I Am Very Annoyed

[yakaji]

Okay, so I got an improper disclaimer alert on a story in the anime section... oh, I don't know, probably about three weeks ago, I'm guessing, since now my story appears to be deleted.

I was told that my disclaimer wasn't specific enough. I had stated that I wasn't getting a profit, and that I didn't own the source material. I did NOT state that I didn't own the characters, specifically, which was why I received the disclaimer alert.

POINT THE FIRST - This is stupid. The characters are a part of the source material. If you don't own the source material, it's implicit that you don't own the characters. No one on this planet is going to be able to sue you through that loophole. It wouldn't last five minutes in court.

Anyway, I had been alerted that I needed to change my disclaimer, so change it I did. I went online, and I researched copyright law. It's not that hard to do. I read the entire section of relevant material from the US Copyright Act, and I crafted a new disclaimer that specifically addressed ALL REAL LEGAL CONCERNS that could be raised under said law against works of fanfiction. (Incidentally, there are almost no concerns that CAN be raised, assuming that fanfiction doesn't damage the profitability of the original work, and it would be almost impossible to prove that fanfiction DOES damage that profitability)

So, shiny new disclaimer, specifically referencing the passages in US federal law by which I am allowed to produce fanfiction at my own discretion. Now, I'll freely admit that my new disclaimer wasn't your simple old "I don't own the series or characters, and I'm not making money", so in this way, if TOS is a fascist system, then I was breaking TOS. I believe I was, however, giving BETTER legal cover to the site than TOS requests, by making actual legal arguments for the permissability of my work.

POINT THE SECOND - As long as legal cover is provided, I don't understand why all disclaimers must necessarily follow some sort of draconian formatting standards. Assuming an author is actually conversant in the legal question of fanfiction permissability, why would said author be required to abandon GOOD legal arguments in favor of WEAKER ones?

If you have a lawyer who wants to debate me on copyright law as it applies to fanfiction, excellent. I'd be happy to have that debate, and I'd enjoy it inasmuch as I might learn a couple new things. But the US Copyright Act (which applies almost exclusively to visual and auditory media anyway, and only provides the barest shell of legislation regarding print media) is pretty clear on what constitutes fair use, and fanfiction just plain DOES constitute fair use, assuming some minimal conditions are met (and believe me, the distinction between not owning source material and not owning BOTH source material AND characters is NOT among those conditions).

So, basically, my question is this. Why do we have 1) a form-field where authors enter their own disclaimers for their stories and 2) an authoritarian system that basically necessitates that no individuality exist among those disclaimers? If you want to regulate the type of disclaimer we use, make it part of the sign-up protocol for authors that they specifically disclaim ownership and profit on everything they publish on this site, and then plug in the disclaimers yourself, with granted prior approval of the authors. Otherwise LET US DISCLAIM OUR OWN D*MN STORIES. We should have the responsibility for what we write, anyway, so if you aren't willing to pass that legal responsibility onto us (which I would be fine with - I'll happily let you send my real contact info to anyone placing a copyright challenge against any of my stories, and I'll indemnify you against any wrongdoing)... if you aren't willing to pass us responsibility, then TAKE IT ON YOUR OWN HEADS TO DISCLAIM OUR STORIES.

Sorry if I sound a little wound up about this, but I just had a perfectly well-disclaimed story deleted, and I think you were all more than a little prickish for doing so.

[DemonGoddess]

Have you looked in your author panel? Obviously not. If so, you'd see the story is STILL there. As to the correction required, it is indeed required. The story will remain in hiding until the disclaimer is set to the standards as specified.

It IS a reasonable policy in what is required. That you choose to not fulfill the requirements is on you, not any of the mods who have to look for all this and the multitude of other things that are looked at and for every single day.

[Ezriee]

If you can read all the copyright law information you can find, then why is it so hard just to use the wording as requested? Mods and admins at aff have enough to do and we hate to babysit writers, but since this is an adult site, I, for one, just assume that everyone has a high enough maturity level to say "I do not own _INSERT FANDOM NAME_ and make no money from writing this." All the legalese is not needed, just those few simple words that take around thirty seconds to write.

