Sunday, November 30, 2014

TV Tropes getting a revamp, made an appeal to the new owner to handle Fast Eddie's legal BS

I just learned TV Tropes is raising money to revamp the site from the ground up. I also learned that it has a new owner.

While the techie in me is pleased to see they have finally realized the POS of a wiki engine and plan to utterly revamp the site to be better, not to mention I'm pleased that corrupt old man Fast Eddie (aka Gus Raley) is no longer in charge, there is still a grave matter of concern I have over the content of the site still being illegally copyrighted, which I hope the new owner is willing to address.

In fact, I just private messaged drewski (the new owner) and decided to risk being bounced from TV Tropes the following, in the hopes he will prove more ethical and reasonable than the previous owner:


As you may know, I'm the founder of All The Tropes, the wiki founded on Wikia and Orain in opposition to the censorship, and more importantly, the illegal copyright changes effected by TV Tropes July 2012 changing the copyright of all content from CC BY SA 3.0 to CC BY NC SA 3.0 and later on November 2013 adding a retroactive ownership clause to all contributions, forcing users to surrender them to TV Tropes. 

In case you aren't aware, these moves were made in contravention to Creative Commons licensing and thus all pages affected are now illegally tainted as a result, as CC licensing does not allow for these changes without the consent of all parties who have submitted edits to those pages, and the retroactive ownership clause is in blatant defiance of the free reuse policies of CC licensing and flagrantly illegal. 

That said, I am contacting you privately to inform you several members of our wiki have seriously considered filing DMCA notices on the pages in question, or, if need be, pursuing legal action in response to this disregard for the copyright of those contributions, which myself and other parties never agreed to have submitted under anything other than CC BY SA 3.0. However, since you aren't Fast Eddie, I am contacting you in the hopes you might prove more reasonable and ethical and be willing to address these legal concerns. 

If so, and if proper compensation is rendered to any injured parties, we would consider the matter closed and merely wish this site well in its efforts to prosper, especially since Fast Eddie (who was the chief architect of these illegalities) is no longer in charge. 

This does not necessarily mean many of us would wish to return to TV Tropes, as so much bad faith has occurred many of us no longer feel welcome here, even if the needless censorship was rescinded and the copyright issue was addressed, but we would abandon any possible legal action/DMCA notices and so on if you would be willing to work with us to address these issues, and while we may not return to TV Tropes, we would be willing to wish the site our best. 

I have submitted edits here that I do not personally want to raise a legal issue over (my account here was made willingly after the license changes), but other members of my community do have serious grievances considering the violation of their copyright, and I am asking if you would be willing to address these issues so TV Tropes is no longer tainted with compromised content under illegal licensing. 

A summary of our legal concerns can be found here:

 http://blog.brentlaabs.com/2013/12/the-edge-of-creative-commons.html 

If you are willing to address these issues, please contact our staff here:  
https://allthetropes.orain.org/wiki/All_The_Tropes:Contact_us 

Bob Schroeck is the one with the most sizable list of illegally copyrighted items, and I respectfully request his concerns be dealt with as soon as possible. 

Respectfully,  

Geth N 7 

P.S - We have kept careful records of all the pages that were illegally copyrighted, and if need be can produce them, including copies of the pages histories of the pages in question.

6 comments:

  1. I wish you luck Geth. Let's hope the guy doesn't screw this up worse than Fast Eddie did (if such a thing is possible).

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    Replies
    1. Well, good news. Turns out drewski is willing to speak with us on this matter and was very polite and understanding about this, so I thanked him for hearing us out and Bob is going to be getting contact with him concerning this copyright issue.

      Compared to Fast Eddie, drewski proved far more ethical and reasonable in his replies to me, so I'm willing to give the guy the benefit of the doubt so we can hopefully get this cleared up as amicably as possible.

      Turns out he understands and respects why ATT exists and extend an olive branch in regards to our relations, which I would be happy to reciprocate.

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    2. That's excellent to hear, I just hope for the better from here on out.

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  2. I'm pretty much on the edge of my seat here.

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  3. Replies
    1. Probably at home, silently cursing his detractors and regretting this. That or celebrating while awaiting someone to take him to the retirement home he so rightly deserves. Either or.

      Delete

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