Life in a Northern Town

I was reading a blog post this morning that utterly encapsulates why I think copyright law is completely broken and why, as a creator, it scares the crap out of me: sometimes the status quo strikes back.

Basically, DiMartino and Konietzko don't own the series. They don't own the characters, they don't own the storyline, they don't own the character designs, they don't own jack. It was work for hire, and the proof is in the fact that Nickelodeon has the copyright (and the trademark) all over the place.

Furthermore, on the Tokyopop version, it at least lists DiMartino and Konietzko as creators. None of the rest even mention them at all -- and now we're onto the comicified version of the movie, which has whots-his-face's name plastered there at the top... and again, no mention of DiMartino and Konietzko.

Now, I haven't actually seen the Avatar series (though I really do want to fix that, because people tell me it's awesome!). But from all I've heard, the creators are incredibly invested in it, and the world-building is lush and gorgeous.

But, thanks to our fantastically broken copyright laws, the people who created and wrote it, who've poured their blood, sweat and tears into it, don't own it -- they have no say in what happens to it, they can't take the characters and make a sequel or spin-off, it isn't theirs.

( More nattering about copyright )

LJ is holding elections for a user representative to represent us (the userbase) on LJ's advisory board.

I didn't really care one way or another about it until (surprise!) the trolling and asshattery began. The candidate in (currently) second place, jameth, has essentially mobilized an army of trolls who invade and attack (with personal insults, offensive/insulting image macros and other trollery) any discussion they can find that criticizes their candidate or behavior.

The most disgusting example I've seen so far was a troll attack on the LJ of a person I know who was recently diagnosed with epilepsy. She had posted a brief PSA bringing up the rapidly-flashing "seizure the day" icons that jameth's supporters are using, and pointing out that it's not impossible for the icons themselves to trigger seizures and migraines (later supported by anecdotal evidence from other people who experienced migraine "auras" from the icons) -- at the very least, throwing these icons around as a joke is rude and insensitive. Someone linked her post in Jameth's LJ, and what followed was a sickening 300+ comments in her journal, with -- of course -- flashing icons, as well as personal attacks and insults, all coming from Jameth's supporters and regular commenters in his LJ. Jameth himself showed up to egg them on. Her entire journal is currently flocked due to this nastiness, and she's thinking about leaving LJ (and who can blame her?).

Here and here and here are a few more examples I found in a few minutes of clicking around on Metafandom and friends-of-friends. It's all over the place. Point out their asshattery, get trolled, assuming they find you.

Jameth's response to being asked to reign in his followers (specifically relating to the epilepsy discussion) was, first, "What post?" (a post he'd already commented on at that point) and then, when the link was pointed out to him, "She should learn how to control her journal's content; I'm not going to police people about their user icons" followed by a string of denials that he has any control over the situation at all.

Riiiiight. On the one hand, it's certainly true that you can't be responsible for every single thing your friends do. On the other hand, if you hold a political rally downtown, whip everyone up to a fever pitch of patriotic fervor, and then sit back with a grin, occasionally shouting encouragement, while they break windows and steal stuff -- good luck finding a jury who won't hold you responsible for that.

This is also a guy who, when another candidate overtakes him, posts unfounded allegations of massive sockpuppet voting (and has repeatedly refused to provide evidence). He and his followers are extremely nasty towards fans and fandom -- this link is one teeny example, but you can find them in pretty much any thread on his LJ, and then there's this thoroughly tasteless smear ad on the hugely popular ohnotheydidnt community. (His front-running opponent, legomymalfoy, is active in fandom, and Jameth's bunch, in the time-honored political tradition, are making hay of this, with slurs about "fanfic lesbians" and the like.)

I have yet to see a SINGLE thread on his LJ that isn't full of namecalling and juvenile, rude behavior on the part of Jameth and his friends.

Poking through his userinfo reveals membership in such tasteful LJ comms as rape_an_ljer and kill_the_pope. Looking through the journals of his friends, supporters and stumpers is appalling -- it's true that it's not entirely fair to judge a person by their friends, but one of his friends, weev, who's been going around stumping for him, has a journal that's full of this disgusting anti-Semitic drivel and another of his friends, queerdo, admitted in a thread in one of the discussions I was involved in (now flocked, though I could take caps) that he's HIV-positive and has a history of having unprotected sex with uninformed partners. This from a guy who was arguing, in that same thread, that epileptic people need to take responsibility for their own browsing experience and it's their own fault if someone else shoving flashing icons into their personal journal gives them a seizure.

The brief, tl;dr summary of this post: VOTE FOR ANYONE BUT JAMETH FOR LJ ADVISORY BOARD! For the love of God, don't let these assholes use trolling and namecalling to win this election. You think LJ's policies are a joke now? Wait'll Jameth gets a voice in making them.

I have no personal knowledge of any of the other candidates, but legomymalfoy seems to be well-known and respected both in and out of fandom; here is an endorsement of her by a former LJ staff member who knows and has worked with her. She's also the one who is currently in the best position to defeat Jameth, so even if she's not your top choice, please consider putting her down as your second or third choice (if no one gets a majority of the vote, the election goes to a runoff, where the lowest-ranked candidates are eliminated and your vote will switch to your next favorite if your top candidate washes out -- better explanation of the runoff process here).

All the candidates' campaign statements can be viewed here.

Once again, to vote, go here.

To change your vote after you've already voted, do it here.

The election ends Thursday.