Really not that hard...We shouldn't have to hold your hands through the entire process of posting your story.

[yakaji]

It IS a reasonable policy in what is required. That you choose to not fulfill the requirements is on you, not any of the mods who have to look for all this and the multitude of other things that are looked at and for every single day.

I'm sure you have to do lots of work, and I thank you for all the work you do.

I maintain, however, that if you want us to disclaim our work, we should be allowed to provide any disclaimer we like, as long as it gives you all appropriate legal cover. My disclaimer referenced the appropriate passage of federal law and outlined my case for its nature as a lawful derivative work not requiring the approval of the original creator based on three points:

1) The derivative work is noncommerical

2) No copy was made, in part or whole, of any of the source material

3) The derivative work provides no negative impact on the commercial value of the source material

These are the necessary provisions under federal copyright law.

Anyway, like I said, I'm annoyed and to some degree venting. Don't worry about spending your time talking me down. You have better things to do. I just want to make sure somebody mentions this, because I do think the system as structured is faulty. I'll decide at some point in the next week or so whether I want to change my disclaimer to comply with your rules, or whether I'll just forgo publishing here in the future.

[yakaji]

If you can read all the copyright law information you can find, then why is it so hard just to use the wording as requested? Mods and admins at aff have enough to do and we hate to babysit writers, but since this is an adult site, I, for one, just assume that everyone has a high enough maturity level to say "I do not own _INSERT FANDOM NAME_ and make no money from writing this." All the legalese is not nessecary, just those few simple words that take around thirty seconds to write.

Really not that hard...

No, it's not that hard. And it's what I originally did, but I was told that I wasn't specific enough because I didn't reference the fact that the characters, also, were not under my ownership. So I figured, okay, let's find out what the law actually requires, and give a disclaimer that's LEGALLY APPROPRIATE.

I assumed that going above and beyond the call of duty would be welcome. I'm genuinely very surprised to learn that the rules are being treated literally, instead of in the spirit for which they were created. Legalism makes no sense to me.

[Ezriee]

Well the process for the disclaimer warnings are as follows:

1) We send you a warning in the form of a review that states clearly what part of the disclaimer that you are missing, whether it be the monetary, fandom including the fandom name, or both.

2) If the disclaimers are not corrected in ONE week, then the story is hidden, not deleted.

3)Then, one of us moderators, after having to help scan ALL of the new stories posted that day, go into a spreadsheet and check all of the stories that have not corrected their disclaimers and we have to go through the process of hiding ALL of the stories where the authors either have refused or neglected to correct that simple 30 second disclaimer.

4)Then you are given TWO additional weeks to correct those disclaimers and then the story is deleted.

All of the timelines are posted in the FAQ's concerning disclaimers. There are even sample disclaimers where all you have to do is cut/paste and add the fandom. When a person comes to AFF and creates an account, you are agreeing to abide by the TOS when you click that little circle saying that you agree.

We even give you the freedom to word the disclaimer as you like as long as you're saying that you don't own the fandom using the name, along with the profit/monetary disclaimer.

Personally, if I was not a mod and I got a review stating my review was missing something, I'd check ALL of my stories, just to make sure that they met the requirements. I've had stories deleted on other sites thanks to a malicious reviewer who said that I had stolen my own story. I lost over 200 reviews because of it with no warning. I'm not saying its the same situation, but at least we are giving you a total of three weeks to get your disclaimer straight. That is more than enough time for you to correct what needs to be corrected.

Debating this is a moot point. We go through thousands of stories each week in twenty-one subdomains, this includes the nonfics and challenges that people post in the archive that shouldn't even be there. We look at hundreds of authors profiles and review boards in order to make sure that this site remains up and running. Everything we're doing is for the stability of the site, the protection of the users, as well as Jaxxy, the site owner, the admins and us moderators. Lawyers can come after users just as easily as they can come after the management staff/owners of the site.

[yakaji]

Okay, y'know, I genuinely thought I was done with this. I was annoyed, but I really don't like being confrontational. I just don't like it when people do their jobs badly.

