rights, so... um... push your energy into either feeding the hungry, or writing porn. :)

[nopseud]

Yeah. Someday the sky might actually *be* falling, but I don't think today is that day.