Fandom artists getting permanently banned from LJ

[bungee]

Okay, I've been somewhat oblivious up til now, but apparently there's a big showdown going on between HP fandom and SixApart at the moment. The thing that surprises me the most is that I haven't seen more posts on my f-list about it. THIS DOESN'T JUST AFFECT HP FANDOM, PEOPLE.

This (Snape/Harry, not work safe!) was the questionable art that ponderosa121 was

Comments

[bungee]

After having spent the majority of my weekend emerged in the wank, my conclusions have been this:

1) 6A is probably less concerned about breaking US laws than they are about getting crucified by certain zealot organizations (and there was another crazy blogger lady someone linked to, but I can't seem to find it now). They also recently donated money to RAINN with their last round of Permanent Accounts, which may have something to do with things.
2) This seems to be less about child pornography than it is about gay pornography, since the only artists who were banned were ones who drew m/m sex, despite the fact that neither of those pictures portrayed "children." Furthermore, the same community where these pictures were found has also been host to graphic m/f and f/f artwork portraying minors, or characters who LJ could just as easily consider minors according to the criterion they used on the banned art.
3) Fandom loves cat macros.

[bungee]

My guess is that, yes, they were responding to complaints - and probably from an organization that they assumed would give them bad press if they did not act fast, hence the hasty banning of both artists without so much as a warning. (ponderosa121 wasn't even aware that she was banned until one of her LJ friends mentioned it to her and did not get the official statement from LJ until several hours later.) My point is not necessarily that LJ/6A is made up of homophobic assholes (if they were, fandom would have been gone long ago), but that they did not properly investigate the claims against the banned users. And they did not, and have not since, acted toward their customers in a professional manner (there was an actually an well-known LJ employee who commented in a post mocking the wank).

I'm interested to see what sort of a statement they make, come Monday. I have a feeling they're waiting it out until they have an opportunity to discuss the situation with their lawyers ...

[bungee]

Mmmyep. Can't argue there.

It's rather difficult to wade through all of the legal bullshit to figure out what is ACTUALLY going on, but what it boils down to is that LJ needs to lay down very specific rules about what they do and do not allow, and then STAND BY THEM. If someone is violating TOS and gets banned, fine, but you can't just go around banning people willy-nilly just because you're afraid of some fanatic homophobic/sexually repressed person(s)'s agenda.