One of my friends, who also writes for aff.net, contacted me this morning - out of the blue - asking me what had happened to my story. So I explained the situation to her, and she felt about the same as I did. I told her I still hadn't decided whether to change my disclaimer or not. I planned to leave it there.

Then, while I was out playing tennis, she used her free time at work to go through the fandom we both write for (anime/D. Gray-man) and check how many of the fics actually follow TOS for disclaimers.

Now, unfortunately, I have no record of my original disclaimer. I know what I usually write, though, and I know the complaint I got was about not referencing my non-ownership of the characters. I BELIEVE my original disclaimer read:

"I don't own D. Gray-Man. I'm not making any money off this stuff."

As referenced before, I changed my disclaimer. As it stands, the current disclaimer reads:

"Pursuant to US Copyright Act, Sect. 107, the author asserts that this is a lawful derivative work given 1) noncommerical nature of the work, 2) no copying, in part or whole, any of the source material, & 3) no negative impact on source's commercial value."

I provide these as a baseline for what I thought was reasonable. Below, I'm including the list of stories with improper disclaimers that my friend collected this morning. This is all from the anime/DGM fandom, which has 82 total stories. 58 of those stories failed to have the series non-ownership, chraracter non-ownership and non-profit trifecta. That's over 70%.

1. "Untitled" by Sister Wicked – Disclaimer: "Not mine. Canon is far too non-porn to be mine."
   
2. "Untitled 2" by Sister Wicked – Disclaimer: "Not mine. Too short to be canon."
   
3. "Fall Away" by Sister Wicked – Disclaimer: "Not mine. If it were, there'd be many more frames to the Lavi-washself scene"
   
4. "Fear" by KISproductions – Disclaimer: "D.Gray-man does not belong to me. It belongs to the genius known as Hoshino-sensei"
   
5. "Pleasure and Innocence" by crimson_phoenix – Disclaimer: "I do not own D.Gray-man or any of its characters, they all belong to Hoshino Katsura. I only like playing with them."
   
6. "DGM Drabbles" by sailorlight22 – Disclaimer: "These aren't mine, no matter HOW bad I wish they were!"
   
7. "Lucky Shorts" by SisterWicked – Disclaimer: "Not mine, I know how to draw navels."
   
8. "Rose Colored Violet" by Michi-san – Disclaimer: "I own nothing in the D.Gray-Man universe."
   
9. "Tears I Refuse to Shed" by madam-malia – Disclaimer: "DGM belongs to Hoshino. "Running Blood" belongs to may_unleashed"
   
10. "And Dare Not Speak Love's Name" by sailorlight22 – Disclaimer: "This isn't mine. If it were, you wouldn't see it on TV before 10pm "
    
11. "The Fine Line" by Niamh Arawn – Disclaimer: "D.Gray-man and it's characters are the property of Katsura Hoshino, not me."
    
12. "Playtime" by madam-malia – Disclaimer: "Don't own it. Be glad that I don't."
    
13. "Invention Is The Mother Of Necessity" by sailorlight22 – Disclaimer: "No, I don't own these characters, I only own my shabby imagination!"
    
14. "Rite of Passage" by Lecelamona Lecelanet Marzakey – Disclaimer: "I DON'T OWN D.GRAY-MAN! IF I DID THERE BE MORE YAOI!"
    
15. "Usagi no Tenchi" by Lecelamona Lecelanet Marzakey – Disclaimer: "I DON'T OWN D.GRAY-MAN! IF I DID THERE BE MORE YAOI!"
    
16. "Lece's Birthday Present" by Ravie – Disclaimer: "If I owned it…well… the boys would be together and Lenalee would be dead."
    
17. "Lavi's Babysitting Adventure" by Lecelamona Lecelanet Marzakey – Disclaimer: "I DON'T OWN D.GRAY-MAN! IF I DID THERE BE MORE YAOI!"
    
18. "Children of Innocence" by Lecelamona Lecelanet Marzakey – Disclaimer: "I DON'T OWN D.GRAY-MAN! IF I DID THERE BE MORE YAOI!"
    
