LiveJournal Rebellion

[dawn_felagund]

Well, we're all very active and idealistic on ye olde LJ today, aren't we? I logged in to find my friends' page overrun with posts about various causes. I'm not complaining. I've been known to do a bit of idealistic ranting myself some days. :)

Anyway, probably the most prevalent post today is the "Gay Rights" post. Because I agree with and like the quote, I am going to post it here as well, though everyone has doubtlessly seen it by now.

"Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands?"
- Ernest Gaines

Most people have pasted the accompanying part about posting it to show your support or ignoring it to show your lack, but since this has caused problems on the journals of well-meaning people who inadvertantly offended those not prone to post-spam of this sort, I'm going to refrain from that. I don't think that there are any homophobics on my flist anyway. I can't imagine that they'd stay around long, what with me posting slash on a regular basis.

If posting the quote makes you feel as though you are making a positive difference, though, by all means, please post it! I certainly don't mind seeing it around more.

But I'd sooner hear people stop using "gay" as an insult, sooner see people make an effort to become more aware of how they stereotype others not alike to them, and sooner see people have the guts to speak up when some idiot starts their BS about gay people being somehow less of human beings because of their orientation. Perhaps this would lessen the perception that homophobia is okay.

Or maybe posting a thought-provoking quote is a place to start. :)

On a more frivolous--though equally heated--note, there is a petition on LJ to convince LJ not to allow companies to purchase "sponsored accounts" that would allow them to promote their products on LJ. I gave the debate on lj_biz a quick scan, and there seems to be a lot of questions and concerns over this. People fear the power of the Almighty Dollar trumping the rights and wishes of LiveJournal customers.

Having read all of the posts made by the LJ folks and a handful of comments by disgruntled LJ members, I do get the distinct impression that LJ was trying to slide something past us, dressing it up as something that will benefit us as users while really trying to ease past LJ's longstanding commitment to "no ads anywhere!" A commitment that was somewhat broken by instituting the "Plus" accounts that show ads. I know for a fact that sponsored communities were showing up on the front page of LJ for paid users because scienceofsleep showed up on mine for a couple of days as a "Sponsored Community," then disappeared. I remember seeing it and thinking, "Huh. What's this? So now I can get silwritersguild on the front page by handing over some bucks?" Never mind that 99.9% of LJ users won't give a damn about silwritersguild, but money talks more than customer interest, otherwise we would talk to real live people when we call our banks, Internet providers, and credit card companies and our IT concerns would be handled by people who at least spoke our language.

Of course, when the paid users began to complain that they paid not to see adverts--and this includes adverts cloaked as communities--scienceofsleep mysteriously disappeared from my front page. And suddenly, "No, no, no! Paid users won't see this at all unless they choose to see it!" and admission to poor choice of wording on the part of LJ staff (who did, in fact, say that paid users would not be able to avoid seeing sponsored communities listed). However, I saw it for several days, enough to wonder over it, so this makes me immediately skeptical of their honesty on this issue.

Slippery slopes are a dangerous place, but I think that a valid point is made by the folks pointing out the insidious introduction of advertisement onto LiveJournal. First the Plus accounts, now the "sponsored communities"...frankly, I am sick of advertisement, period. I am sick of not being able to go to "Ravens Stadium" but having to go to "M&T Bank Stadium." No, it's not the fucking bank that plays there, it's my damned favorite football team, the Ravens. Or the Republicans who wanted to open national parks to corporate advertisements on the sides of park buildings and buses so that Exxon can dump oil into the sea with one hand and pander to environmentalists with the other. Is there any place left to go where some eejit isn't trying to hawk something at me? I pay $9.25 for a movie ticket (well, really $8.00 since I still have my old UMBC ID card) to sit for the half-hour before the movie starts watching disgusting Sprite commercials of sumo wrestlers smashing a guy's head between their bellies and advert after advert for TV shows where the same startled-looking yuppies somehow go missing. Meh. Let them stay missing, I say.

Advertisement is a necessary evil; I am not so dumb to think otherwise. But as it fills the world more and more, it becomes more and more obnoxious to draw your eye from That Guy's ad to Our Ad. I won't even listen to the radio anymore because I can't stand the blaring, strident ads designed at getting my attention.

So anyway, I signed the petition because LJ, for me, is a community for sharing my thoughts and writing and striking up conversation with like-minded folks and keeping in touch with friends. It is not where I go to watch movie trailers or get free deals, and I think that a good point is made by the folks who bring up that LJ had proclaimed relatively few restrictions for these "sponsored accounts" until a shitstorm was made over the idea that didn't go over quite as well as planned. When companies start throwing big money into a service, those of us who pay our paltry 20 buckaroos per year start to feel understandably nervous of how our rights as customers will shake out next to theirs, and as someone with a fan fiction community, say "Children of Hurin" was made into a movie. Would silwritersguild be made to shut down to give monopoly to the childrenofhurin sponsored community? Surely, they can outbid me.

