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*sigh*

Okay… I’ve had a bit of a discussion with smileyuya yesterday. And while I think it was quite civilized for the most part, I’m afraid it didn’t really get us anywhere, which might be because of a language barrier that is difficult for both of us to overcome.

And while I don’t think that this whole thing is over yet let me try and break it down for you. Not the whole discussion, but only my point of view. Why I do what I do, and why I think that what I do is the right thing. I can only speak for myself of course, and I ask everybody to use their own brains and make up their own minds. Try it. It’s not that difficult.

So here goes…

My fandom is based on sharing.

I share because I love what I share and I want to spread that love, so that everybody else has a chance to love it too. It’s how I discovered my love for Johnny’s. Because of people who shared what I assume they loved. Without sharing the international fandom, which is made up of people who don’t have direct access to Japanese media, would practically not exist.

I know I’m probably gonna piss off a couple of people with what I’m gonna say now. Then again, most of these people already hate my guts anyway, so it doesn’t really make a difference, and I don’t really give a rat’s ass if these people like me or not. I’m sure the feeling is mutual.

There are people, both in the Japanese and the international fandom, who seem to think that they have some kind of monopoly on the things they share.

• “Please do not re-post or share outside this community”
• “You will need a password to download the files. Please do not give the passwords to anyone else and please don’t repost elsewhere without asking me first.”
• “Do not use an animation without permission.”

So these people share, but they don’t want anybody else to share the same thing. Not only does it not make any sense, it’s also just an inch away from saying “Hey, look what I’ve got! This is mine, and if you want to have it too you have to beg and say ‘please’.”

And I know that I’m by far not the only one who is majorly pissed off by that.

Let’s face it, we’re all dealing with stolen goods here. I don’t own the videos I share, you don’t own the videos you share. These videos are owned by their respecitive copyright proprietors, and the only thing we as fans might have going for us if we share them is something called fair use policy. It’s beyond the scope of this blog entry to explain in detail what fair use means, but I think it’s safe to say that if somebody asks you to join a community or to beg for a password or not to share “their” files elsewhere it’s not fair use.

I mean come on people, do you even get the irony of breaking copyright law and peeing your watermark onto a video or password protecting it as if it’s your very own treasure and then start whining if somebody shares it without your permission when you yourself don’t have any permission to share it in the first place?

HELLO!?! You’ve got to be kidding me.

It’s ridiculous, it’s childish, and it’s stupid, and if it works for you then only because you’ve found people stupid enough to abide by your made-up rules while at the same time not even giving a damn about copyright law.

Yeah well, I’m not that stupid. And I’m certainly not more afraid of you than I am of the entertainment industry.

My fandom is based on sharing.

Sharing is love.

I will continue to share and spread the love. If you don’t like it I don’t care. If you stop uploading because of me, I don’t care. You are not unique. If you don’t upload, somebody else will. I’m not unique either. If I don’t upload, somebody else will.

It’s not called “fandom” because it’s about some individual fans, you know?

And having said all that, in celebration of awesome fans who share unconditionally, and to prove my point that nobody needs smileyuya, I’m gonna post a video of NYC boys playing games with the Japanese volleyball ladies. The rules are simple, Yuma and Chinen have to say which number from 1 to 9 is missing, and Yamada has to flag the higher result of two arithmetic problems. Just watch it, you’ll get it.

Download: NYC boys & volleyball ladies numbers game.avi – Credit: hirotaka2220

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