19. "Roleplay Time" by Chiaki-hime – Disclaimer: "I Do Not Own D.Gray-Man In Away Way or Form"
    
20. "Just A Little Research" by Chiaki-hime – Disclaimer: "I Do Not Own D.Gray-Man In Away Way or Form"
    
21. "Trembling Heart" by Lecelamona Lecelanet Marzakey – Disclaimer: "I DO NOT OWN D. Gray-man! If I did there be more Yaoi in it!"
    
22. "Rhode's Yaoi Surprise" by Lecelamona Lecelanet Marzakey – Disclaimer: "I DON'T OWN D.GRAY-MAN! IF I DID THERE BE MORE YAOI!"
    
23. "Warm Memories" by Deveron – Disclaimer: "I do not own the world of D.Gray-Man, nor the characters in it.
    
24. "Detour" by Chiaki-hime – Disclaimer: "I Do Not Own D. Gray-Man or Any Of The Characters"
    
25. "Pride" by Chiaki-hime – Disclaimer: "I Do Not Own D.Gray-Man Or Any of The Characters."
    
26. "Enough is Enough" by Diane Rainwater – Disclaimer: "D.Gray-Man belongs to several people who are not me."
    
27. "Parental Issues" by elict – Disclaimer: "I do not own D.Gray-man. I have my very o Yuu-chan, though "
    
28. "Sweet Revenge" by Lacelamona Lecelanet Marzakey – Disclaimer: "I DO NOT OWN D.Gray-man! If I did there be more Yaoi in it!"
    
29. "Sleep Walker" by Lacelamona Lacelanet Marzakey – Disclaimer: "I DO NOT OWN D.Gray-man! If I did there be more Yaoi in it!"
    
30. "God Will Make It Up to You" by DismalAbstraction – Disclaimer: "D.Gray-Man and all its glorious characters belong to Katsura Hoshino. I do not own any of them, their story line or anything pertaining therein. I do own all original characters, weapons, attack names and quotes unless otherwise stated."
    
31. "Mirror" by sailorlight22 – Disclaimer: "Mine? Oh, yea, of course. I'm poor because I like it."
    
32. "Flower" by sailorlight22 – Disclaimer: "Not mine. Their's."
    
33. "Eyes" by sailorlight22 – Disclaimer: "No own. No sue."
    
34. "Shield" by sailorlight22 – Disclaimer: "not mine. don't sue"
    
35. "Feel" by sailorlight22 – Disclaimer: "C'mon, you know this isn't mine."
    
36. "Suggestive" by Anais – Disclaimer: "DGM isn't mine, thanks."
    
37. "Lust" by Anais – Disclaimer: "These characters do not belong to me."
    
38. "By My Side" by Lady Kay – Disclaimer: "I do not condone teachers taking advantage of their students or adults having sex with children. But enjoy this work of fiction."
    
39. "Smile" by Fuzzy Eared – Disclaimer: "I do not own anything that has to do with D.Grayman excluding the chibi Kanda artwork on my dorm room wall. I DON'T OWN ANYTHING FROM D.GRAYMAN SO NO ONE SUE ME."
    
40. "Inside" by Anais – Disclaimer: "Nothing is mine, thanks."
    
41. "just fun?" by pum – Disclaimer: "katsura hoshino"
    
42. "Blurred monochrome" by pum – Disclaimer: "katsura hoshino"
    
43. "The moon drabble:the crescent night" by pum – Disclaimer: "katsura hoshino"
    
44. "Black into white" by pum – Disclaimer: "of course katsura hoshino!"
    
45. "Gravity of Souls" by antilogicgirl – Disclaimer: "I do not own D. Gray-Man or any of its characters.
    
46. "Moon drabble:the night when the moon fall down" by pum – Disclaimer: "Katsura hoshino"
    
47. "Blue luna" by pum – Disclaimer: "katsura hoshino"
    
48. "round, around" by pum – Disclaimer: "katsura"
    
49. "Slick" by sailorlight22 – Disclaimer: "I no own, you no sue"
    
50. "Touch" by sailorlight22 – Disclaimer: "C'mon, you know I don't own this."
    
51. "Unspoken Emotions" by Haverstock – Disclaimer: "Not Mine"
    
52. "Innocent Attraction" by Haverstock – Disclaimer: "Not Mine. Duh."
    
