ronstuff opened this issue on Dec 09, 2001 ยท 62 posts
twitchew posted Tue, 11 December 2001 at 10:21 AM
I agree with Jewell. A flame war is fund to watch when it involves the powerful (moderators) against the powerless (users). I wanted to toss my 2 cents (U.S.) in. The main problem I see is that the offerings in question are not free at all. They require a prior purchase of software/files - in this case nerd's backdrop (and poser, but I'll give you that one because of the nature of the site). They therefore violate the statement It requires me to purchase an item. Further, many of the items in the freestuff area oblige me to do the same. They are just thinly veiled advertisments (SPAM) for the item creators. Additionally, a vast majority of these "free" items have terms of use that limit my freedom to build on a free offering, by altering, sharing, repackaging or editing. These items are actually copyrighted! To use this item I must exchange my freedom to create and express myself! That is substantially more than an email address that I can discard like yesterday's socks. I move that these items be struck from the freestuff area as they clearly violate the definition of free as stated here. I am more interested in what the actual terms and conditions for uploading to the free area rather then definitions being tossed around. I am also concerned about the adherence to the DCMA and how this impacts the free area (I am not impressed with this little piece of strangulation er regulation. I urge you all to read what is really in there and read some non-RIAA material (with such jems as "Are Record Labels Greedy?") on its implications both good and bad. - but this is another issue) This may have been sarcasm or it may be my real opinion. I do think that the links to the backdrops need to be updated to reflect when they move from free to membership (if that is ther case). The entry into the site is a bit confusing and should be fixed. If there is a freestuff policy, then it should be reviewed and ammended to reflect the intentions of the free stuff area and the area should be maintained. PS: What assurances do I have that any site in trouble won't sell me down the river. When a company gets bought out the contracts are not always honored.