Weebles Wobble...

[sisabet]

I had this looonng, morose post finished about respect, and videos and basically how I really don't want to share my new vids publically anymore - and not because of clip theft, but because of my perceived pervasive reaction in the fandom at large - that it is no big deal and I am a major hypocrite for defending my work.

"Well, fine," I said to myself, I said, "Self, this isn't fun and we don't have to do it anymore."

"Right on self," I agreed. "Vidding is what you do and people don't have to understand it and you don't have to put them online."

My computer ate that post. I really believe ole Rutger hates it when I get all weepy-feeling-sorry-for-myself-and -full-of-woe. Rut don't allow none of that.

And then I was sad. I ate a sandwich and was happy. I thought about the vid I just finished and was sad. Then I read this comment on fandom wank by elke_tanzer and I was happy and proud again:

Second, so that people across multiple fandoms and mediums can see what happens to plagiarists and thieves if they admit what they did was wrong and apologize, as well as see what happens when they don't and continue to be rude and spiteful. Yesterday, the Buffyverse vidder who'd stolen clips from other vidders took his vids down and apologized, and he's now getting all sorts of offers of help in ripping and acquiring his own source. In contrast, the hosting-without-permission asshats are still being discussed as a boil on the ass of Firefly fandom, and fans in the Firefly fandom are having to more carefully consider going underground or pass-protecting their work... basically, the Firefly fandom is still suffering, and the Buffyverse fandom is recovering.

Now I'm just kinda confused. On one hand I am a huge control-freak. On the other hand I am incredibly lazy. On any given day these two traits cause enormous conflict. Today I am all over the place. No! I don't want to post my vids! Aw, hell, forget about it, it isn't worth it, I'll put up a few and be done with it. Fuck this, I'll post my vids if I want to! Crap. Maybe I should just friends-lock all vids - or do a secret URL? This is stupid, no one cares, I'll just vid and post and not worry. But I don't want to see this new vid stolen, and I know once it goes online that is it. But I want to post my vid! But I don't want to post my vid!

What generally follows is foot-stomping and pouting at myself. Thank God my cubicle is in a secluded corner.

I can't even soothe myself with the Spike-Angel-Lethal-Weapon-Connection. The boys won't play. They say I am not devoting enough resources to them at the moment. Whatever! My imaginary deadgaybuddyvampirecops are soooo difficult sometimes. Fucking divas!

I need help. Regardless about how you feel about clip theft, fan vidding, and copyright issues, the fact remains that I want to vid. I just need help determining how I share my work online. I need suggestions here people - c'mon. Let's think outside the box. Is it possible to post something online and then maintain a little bit of control? If it isn't, have I forfeited my right to become indignant when my work is then gutted? Am I am arrogant asshole because I don't want people who believe fanvidders are nothing more then low-rent crooks seeing my vids? Cause I am okay with that, really. Actually, there is no conflict with that last one. How to ensure it - that is a big question.

Comments

[elke-tanzer.livejournal.com]

Pass-protecting your website is one option. You can go as far as some sites have and run a mailing list to let those you want to have access in on the password changes.

I'm assuming you've already got your sig on the vid(s), directing people back to a page where you say what sorts of distribution are OK with you and what are not...

We've discussed setting up a screened LJ or JF community so that only clued-in vid consumers are let in, that way vidders could post their URLs and passwords there to a wider audience than just their own website mailing list without dealing with asshats.

There are options.

Whatever you decide, I'm with you. I firmly believe that it is your right as a creative artist of derivative work to expect your viewers to respect your wishes regarding both credit and distribution.

I'd type more now, but I've got to get going... RL beckons.

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{hugs}}}}}}}}}}}}}

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Thank you for what you've said and what you continue to say. You really brightened my day today. Significantly.

[elke-tanzer.livejournal.com]

Just as your vids have brightened many of my days. :-)

{{{{{{{{{{{hugs}}}}}}}}}}}

[kita0610.livejournal.com]

Passwords.

Invite only.

You're not arrogant. And if you wanna be a diva, you have a right to be.

Fuck the asshats who contribute nothing but complaints and nastiness. Fuck the asshats who think they're entitled to judge you. In fact, fuck em all, let god sort 'em out.

Whatever you wanna do, I'm behind you. Cause you my dear, are the shiznit. And anyone who has a problem with that, can suck my metaphorical dick.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Will you still feel this way when I confess that the new vid is Spuffy? Cause I kinda have been dreading telling you. But you wrote "Six-Foot Deep" and that was da Bomb. Yep - this vid is all your fault. I blame you, really I do.

