thanks to th_esaurus for the link

[luciazephyr]

I'd like to be the first person to say Thank you to Six Apart and Livejournal.

No, I am not joking. I now have a strong urge to slap anyone who's bitching about LJ's bannings. 'Cause, fuck, we have things good right now.

-Luce

ETA: miriam_heddy calls shenanigans in the comments here and raises a few points against the essay. Keep it in mind, folks.

Comments

[ahab99.livejournal.com]

I do think there are a number of legal misunderstandings in the essay, and as he hasn't actually linked any of the law he's made definitive statements about I wouldn't take it as gospel truth. If he wants to tell us how we should be reacting to the law he should actually be engaging in the technicalities rather than just making grand rhetorical statements. Fanfiction has never been ruled on, and the one case that came close ruled in a way that protected it (though the case was then settled out of court, so at the moment there's no strong precedent on the issue). Obscenity and child pornography are murkier and changing all the time, but all the posts I've seen from real fannish lawyers who have actually cited the law have gone in the opposite direction from this poster.

There are certainly things posted on LJ that can get the poster into plenty of legal trouble, but I would not say that fandom is illegal and we should be kissing the boots of 6A for allowing us to get away with it for this long. Fandom has existed for years before LiveJournal and it will continue to exist for years after 6A collapses under its rather incompetent customer service. And that whole section about what Mr. and Mrs. Whitebread think is a complete straw man that has nothing to do with anything that the fans here have been arguing...

[lucia-tanaka.livejournal.com]

After spending some time at fandom_lawyers as Miriam linked above, I am more likely to nod along with you than with the essayist.

But still, it seems like there is very little (if any) precedent for rulings in modern fandom and it makes me nervous.