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vagabond_sal...
mightygodking was recently banned from LJ for copyright violation.
You knowmightygodking. You do. He's the mind behind the improved_archie comm, and that absolutely brilliant re-lettering of the Civil War mini. (You remember, the one that you wished was carried in stores in place of the original.)
mightygodking is a credit to fandom. He is a skilled and accomplished parodist (to my eternal envy), and parody is, of course, a legally valid form of interrogating the text.
Unless you are on LJ, and then it seems to be a bannable offense.
Asvagabond_sal says:
It seems to me like this is a pretty clear case of LJ saying that they won't recognize the validity of transformative interpretations of texts, which—that's what fandom is all about, no? That's how we keep the fuzz off our backs. Is it just me, or does anybody else see this as a declaration that fandom doesn't have a friend in LJ/SA?
...I think that this is something that fandom needs to talk about--it's no longer a question about us being moral/immoral, it's about fandom not being wanted on LJ, full stop, and I think we as a community need to talk about this before things degrade any further.
He's not wrong, guys.
vagabond_sal...mightygodking was recently banned from LJ for copyright violation.You know
mightygodking. You do. He's the mind behind the improved_archie comm, and that absolutely brilliant re-lettering of the Civil War mini. (You remember, the one that you wished was carried in stores in place of the original.) mightygodking is a credit to fandom. He is a skilled and accomplished parodist (to my eternal envy), and parody is, of course, a legally valid form of interrogating the text.Unless you are on LJ, and then it seems to be a bannable offense.
As
vagabond_sal says:It seems to me like this is a pretty clear case of LJ saying that they won't recognize the validity of transformative interpretations of texts, which—that's what fandom is all about, no? That's how we keep the fuzz off our backs. Is it just me, or does anybody else see this as a declaration that fandom doesn't have a friend in LJ/SA?
...I think that this is something that fandom needs to talk about--it's no longer a question about us being moral/immoral, it's about fandom not being wanted on LJ, full stop, and I think we as a community need to talk about this before things degrade any further.
He's not wrong, guys.
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In my opinion, this is a wild misinterpretation of what's actually happened. Yes, this *is* a case of a company abusing the rules in order to get certain content kicked off the net-- but it's not Livejournal doing it. This is *not* Livejournal making any kind of declaration about transformative texts, fanfic, fans or fandom.
Google something like "DMCA takedown notice" abuse and you'll find dozens of examples of companies (like Scholastic) sending using DMCA takedown notices to threaten sites like Livejournal or Youtube into removing content they don't like, or for even more frivolous reasons (http://www.matthewyglesias.com/archives/2006/11/sweet_sweet_copyright_law/).
Here's an article which features an explanation of "safe harbor," which is the relevant factor in the case of Livejournal having *no choice* but to suspend mightygodking's account. Scroll down a bit for a short history of safe harbor abuse. (http://www.10zenmonkeys.com/2006/12/10/crook-copyright-dmca-bailey/) This article also cites a study claiming that up to 30% of DMCA takedown notices (http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/24/133226) are eventually deemed baseless or illegal. This doesn't stop them from being *effective*, however. This article does more to explain (http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:08-6Rq61MEwJ:static.chillingeffects.org/Urban-Quilter-512-summary.pdf) livejournal's response to DMCA takedown notices.
Finally, see this thread (http://astolat.livejournal.com/156326.html?thread=3092646&style=mine#t3092646) for an actual lawyer's opinion.