53. "This Is Where It Gets Awkward" by couture – Disclaimer: "Characters do not belong to nor are claimed by me."
    
54. "Mortifer Diligo" by Aera – Disclaimer: "I do not own any of D.Gray-Man's characters or akuma. Just my own."
    
55. "For Want Of Love" by Haverstock – Disclaimer: "This story is written purely for my own enjoyment. Characters owned by Hoshino Katsura, borrowed by me."
    
56. "Experiement" by Zalia Chimera – Disclaimer: "Don't own D. Gray Man"
    
57. "SACANAGEM" by karibe – Disclaimer: "D.Gray-man is not mine, neither are Tyki or Cross"
    
58. "Leather Kink" by Krytheadal – Disclaimer: "I do not own D.Gray Man"
    

My friend included both her own stories on that list, as well, since neither of them meets the standards given. Anyway, the point of all this is simple.

However hard you all work at policing the disclaimers, you're doing a miserable job anyway. Not only are you requiring us to use a specific disclaimer format (which the vast majority of stories - at least in this fandom - do not use), you're also being exceedingly capricious about how you implement this policy. If you were following your own rules, I'd estimate that more than half the fanfiction on this site would be subject to removal. The stories that you flag for hiding/deletion appear to be nothing so much as UNLUCKY.

No, I'm not in a position of authority, and I have no right to make demands. I'm not making any. Like I said, I'm still trying to decide whether it's worth caving to what is CLEARLY an unjust and impractical regulation system, or whether I should just let my story be deleted and stop using this site entirely.

Frankly, I am offended at this. You have no place to be defending your policies. If your disclaimer rules actually exist to stave off an imminent danger of legal action, then you're failing and you could be sued any minute - thus negating all the hard work you put into TRYING to police this site.

The lot of you would almost certainly be better off creating cogent legal arguments for why fanfiction is permissable under US copyright law (and potentially under Japanese copyright law, if anyone is familiar with it - but given the huge doujinshi market in Japan, the Japanese really have no ground to stand on complaining about fanfiction). What you're doing right now, since you're so clearly failing to implement your own policies, is just a waste of time for both authors and for yourselves.

[Guest MortiferLascivio]

I don't know...I just say we all follow the rules for the site and do what we're asked to do (which is what we promised to do when we joined), instead of trying to make a fuss over something that really isn't that big of a deal. If a simple disclaimer can cover our asses and keep us from being sued, I see no reason to get real technical about it.

[Ezriee]

I don't know...I just say we all follow the rules for the site and do what we're asked to do (which is what we promised to do when we joined), instead of trying to make a fuss over something that really isn't that big of a deal. If a simple disclaimer can cover our asses and keep us from being sued, I see no reason to get real technical about it.

Exactly.

And as I previously stated, we are in the process of going through ALL of the stories in the archive section by section. This is why those stories that you have taken time to pull the disclaimers for and put in your last rant have yet to be corrected. These things take time and to put it simply, if you can't abide by the rules and requirements for the site, there are other places for you to put your story. Feel free to take them away to those sites.

It does not matter how much you debate this, it will not change. You still need to have those two elements and we will be getting to those stories that you pointed out in due time. While we are getting to the older stories subdomain by subdomain, we are looking at all of the new stories posted every single day to make sure their disclaimers are updated.

As you said, we've even provided you with the format to use for the disclaimers. Its a simple fix and if people would just do it right the first time, there would be no problem. Your work would have not been removed if you had just added what we requested.

There are only a handful of us going through thousands of stories. We all have lives, jobs and families to take care of. If we could dedicate all of our time to getting these stories warned, then the process would go faster. We can't. We wont.

[yakaji]

Okay, just one last question, 'cause I'm a little confused by the way you've been responding Ezriee.

Given that my original disclaimer DID state both that I didn't own rights to the source material AND that I didn't make any money from the material I'd written (neither of which, incidentally, addresses the more pressing copyright concern of whether fanfiction hurts the original creator's ability to get profit from their own work)... since I DID state both those things, was my ORIGINAL disclaimer inadequate?

