Not to mention the naked hypocrisy of "I can take it because it's public domain, but I'll contact your ISP if you piss me off because it's not public domain." Fuckers.

Word.

I'd almost say that's the craziest thing I've heard in a long time.

What boggled me most in that kerfuffle is not the ignorance about the copyright and legal threats and so forth, because what that first fan who handed NF the CD did was at least understandable, if stupid. It was the sheer lack of basic courtesy coming from the guy who uploaded the vids onto his site. People who created the vid politely asked him to take them down, and he refused! The hell?

I'm saddened about the vid thievery and the necessity of vidders like sisabet feeling compelled to take their vids down. Sigh.

I like the idea of the going-grey day, but I'm a little ooked out by the Wall of Shame thing for plagiarists up at the same site.

I'd almost say that's the craziest thing I've heard in a long time.

You know, I'd have said you were right if I hadn't heard this crazier thing. Which I may discuss in LJ later. I was laughing for hours on the phone last night about it.

Plagiarists should be exposed. Some of them are pretty sad emotional basketcases, notwithstanding.

People who created the vid politely asked him to take them down, and he refused! The hell?

Ah, but you see, in his tiny brain, the vidders had no rights in the work, since it's merely snips of other people's work spliced together without permission. He seems to think making a vid is like clipping headlines from a newspaper and taping them to construction paper.

I read the thread, was tempted to send them off to read Rebecca Tushnet's Yale Law Review article on the intellectual property interest inherent in derivative creative works, and then thought better of it. That kind of person can't handle all the multi-syllabics and footnotes...

Anyone who's created something knows that vidders and ficcers have a legitimate (if not well-recognized) ownership interest in their product. Even if there is no enforcement mechanism in place, it's a gross violation of community standards to take someone else's work and distribute it or change it without their permission.

The problem, of course, is that it's damned near impossible to enforce such community standards. I have yet to hear of a fan who's rich enough and crazy enough to take such a case to court, and I'd be terrified of the judge, because all it would take would be one conspitated judge for this whole infrastructure to come tumbling down...

Yeah, they should, but that doesn't mean people can't learn from their mistakes, or should always be branded as a result.

(ETA: I was replying to Theodosia.)

See, I want to know who's stealing stuff. I don't want to end up reading a story or watching a vid and liking it and not realizing that someone stole that work.

Oh, and I'm not even going to touch the claim that thousands of people would be attracted to Firefly by watching vids. I mean, really: vids are for invested fans, and don't do much to attract newbies to a show. You generally have to know the characters and the show to get what a vid is telling you. Otherwise it's just pretty pictures set to music.

The guy's a nut, and a stupid one at that.

Well, what if you're a plagiarist who gets caught, apologizes, takes down the work, and goes on to write original material in the same fandom? To take a hypothetical example that in no way is happening right now in SV?