Six Apart At It Again, Deletes Fan Art Journals on LiveJournal

thats why you draw fanart with clothes onI dont care that you do itbut leave clothes and nothing that is morally objectionable and you should be free to draw/rp whatever you want

Closed Account Aug 6, 2007

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From LJ:"Some people have noted a Supreme Court case from a couple of years ago striking computer-generated images from the definition of child pornography and asked whether, as a result, drawings of children in sexual situations can be considered illegal. The answer is, yes, in some cases. Congress reacted to the Supreme Court's decision in that case by changing the obscenity laws to put back what the Supreme Court struck down from the child pornography laws. Those obscenity laws are still on the books today and still being enforced. As a result, our policy prohibits obscene images of minors in graphic sexual contexts."That's BS and they know it. Short of a constitutional amendment congress doesn't have the power to "put back" what the Supreme Court has struck down as unconstitutional. If you read the sections of U.S Code that deal with it (USC Sec. 1466A and 2257 ) they specifically deal with images that are indistinguishable from a real child engaged in sexually explicit behavor. It also deals with modifying images of real children to make them appear to be engaged in sexually explicit behavior. The Miller test is still the means used by the courts for the determining of obscenity and that determination may vary by location since it is based on community standards. Also it's likely that LJ has common carrier status and wouldn't be liable for it anyway.In any case it's up to a jury to decide obscenity, and I doubt their ability to guess what a thus far non-existent jury would decide.LJ had wants to play censor, but doesn't want to take responsibly for it, so they claim to be doing for legal reasons.

narisse Aug 6, 2007

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Perhaps the first didn't hurt their image, but it did point out a company weakness. This one, due to the controversial nature of the material, doubtlessly won't affect their image either. But eventually, one screwup will. And we will be here to laugh at them.

jbackhere Aug 6, 2007

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I write fanfiction, and other fiction, at LJ. I found the artwork to be tasteless, gross and not my personal cup of tea. I also find a lot of things to be such. Personally, if I could ban George Bush off the public airwaves, I would do so. But the fact is, people, that freedom of speech is about protecting the speech we dislike, so that the speech we do like remains free. If the winds change, what is banned tomorrow? Your religion? Your art? Your words, thoughts or ideas? No real people are being depicted. No pedophelia. It was (admittedly) tasteless art. Don't like it? Don't look at it. It's pretty simple. That's the American way.But the issue with Livejournal is one of fraud, people. When LJ was new, they actively courted fandom writers and players, and fandom members have paid a lot of money to LJ for paid accounts and permanent accounts. In the recent debacle, Barak himself made PROMISES that "no person would be suspended for questionable content without being given a chance to remove the offending material". Livejournal just had a permanent account sale, taking money from fandom writers (some going to deceptive "charities" affiliated with Six Apart owners that they use for tax shelters) and then they proceed to do THE EXACT THING THAT THEY SWORE THEY WOULD NOT DO! Then one of their rather boneheaded employees uses his professional journal (used for PR, lies, propaganda) to engage in an unprofessional and childish mocking of their fandom customers. Tell me, if your employees used your company site to make fun of your PAYING customers, would you be happy? And to top it off, when they suspend those accounts, they suspend all accounts that the person has, even innocent ones, and block their IP address. They cannot retrieve or back up their entries. They get no refund. They have no recourse. This, people, is fraud. Pure and simple.If Livejournal wants to tell fandom to get out, then they need to refund to fandom members every penny paid in our accounts. But LJ doesn't have the balls to do that, instead acting like two faced, gutless cowards. They bend to the will of a white supremecist, racist, homophobic organization in some jihad against FICTIONAL writing. Oh, but they will take people's money right before they screw them. Nice.It isn't about fandom. It's about fair business practices. It's about freedom of expression. It's about corporate greed and dishonesty. And when fandom is gone from LJ, with all of our lovely dollars (uh, contrary to what someone else said? Most fandom writers are over 25, and many are well into their 40's and professionals who spend good money there), then who will Barak's Bigoted Boneheads go after next? Catholics? African Americans? Lovers of a sports team they don't like? Breastfeeding moms? Oh...wait...they already did them.And still...today...no response from Livejournal.Cowards.

stellaomega Aug 7, 2007

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The problem is-- the images were not, in fact, clearly pedophilia. The characters were claimed to be older-- over 18 in the context of the stories they illustrated.Are you saying only Da Vinci has the greatness of talent to be called an artist? I don't think that's what "artisic merit" means in any legal context.

icarusancalion Aug 15, 2007