That's one of the things I've found most offensive here, and if you go back and look, it was the first point I made. Now, the way you've been talking, Ezriee, it sounds like you're perfectly happy with a disclaimer that denies the two things I originally denied. I thought that was a perfectly acceptable disclaimer myself, too. But I was told to change it and make it stronger, which is what I did.

So was the original flagging of my disclaimer ITSELF inappropriate? Because from the way you've been talking about what elements are necessary, it sure as heck sounds that way.

[Ezriee]

Okay, just one last question, 'cause I'm a little confused by the way you've been responding Ezriee.

Given that my original disclaimer DID state both that I didn't own rights to the source material AND that I didn't make any money from the material I'd written (neither of which, incidentally, addresses the more pressing copyright concern of whether fanfiction hurts the original creator's ability to get profit from their own work)... since I DID state both those things, was my ORIGINAL disclaimer inadequate?

That's one of the things I've found most offensive here, and if you go back and look, it was the first point I made. Now, the way you've been talking, Ezriee, it sounds like you're perfectly happy with a disclaimer that denies the two things I originally denied. I thought that was a perfectly acceptable disclaimer myself, too. But I was told to change it and make it stronger, which is what I did.

So was the original flagging of my disclaimer ITSELF inappropriate? Because from the way you've been talking about what elements are necessary, it sure as heck sounds that way.

Obviously something was missing with your story's disclaimer or it would have never been flagged. I stand by my fellow moderators and know for a fact that they are aware of what their looking for. So no, I don't believe that anything that we've done has been inappropriate in the slightest.

[DemonGoddess]

What was missing was the SPECIFIC FANDOM concerned. As the story is in a multi fandom sub domain, that becomes even more important. When you have 250+ different titles, as are in anime, "I do not own the characters" is plainly not specific enough at all. Which characters? Which fandom?

This topic explains an additional task being done in the multiple fandom sub domains first, followed by ALL the rest.

It's obvious you really do NOT understand the magnitude of the task for the older stories, or indeed just what is involved in keeping things correct where new and updated stories are being checked. We're looking at 100,000 +/- altogether across TWENTY ONE sub domains in total.

Before you even THINK to mention it, NO, am not giving everyone direct database access to speed up what I'm doing with the older stories by running that query.

As an example of man hours I PERSONALLY put into all the different aspects of things I do for the site (moderation, clean up project, and etc) in the last three days I've worked 35 hours. I managed that many because I was OFF work. On my work days, I work on average 6 hours. Every day. I actually give myself one day about every 2 months or so away from all that, but still check email and go through the forum queue.

So, again, you can choose to remain stubborn, and not correct as we asked you to, and follow the very simple rules you agreed to upon signing up to even use the site in the first place. Or, you can comply. Not so hard, and certainly not worth arguing over. I, for one, have better and more productive things to do with my time than argue with you.

[Ezriee]

What was missing was the SPECIFIC FANDOM concerned. As the story is in a multi fandom sub domain, that becomes even more important. When you have 250+ different titles, as are in anime, "I do not own the characters" is plainly not specific enough at all. Which characters? Which fandom?

This topic explains an additional task being done in the multiple fandom sub domains first, followed by ALL the rest.

It's obvious you really do NOT understand the magnitude of the task for the older stories, or indeed just what is involved in keeping things correct where new and updated stories are being checked. We're looking at 100,000 +/- altogether across TWENTY ONE sub domains in total.

Before you even THINK to mention it, NO, am not giving everyone direct database access to speed up what I'm doing with the older stories by running that query.

As an example of man hours I PERSONALLY put into all the different aspects of things I do for the site (moderation, clean up project, and etc) in the last three days I've worked 35 hours. I managed that many because I was OFF work. On my work days, I work on average 6 hours. Every day. I actually give myself one day about every 2 months or so away from all that, but still check email and go through the forum queue.

So, again, you can choose to remain stubborn, and not correct as we asked you to, and follow the very simple rules you agreed to upon signing up to even use the site in the first place. Or, you can comply. Not so hard, and certainly not worth arguing over. I, for one, have better and more productive things to do with my time than argue with you.