[linzeestyle.livejournal.com]

I need suggestions here people - c'mon. Let's think outside the box. Is it possible to post something online and then maintain a little bit of control? If it isn't, have I forfeited my right to become indignant when my work is then gutted? Am I am arrogant asshole because I don't want people who believe fanvidders are nothing more then low-rent crooks seeing my vids? Cause I am okay with that, really. Actually, there is no conflict with that last one. How to ensure it - that is a big question.

I once saw a person who was having problems with people stealing and misusing their manipulations get people to pretty much sign a form promising they wouldn't distribute/steal/change the manips - they'd have to e-mail her saying that, and in return she'd give them the password. Now granted, people can always lie, but...there's a thought? I think once personal contact has been established with the vidder, as it'd have to be to get the password, people are less likely to steal. Because then the vidder becomes an actual person, and not just a nameless and faceless website from which to steal.

I really liked the idea of a private community, where people who want to distribute their vids can do so freely. If the videos are only distributed through there, and end up being stolen anyway, it will be pretty obvious that someone in the group is the thief, and that person can be removed.

Or we could just subject all potential video viewers to repeated brainwashing sessions until they have been reprogrammed to understand that stealing clips is bad, and doing so will get them whipped, and not in the fun way.

Linzee

[miss-tress.livejournal.com]

Only allow me access to the vids. I wish to be greedy and non-sharing and hoard all sisabet vids to myself.

[spikesbitch.livejournal.com]

Honey I wish I could say what would be best but I love your vids and really would love to see your new stuff. you could always start a second site, keep it a secret. email your friends and you could say that you will let certain people see it who have requested to see it that you feel you can trust to not steal your vid. post it for a couple weeks after you let everyone know and then take it back down. only put it up as people request it that you feel you can trust. yeah, extra work so probably not the best but your work is too good to not share with anyone. I love you and hope you stop stressing... ((((Hugs))))

[danielleleigh.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to say as someone who enjoys your vids very much, and appreciates all the time and effort you put into them, would find it a great loss if you stopped posting entirely. I'm a grad student and therefore busy with real-life insanity almost 24/7, and often feel like a big waste of space fandom wise because I can't contribute the way vidders and fic-writers and artists do. But I can't tell you how much it means to me that people like you share because you *want* to share - you can't expect anything in return except our appreciation and pleasure in your own artistic production. And the outside part of that - our feedback and such - is such a small gift in return for such wonderful accomplishments and lovingly created artworks.

I *completely* understand your reaction to what has happened and I don't think there is a *right* response to all of this, but as someone who isn't one of your livejournal "friends," I would understand if you felt safe sharing only with them, but would still want to enjoy your works.

This is really a way of saying *thank you* for sharing in the past, and I hope you will consider sharing your talent with us - in whatever way *you* can be comfortable with - in the future.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Now you made me feel all happy again (and yay you for posting - nice to meet you). I was over on another thread reading how stupid I am for caring about being ripped off when I rip off ME. I want to scream that it is not the same thing - but then I get too sleepy. Now I feel better. Would you care for some chocolate cake? How about a Spuffy Vid? I got one of those as well.

[danielleleigh.livejournal.com]

:::blush::: I'm glad my words helped if even just a *little*.

I *care* that you were ripped off, we should *all* care, because god knows I want this to be a happy corner of the net to be involved in, and lately due to the actions of a few, it hasn't been. I think we *do* have to deal with what has happened and that, of course, isn't fun or pleasant. But you, and others, have done a lot to educate others why certain actions *hurt* people even if their intent wasn't malicious. So. good for you for working through this, hard as it has been on you emotionally.

and chocolate Cake? Yummy. *grabs a quick bite off your plate*

Spuffy Vids? Niiiiiiiice. You know this will sound silly but I just like knowing people can make these things. I'm always amazed and astounded by the productivity of my fandoms. It is a lovely thing. :-)

[xanphibian.livejournal.com]

You do whatever you feel you have to in order to feel safe. As long as I have access to your work, I'll be happy. :)

It's sad that you have to do this. I mean, you don't HAVE to (and in a perfect world all newbie vidders would get a handbook and have to sign a contract).

I've reread that sentence a few times, and it doesn't look right. But you know what I mean.

[rubywisp.livejournal.com]

Here... have an angry Methos to do your dirty work for you and chop off all unappreciative vidwatchers' heads.

I don't know enough to offer any kind of suggestions about protecting your vids, unfortunately. I do know that I fervently hope that you don't stop vidding because of people who are too selfish or lazy to do their own work, and because other people don't appreciate or understand the amount of work that does go into making vids.

I just want to say that whatever you decide, I'm with you - it's your stuff and you have the right to do what you want with it, including to right to be (justifiably, IMO) pissed off when people take it and pass it off as their own. I really don't understand how people can't see the difference between using ME's material to make something new with, and taking things that other people have made and claiming them as their own creation. World of difference to me, but whatever.

