(no subject)

[threeplusfire]

Oh I do not fucking believe this bullshit. Fuck you all and your inability to even remotely address concerns.

Comments

[schmidtybooger.livejournal.com]

This whole thing just makes my jaw drop time and again. Honestly, I've been working in PR for only FOUR MONTHS and I know better.

[halfacork.livejournal.com]

Dare I ask what now?

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

The response in lj_biz.

[kythryne.livejournal.com]

What did I miss this time? (She says, looking up from configuring the new wordpress blog)

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Their announcement in lj_biz was such utter corporate doublespeak BS.

[alainn-sorcha.livejournal.com]

I just read through all that, and all I can say is, "Wow."

I mean, I've been sort of borderline about this since it started in May. Yes, I want speech to be protected and I respect and support the right of fanfic writers to have a forum and a community in this space. Even though I would argue that some of it is sort of borderline questionable (or very, very questionable), most of it not even close to illegal, whatever you opinion on its ultimate value is. But with the most recent incident, all I could think was, "Are you really that surprised? Sixteen is still underage in the eyes of the law and if you're going to draw sexually explicit pictures of teenagers, you need to understand that to produce such material, you're taking a risk. Even if said teenagers are fictitious." That said, I do think they're overreacting, despite the fact that their intentions seem to be noble.

At that point, I was still hoping maybe LJ/6A would be able to handle this with some grace. Then Brad left, and as much as I don't blame him, I feel completely abandoned. Now I've read the most recent lj-biz post and I'm disgusted. It's not because they've decided to take a stance again porn and illegal content; as someone in another community pointed out, the TOS has always reserved the right to ban you for any reason without warning. LJ is perfectly within their rights. But the way they're handling this and treating their customers is abominable. They're being so disrespectful, and promoting an atrocious business policy. They're going to lose a ton of money over this; even I'm considering not renewing my paid account. And furthermore, one of the bannable offenses is the support of someone else's illegal activity, even if that support is not illegal. So basically, someone does something illegal and you go, "Hell, yeah, buddy!" and you're toast. I mean, that's horrible. Free speech is one of only a few things the Constitution absolutely guarantees without ambiguity, and as much as I think members of the KKK and Aryan Nation (for example) are disgusting and deserve to be punched in the neck, it's not illegal to have a journal that promotes those ideologies.

The article on Brad leaving made mention of 6A looking for a buyer, and God I hope they find one with sense. I held out hope for a long time that 6A buying LJ wouldn't do damage, but that hope is dying. Whoever is running this place doesn't have a clue. Now I guess I'll just sit back and pray they can fix it because I love Live Journal and I'm not ready to give up my blog.

[brienze.livejournal.com]

I kind of thought as you did... fanfic can provide context and commentary and show the fucked-up-edness of underage characters in sexual situations. Even fanart that illustrates and links to a specific story can maybe make the same claim to not endorsing the depicted activity. But a stand-alone pic of bondage with underage characters? Sorry, I'm not seeing how there is any merit or moral message there other than "this looks hot". That only two people can be confirmed as banned reinforces for me the idea that in practice, this is not something that will tear apart fandom (unless fandom decides to pick up and go somewhere else as a preventive measure).

Their business practices are terrible, of course. Since Brad's sale of the company, I think it's fairly clear that the businessmen running things are not natives of the Internet and have no clue how to interact with us.

In case you and Amanda haven't seen it, here is someone who's written about California consumer law as it relates to 6A, and how ANY paid user, no matter where they're from, can go online and file a complaint with California's Attorney General.