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syncope at 01:21pm on 13/08/2007
syncope at 01:21pm on 13/08/2007I am starting to think of the reactions within fandom about the whole lj madness are sort of a revolution of sorts. Not in a good sense, more a value neutral sense.
This whole exchange: I will sue you, then, bastards! reads like a summation to me of how I’ve felt about “those kids” (my term, you might use noobs) who have come into fandom in the last couple years or who have always been in fandom predominated by other kids so they had very little/no influence on them by adults who have at some point felt furtive about fandom.
In my head, it’s something like the old queer culture of secret knocks and private clubs and police raid giving over to post-Stonewall loud and proud mentality. That analogy works as a model (with cease and desists and ToSing and so on standing in for police action), but not so much on the human rights angle. It’s hard for me to say definitively, yes, we have *right* to behave thusly with someone else’s intellectual property. It’s never been a rights issue to me. It’s what we do, it might be illegal, but we’re not hurting anyone (besides the CHILDREN, please, think of them!). We exist in a liminal position with morality to the left and legality to the right. There is no center here to even hold or not hold.
The kids keep rattling on about rights and freedom of speech and yadda blah. For me, this is not the issue. They are making the wrong stand. The issue is that lj has *taken notice* of us at all and this is like the sleeping leviathan poking its nose out of the water. The waves are going to hit the shore whether you like it or not—screaming does not alter reality. Whether you like the fact that what we do is liminal does not alter the fact it IS. The bottom line here is that we write pornography about real people, about underaged people, about characters created by others, about sex between animals and humans, about rape and molestation and bondage and grievous bodily injury. What has changed is that we used to (as a community) acknowledge that what we did was at best acceptable only to ourselves and at worst criminal. We took pains to maintain our community as a community, self-policing and guided by well-known rules. When people got out of line, we had measures to censure those people (fandom_wank at one point had a something of a point). However, people no longer abide by those rules (read that link above, seriously, WOWZERS), and our whole community is suffering because of that.
One more metaphor: when one kid acts up, we all miss recess.
There is the chance that fandom will somehow morph and mainstream culture will acknowledge that copy write laws don’t work that well and that material intended for nonprofiting enterprises is acceptable since it does no infringe (except it does) on commerce. However, that remains to be seen. Right now we’re in position where I’d much rather just keep my community as an underground members-only club. I LIKE it like that. We’re a SUBculture and we have all of the benefits of that: secret handshakes, our own dialect, a sense of belonging amongst ourselves. Why give that up because some entitled children think that everyone should accept their yaoi? PIPE DOWN, KIDS, GRANNY LIKES HER SUBROSA ORGANIZATION!
Seriously, if you want me, I’m pretty much on jf now. I'm also tired of the drama queening and grandstanding on my fl over here. I'm too old and jaded for LALALALA LOOK AT ME bullshit. I want to enjoy fandom, and for a long time lj has not done that for me. I think it was time to move on and get out of the pattern we're in here anyway. Please, children, remain here.
Where to get a jf account.
This whole exchange: I will sue you, then, bastards! reads like a summation to me of how I’ve felt about “those kids” (my term, you might use noobs) who have come into fandom in the last couple years or who have always been in fandom predominated by other kids so they had very little/no influence on them by adults who have at some point felt furtive about fandom.
In my head, it’s something like the old queer culture of secret knocks and private clubs and police raid giving over to post-Stonewall loud and proud mentality. That analogy works as a model (with cease and desists and ToSing and so on standing in for police action), but not so much on the human rights angle. It’s hard for me to say definitively, yes, we have *right* to behave thusly with someone else’s intellectual property. It’s never been a rights issue to me. It’s what we do, it might be illegal, but we’re not hurting anyone (besides the CHILDREN, please, think of them!). We exist in a liminal position with morality to the left and legality to the right. There is no center here to even hold or not hold.
The kids keep rattling on about rights and freedom of speech and yadda blah. For me, this is not the issue. They are making the wrong stand. The issue is that lj has *taken notice* of us at all and this is like the sleeping leviathan poking its nose out of the water. The waves are going to hit the shore whether you like it or not—screaming does not alter reality. Whether you like the fact that what we do is liminal does not alter the fact it IS. The bottom line here is that we write pornography about real people, about underaged people, about characters created by others, about sex between animals and humans, about rape and molestation and bondage and grievous bodily injury. What has changed is that we used to (as a community) acknowledge that what we did was at best acceptable only to ourselves and at worst criminal. We took pains to maintain our community as a community, self-policing and guided by well-known rules. When people got out of line, we had measures to censure those people (fandom_wank at one point had a something of a point). However, people no longer abide by those rules (read that link above, seriously, WOWZERS), and our whole community is suffering because of that.
One more metaphor: when one kid acts up, we all miss recess.
There is the chance that fandom will somehow morph and mainstream culture will acknowledge that copy write laws don’t work that well and that material intended for nonprofiting enterprises is acceptable since it does no infringe (except it does) on commerce. However, that remains to be seen. Right now we’re in position where I’d much rather just keep my community as an underground members-only club. I LIKE it like that. We’re a SUBculture and we have all of the benefits of that: secret handshakes, our own dialect, a sense of belonging amongst ourselves. Why give that up because some entitled children think that everyone should accept their yaoi? PIPE DOWN, KIDS, GRANNY LIKES HER SUBROSA ORGANIZATION!
Seriously, if you want me, I’m pretty much on jf now. I'm also tired of the drama queening and grandstanding on my fl over here. I'm too old and jaded for LALALALA LOOK AT ME bullshit. I want to enjoy fandom, and for a long time lj has not done that for me. I think it was time to move on and get out of the pattern we're in here anyway. Please, children, remain here.
Where to get a jf account.
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