You're not being a diva, you're not being arrogant (though lord knows, as great as the vids are that you and your sis make, you'd have the right to be), and the fact that people don't understand why you're upset is something I don't understand myself.

::::::::hugs::::::::

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

I do know that I fervently hope that you don't stop vidding because of people who are too selfish or lazy to do their own work, and because other people don't appreciate or understand the amount of work that does go into making vids.

Oh Hell No! I will not stop vidding. I don't think I could if I tried. I'm just considering how I want to share those vids - I think it would do me well to be a bit more selective and not post everything just "out there" in a free-for-all. I mean, there is a reason the some of the best vids are not online. This is something to think about.

[bailunrui.livejournal.com]

I just had an idea! (there goes my ration for the rest of the week) Zip files can be password protected. :)

[renenet.livejournal.com]

Hi. I don't have answers tonight because I'm reallysupertired, but I know several things:

1. You are not an arrogant asshole.
2. You have not forfeited your right to become indignant.
3. Your lazy control-freak self is bright and tangy and has lively finish.

there's a new sheriff in town

[(Anonymous)]

Heather Duke: "You look like hell."
Veronica Sawyer: "Oh yeah? I just got back."

Sorry, after my subject heading I started channeling "Heathers."

Undercover Brother here, twice in one week. Can you tell that Truth Seeking Woman is out of town? She and Mom are househunting in -- to keep this anonymous -- a city about 1600 miles due west of you, where cheap buffets abound and John Corbett walks the streets. You know the one. She starts working in June. I'll be taking the bar exam out there in late July.

Again, I don't pretend to know the LJ world and its repercussions, but I am a wiseass who likes to drop a one-liner now and then. Like any bulletin board, anonymous naysayers are part of the package, whether they can be eventually identified or not. They incite conversation, which in theory is good for the art of conversation, but in practice just exhausting to its participants.

As I am the law, I studied intellectual property, but it's of no real use here in fandom. Vidding is, at least for now, legally unprotectable. Maybe there's a technological way to control the downloading of a completed vid, requiring registration or something. Still, that doesn't prevent an honest downloader from passing the vid on to the more unsavory user. Others who know more may feel free to step in.

I read (and by "read," I mean barely skimmed) the fallout of the anonymous indictment of vidding. It seems to me that a person's (mis)appropriation of a vidder's work is not at all analogous to what a vidder does to the original work. A more effective analogy would be, say, Aaron Sorkin using about 30 minutes of "Buffy" to create a very special episode of "The West Wing."

Finally, I will never quite understand what drives a vidder to do what she does. While I appreciate the idea of connecting previously distinct worlds of entertainment -- like the light bulb that turned on when some stoner linked Pink Floyd to "The Wizard of Oz," to name a famous example -- I am too damn lazy to follow through on my own bright ideas. So, more power to those who aren't like me.

Come to think of it, I'd like "The West Wing" more if it had some ass-kicking. Heck, I'd like politics in general more.

UB

[luvs-phoenix.livejournal.com]

Closer is what brought me to the world of videos and the one in which I compare all others. Whatever you decide to do, I, for one, would be just a little bit sadder if I couldn't see your work.


I make stained glass. Pretty damn good at it too. Unfortunately I can not draw worth a shit. Sigh. Those who cannot do appreciate those that can so much more. ANYWAY. I hunt the net for pictures that I think I can translate into stained glass.

Occasionally I come upon work where the artist specifically request that the image not be use. I respect that totally. Sometimes the artist doesn't care and gives free reign. Sometimes the artist wants me to ask pretty please (and I am so not beyond begging prettily) and I do (usually they then want to see how it translated to glass).

Once in a while I try to right click on a pic and words come up that I do not have access and that's that. I can look but can not copy. I can't say I know HOW they do that but it's possible. Perhaps something along that line would work for you?

I've been following your saga. Emailing to lady moluk whose always having her minips stolen and redone. We feel for you. It takes time and heart to produce these works of art.

Your not lazy. Lazy is people who take months of work, slash it up in a day, and repost it as theirs.

*hugs*

[lasheremaleth.livejournal.com]

I think you should do what you feel the most comfortable with, whether that's password protection, friendsonly, secret URLs, whatever. I don't think wanting to retain some control over your work or getting pissed off when it's *stolen* makes you arrogant or unreasonable by any stretch of the imagination!

another possibility

[zyrya]

I love your work. I hope you continue to vid and make the vids available everyone. One way of doing that is to keep going the way you have been - make the vids and put them on your site. If people abuse that, they're the ones who will ultimately suffer ... whether from the disdain of the BtVS community or burning hellfire or whatever. I'm not trying to tell you what to feel, but I've found this useful: give with an open heart.

And wear the Purple Knickers of Happiness while you claim the moral high ground. (Seriously, purple undies make everything better.)