Well said Dg! I too have other things to do...namely getting back to the forum sweep and warning more writing-inclined souls in their reviews to fix their disclaimers.

Topic closed for me!

[yakaji]

It's obvious you really do NOT understand the magnitude of the task for the older stories, or indeed just what is involved in keeping things correct where new and updated stories are being checked. We're looking at 100,000 +/- altogether across TWENTY ONE sub domains in total.

Before you even THINK to mention it, NO, am not giving everyone direct database access to speed up what I'm doing with the older stories by running that query.

As an example of man hours I PERSONALLY put into all the different aspects of things I do for the site (moderation, clean up project, and etc) in the last three days I've worked 35 hours. I managed that many because I was OFF work. On my work days, I work on average 6 hours. Every day. I actually give myself one day about every 2 months or so away from all that, but still check email and go through the forum queue.

No, actually I do understand the magnitude of the task. It should be pretty obvious to anyone who thinks about it (and moreso to someone like me, who is used to working with very large data sets). My point was that you've chosen a far-from-optimal solution to the problem. Any time you have to go through and individually police 100,000+ pieces of data to make sure they conform to rules, you're probably working too hard for minimal benefit. Seriously, you work an average of 6 hours on this every day? And that doesn't seem like too much work for the results? I know how much time my friend spent today pulling up disclaimer records, and she hardly scratched the surface. You have an amazingly difficult job to do. That's why I think you're doing the wrong job.

Your disclaimer policy - while, yes, pretty standard for fanfiction - still doesn't address the paramount concern of copyright law: whether something will impede the original creator from obtaining profit for their ideas. So there's some possibility you might have to REDO all the work you've done, if this point becomes a legal issue for the site (though I'll admit this is unlikely, for the same reason that disclaimers are generally overrated - fanfiction DOES NOT violate copyright).

Your work could also probably be AUTOMATED by a relatively simple search structure. If you require that all disclaimers reference the fandom, the characters, and non-profit, you can do a pretty easy program to search all disclaimer fields on the site for certain combinations of keywords. Say, ensure that a fic's disclaimer has: 1) the name of the fandom it's under, or the name of the original creator, 2) the word "characters" or any name matching a list of main characters in the fandom, 3) the words "money" or "profit", 4) negation phrases such as "do not own" or permutations thereof, and 5) a minimum base word count to ensure that actual DISCLAIMERS are made, and people aren't just putting in keywords to cue the search string. Sure, it'd require some human oversight as well, but if you coded the solution well, it should significantly reduce the time it takes to do the work. Given 35 hours spent working on it, I'm ENTIRELY SURE I could code the basic framework for such a solution, and then it'd just be a matter of developing data arrays to hold the relevant info for each aff.net subdomain.

I have no interest in seeing your database. I have very little interest in your entire system for implementing this policy because it seems so obviously inefficient. I respect the work you've done for this site, and all the time and effort you've put in, I just think you could be doing it a whole lot more effectively than you are.

Anyway, I've had my say, and it seems pretty clear that you want to write me off as demeaning your hard work, which is fine if untrue. I'm not the one wasting six hours a day implementing a bad solution, and it's no skin off my back if you lose your own personal time for doing it, or if you find that you have to redo all this work to make your own policy more in line with actual copyright regulations.

I'm done here. Thank you, genuinely, for at least being willing to have this conversation with me.

[manta2g]

*looks up at topic title* Annoyed huh? Considering the current archive is written in php 2, the database is barely up to mysql 4 standard, and then just how mangled the code is from times of instability and past crashes, not to mention that the longest part of DG'S daily tasks is corrupted data correction (no amount of querying gonna fix it) you may wish to stop pushing her buttons, it is rather childish and rude, besides if it was a matter of a couple of arrays and a few quick fixes, it would be already done by now but many people forget about how it will affect cpu load on the server.

Also I skimmed though your disclaimers list and all of them are missing at least one proper disclaimer element, if you are not mature to realise that the site's policy is in place for a reason, both your protection and our own, then I'd have to say even if you are old enough you are certainly not mature enough to be on this site as reader or author.

Manta2g