but they have said it would be fine if folks made copies for their friends using DVD burners as long as it is not done for profit.

Oh, that is excellent news. I was turning green over here.

The vid DVDs sound wonderful. Yes, that was a hint you heard crashing oh-so-subtly to the floor.

I'm sorry, I thought I'd tried to make it clear that this is my visceral feeling

Right. That's why the "I don't agree" part -- my visceral feeling is different -- and the "no, this is the line" part -- our lines are different places, and we probably won't convince each other to move. All good, just expressed differently.

We're all allowed to say whatever the fuck we want, you know?

Weeeell -- the full and thorough inference to be taken is that Person A can say anything she pleases, but that Person B has just as much right to yell at Person A for that pleasing. And for Person A to yell back.

"Take what you want, and pay for it" is a philosophy that, in practice, ends up with only the most abrasive and thick-skinned people willing to participate. That kind of bad currency will drive me out, I don't know about other people.

Bothers me, but people I know and respect read and write it, and I'm not going to tell them they can't. OTOH I'm not gonna read it, either. ::shrugs::

It bothers me enough that I have to avoid the places where it's at. I have found myself not visiting web sites, not reading blogs, of people I formerly corresponded with a great deal, because I'm afraid I'll run across something I'm not comfortable seeing. (Sort of like how, if you are uncomfortable around people doing drugs, you come up with an excuse not to go to Coworker X's house.) Practically speaking, this means I'm sort of losing friends, and not participating in the "mainstream" of fanfic, because the current mainstream -- its trends, anyway -- make me need to not be there.

I don't see as how my choices make the fanfic world at large a poorer place, particularly, but I'm certainly sorry to find myself at the margins. I guess I'm sort of in Betsy's camp, although my instincts would not have been to call it a "moral" line.

The vid DVDs sound wonderful. Yes, that was a hint you heard crashing oh-so-subtly to the floor.

Heh. I'll mention it once I've got ahold of my copy.

It's wrong to use a drabble as an excuse to look at the social security records for most common baby names in 1988, isn't it? At least I don't have a cat to vacuum.

I guess I'm sort of in Betsy's camp, although my instincts would not have been to call it a "moral" line.

Yeah. Maybe "ethical"?

Weeeell -- the full and thorough inference to be taken is that Person A can say anything she pleases, but that Person B has just as much right to yell at Person A for that pleasing. And for Person A to yell back.

Yep. I agree completely. I think it's part of the risk you take when participating in something like fandom.

"Take what you want, and pay for it" is a philosophy that, in practice, ends up with only the most abrasive and thick-skinned people willing to participate.

That's not what I'm advocating, though, if I understand you correctly. I'm just saying, in my little rulebook, that:
a) everyone has the right to do whatever the hell they want, including me
b) doing whatever you want, depending on what "whatever" is, comes with certain ramifications that you have to accept, which may include someone yelling at you, someone sending you a C&D, or someone showing your fic to a random and startled actor

I also have a conditional c), which is that people shouldn't be hypocrites, but that's more of a personal thing about not using sockpuppets (shrift excepted) and not condemning someone else for something I do.

Dana, shrift is an amazingly good sockpuppet of yours. My congratulations on the care you've taken in creating her.

runs away quickly from those missiles flying my way

they're tiny missiles

I do sort of get where you're at with the above, and generally speaking, I would have agreed with you 4 years ago. I saw instances of real people fic in the XF fandom, e.g., and did feel free to yell at the people who wrote it. I don't really feel so free to yell any more, because I've been reduced to a minority and it's tiresome to listen to (and produce) the same old yelling on a regular basis.

But it's still pretty galling to find that you can't eat any of the birthday cake because it's made with something to which you're violently allergic. Not something that the birthday cake baker did on purpose, necessarily, and it's just one of those things I'll have to live with, but it's still pretty galling.

Yeah. Not to mention all the wonderful bakers who don't bake the kind of cake you like any more.

Someone left my cake out in the rain.

But it's still pretty galling to find that you can't eat any of the birthday cake because it's made with something to which you're violently allergic. Not something that the birthday cake baker did on purpose, necessarily, and it's just one of those things I'll have to live with, but it's still pretty galling.

Welcome to my (literal) world.