you know what? Fuck you Barak Berkowitz

[threeplusfire]

The well known group Perverted Justice tried to get LJ to delete actual pedophiles and was rebuffed. If you don't know, Perverted Justice is a group that works in tandem with law enforcement around hte country to stop online predators. They have most recently been notable for their work with NBC's Dateline series "To Catch A Predator."

If this doesn't make clear what a bunch of bullshit this entire fiasco is, I don't know what will. Anyone who knows me knows how strongly I feel about sexual abuse and especially people who prey on children. I resent profoundly the idea that writers of fiction should be lumped into the same category as pedophiles.

"We did a review of our policies related to how we review those sites, those journals, and came up with the fact that we actually did have a number of journals up that we didn't think met our policies and didn't think they were appropriate to have up," Barak Berkowitz, chairman and chief executive of Six Apart, said in a telephone interview. The site boasts about 13 million journals.

Berkowitz said the company would "obviously apologize" to anyone whose journal was deleted in error but added: "That's going to be a very small minority of the sites. I would be shocked if it's more than a dozen." - from the CNET article here

Fuck you fuck you fuck you. I can't believe this. Brad, you sold our site down the river to these morons at Six Apart? I hope the money was really good.

Comments

Bend over and take it on all fours

[abbismom.livejournal.com]

Amanda, you know I'm slow. So SixApart can just delete your whole journal without warning? WTF?!

[sammka.livejournal.com]

Perverted Justice seems to be just as clueless about slash, though. They linked to the boysfuckingboys (http://www.perverted-justice.com/webobjects/lj/boysfuckingboys.png) community, for instance, as an instance of pedophilia.

As well as a journal of a child-attracted person who was CLEARLY AGAINST child molestation (http://www.perverted-justice.com/webobjects/lj/eleven1twenty.png).

Re: Bend over and take it on all fours

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Read the apology from the CEO here about the drama.

[sykii.livejournal.com]

I thought it was Warriors for Innocence (they of the hilariously bad site design and emo poetry)?
Are they one and the same?
Now that I think of it, they've got the same self-dramatizing vibe.

[alteredhistory.livejournal.com]

It would be a kindness to LJ to update your post to include a link to the apology directly in the main article instead of only having it linked in comments. Anyone who might copy and re-post your article will thus carry the apology link with them. I think the apology is sincere enough to warrant such editing -- at the least it keeps the rumormongoring down from people who have incomplete knowledge of current status.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

I intend to write a post about the paology as soon as I get time this morning at work. I didn't get to read any of this until I got to work for today's trainings.

[kokopopo.livejournal.com]

My understanding is that even a fictional written depiction of two minors having sex--e.g., Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy going at it, or similar scenarios that certain fanfic journals have posted--can violate federal law against child pornography. Whether or not you believe the law is impermissibly broad, and many scholars believe it is, LJ is seriously at risk when it hosts sites that include those depictions.

I am sorry this whole episode has upset everyone and hope they fix things so that everyone can enjoy livejournal to the fullest. I would hate to see interesting, articulate people like you to leave LJ.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Perhaps you can tell me - the above linked CNET article quotes a law professor out of California as saying that previous cases and rulings indicate that LJ wouldn't have legal responsibility for user created content/crimes. Yea or nay?

The whole drama llama makes me heartsick. I hate to see things like this go on, and I hate the thought of giving up LJ. I mena, half my real life friends are my friends because of LJ!

[kokopopo.livejournal.com]

I am sure he is right about liability, at least under prior theories. The problem is that no one wants to be the first to be prosecuted on a novel theory--or have Dateline show up with cameras and brand your company friendly to pedophiles. Since the age of the average lj user is probably less than 18, or at least the majority are minors, you can imagine what would happen.

It is upsetting, but don't give up lj. How else can you meet people like me who share a love for Bohrumil Hrabal? I'm sure not going anywhere. If the nightmare scenarios you spelled out in your prior post occur, then I will change my mind!

Don't let the bastards get you down!