Fear of Comparison Shopping

[parsimonia]

I'm not denying that scans_daily was a "piracy-lite" site. I'm not saying that posting eleven pages of a twenty-two page comic is my right, that it's legal or falls under fair use. It's not. We just got away with it.

But here are things to consider:

- There were 8980 LiveJournal users who were members of the group, with 6731 LiveJournal members watching it

Comments

[ext_138005]

Filby, I honestly didn't set out to make a "you assholes got what was coming to you" post. I was trying for a "Guys, don't pretend you didn't know what you were doing. Sorry you lost a place to meet, but you need to wise up and protect yourselves next time" post. But I've got two things working agiasnt me. One, I'm on a legitimate news site there and can't word it so that it seems I'm saying "For the love of god, hide your shame!" (even though I basically said that in the comments) even though one of my my main concerns about S_D was that we're all kind of fucking with the Fair Use defense in various ways in the Blogosphere and a site like S_D is the sort that will bring heat down on all of us. Two, I've got a trigger when it comes to people taking the wrong lesson from stuff like this. And really, when people started connecting the "most active female discussion site on the net" to "taken down" rather than "most active and high profile soft piracy site on the net" to "taken down" I just had to bang my head against the wall.

I admit, I didn't find it a welcoming place. And it really worried the shit out of me just as a scan-a-panel blogger, and the rumors about Marvel and Livejournal are convincing me here that I was right to be worried. And I'm sorry you guys, who are among the more reasonable members and the more reasonable commenters lost a place that you got together and talked comics regularly. Hell, I'm sorry the people I hate lost a community because that sucks. But honestly, this was a long time in coming and I was seeing a reaction that made me hit my head against the wall.

[parsimonia]

the rumors about Marvel and Livejournal are convincing me here that I was right to be worried

Well, I wouldn't worry too much if you're just scanning a panel or two, especially if it's not a recent comic. I think what's happening right now, is that Marvel is sending C & D notices (by way of LJ Abuse, I believe) to the people who they definitely know posted scans on LiveJournal. My guess is that LJ has given them reading access to the suspended community, so they're going through the recent backlog to find a few offenders and put the scare in us.

It seems unlikely they'd go after other bloggers who are just posting a few panels. Hell, there are probably other communities that post Marvel scans on LJ, but are still under the radar.

(I feel safe in the knowledge that the only Marvel comic I ever scanned and posted was from the late 80s/early 90s. It was about Spider-Man and Ghost Rider visiting Toronto and saving some kid who would not shut up about bike safety. :D )

[badficwriter]

Have people been continuing to receive more LJ abuse notices? Because I interpreted the notice as meaning that the Marvel copyright lawyer first visited photobucket to notify them to take down the images, which is when crantz noticed and asked PAD about it, and why the com was still up. But the lawyer visited our com and made an URL list of about 8 Marvel copyright violations, probably using our tag system...then sent them to LJ abuse, who suspended us, reviewed the pages, then shut the com down permanently and sent out the 'this is your official form letter of violation notice' to complete the matter. No one has reported any official activity from LJ since, to my knowledge. As a non-copyright holder, there's no reason PAD would have full knowledge of what happened, after he started the ball rolling.

In the new com, two people have had their images reported to their hosting sites as illegal--BUT NOT ALL MARVEL IMAGES. Just people who posted climactic spoilers to recent books. There's still 2 pages from the one week old War of Kings 1 up.

[parsimonia]

From what I understand the notices that Marvel sent by way of LJ abuse to specific users, and not just the s_d maintainers, were sent after the group's suspension. I could be wrong, though.

Have you seen this article?

PAD really doesn't enter into it beyond his initial report to Marvel and being rather hostile afterwards.

[badficwriter]

Yes, also seen an unedited copy of the abuse letter. It makes no sense on the face of it; clearly no one can take down a page that no longer exists. I truly think this is their backwards way of giving reasons/complaints after the fact, rather than pursuing specific users.

'Course, I might be wrong. <(8*P

The image host problems at the new comm have only been with Marvel material, so this is someone from Marvel keeping an eye on us, exercising more judgement than the first guy, and simply doing 'spot edits' by notifying the hosts. It remains annoying, though, that they don't consider it worthwhile to bother talking to the poster/mods.

[parsimonia]

I truly think this is their backwards way of giving reasons/complaints after the fact, rather than pursuing specific user

Yeah, I figure they are either legally are obligated to (or feel the need to) ask those they can to stop posting scans, and/or remove them. That way it shows that they are protecting their copyright, and it also serves to warn others against scanning and posting as well.

But, like a lot of people have pointed out, it's LJ and their Don't Talk About It On LJ rule that's really weird.