Anyhoo, those who agree with me or want to read further, check out the petition. And thanks to ithilwen for calling my attention to it! Additionally, the lj_biz community has the posts that have been made about this move and the literally thousands of comments mostly against it.

Comments

[rhapsodythebard.livejournal.com]

Tarrant had the guts to do so, but then he defended, indirectly, the many members of Planet Tolkien. I think the manner in how they approached him and tried to impress him was just wrong.

"As Costelloe recalled: "A friendly gentleman ... asks me if I am who he was looking for and continues to query my intentions of whether or not I intend to hand the domain over to them, which I said no. He then instructed me that this was likely to end up with me being taken to court and I kindly replied with 'good'..."

Mr Costelloe has since reported the phone call to the Law Society of England and Wales claiming harrassment."

This truly happened. In the end it cost Tarrant more and the last I heard was that the case wasn't over yet. But you really have to be careful with it.

The free exchange of information or the encouragement of creativity is no big deal to them. *sigh*

It depends. As long if you don't start to copy information about HOME series in a knowlegde database and therefore people won't buy the HOME books anymore because it is there and such so why bother, then you are in a serious copyright infringement unless you asked specific permission to do so. The ency of Arda has asked permission and has, most likely, give a share of the profits to the estate (I remember reading that). Companies are fine until they feel it in their profits.

When it comes down to photography and digital arts, it becomes a bit more difficult (I graduated on this). For example if I edit a photo in photoshop, apply my own homemade brushes or use a photo of myself and add it to a piece of artwork of someone else, I am a copyright holder too of that image. The differences are made during contract negotations when you ask someone to make something for you (paint a picture of your kid, your backyard shed), you and that other party agree to that you won't manipulate it, you have to uphold that contract. For my graduation study we concluded that the ministery had to go over all the contracts they had with individual photographers to see if they could reproduce the images elsewhere (reports and such) even if they were the sole owner of which was captured on image. If there are no such things, you have bought the rights as soon as you paid for the work and can do with it whatever you want. We studied (well I did) EU and Dutch law regarding this. I can't help it but to follow this topic.

Now as for DVD's and screencaps, yes you are allowed for copies of such things, you did buy the thing and therefore as well the copyright fee over it, so you can use screencaps for your own personal& private enjoyment. The problem arises is once you make it available for others and post it thusly for others to download or use, then you are in 'trouble'. That is why people who upload material in torrents or other means of programmes are persecuted (this is internationally done), but those who download it are not.

Now back to elll jeee, If I have my own account and it is friends locked, I keep my edited pictures of DVD's and such in the private environment. So I won't be breaking any laws. The question still remains though how long LJ will hold to the

However, we are (and have always been) legally obligated to act if we receive complaints indicating that someone is violating copyright or infringing on a trademark. This is a long-standing practice; we *have* to do this to avoid getting into legal trouble.

Knowing how far the laywers of the Tolkoen Estate want to go and this combined: I am sceptical. And now I am gonna feed this bouncy baby.

[juno-magic.livejournal.com]

When it comes down to photography and digital arts, it becomes a bit more difficult (I graduated on this).

Actually the same is true for writing, at least in German law. It's called the "collage"- principle. (I'm qualified to work as a judge/lawyer/public prosecutor, having specialized in European and international law *g* - lawyers lurk everywhere, hehehe).

The problem arises is once you make it available for others and post it thusly for others to download or use, then you are in 'trouble'.

Having studied Fair Use I still think that mose fandom actvities (which are, - as a rule - not uploading and redistributing the complete texts/movies in torrents) would have a good chance to be considered as Fair Use. After all, there are several factors that need to be considered for that decision, and the two most important factors are probably the money & the market factor. (And they'd need *proof* for the impact on the market...)

But considering their methods and how easy it is for big money and powerful companies to intimidate the individual fan I think it will be a long time until the legal aspects of fandom related activities are really clarified.

[rhapsodythebard.livejournal.com]

Actually the same is true for writing, at least in German law. It's called the "collage"- principle. (I'm qualified to work as a judge/lawyer/public prosecutor, having specialized in European and international law *g* - lawyers lurk everywhere, hehehe).

Here those two are seperated because the portrait right and 'image' right (where you can forbid that people make images of your house, building, bridge) apply too and therefore they got their own articles in the bill. But we're still working with legistation of 1912 (with amendments for movierights and software rights), but they do distinguish literairy works, science and art. For example for a book, the portrait and image rights don't apply, for art it does and partly for scientific material.

And they'd need *proof* for the impact on the market...)

Sales figures and such yeah. The probs with the European directives (I believe the latest European one for copyright is of 2004) is that nationwide, the national legislation is always placed above it. And I don't think we Dutch will vote *for* European legislation any time soon.

Anyhow, it still remains interesting how LJ will go about this now that they are an American company. We'll see.