Chudah's Corner Closes; GFA Blamed [Update: CC is back up; more talks in progress]
 

It seems that Chudah, long a significant player in the VGM fan world, has decided to close her site.

This decision has generated an intense spate of drama over at Soundtrack Central, both in Chudah's announcement thread and another thread which blames Gamingforce Audio for the closure.

They're saying that the initial beta of GFA had some data and scans taken from Chudah without permission, and while some members of the project made conciliatory posts at STC, events and drama rapidly overtook this.

So, any thoughts on either Chudah's closure or the alleged GFA plagiarism? I for one am sorry to see her site go, as it was often my first destination for VGM material, but I can see how murky the waters are.

I think that it's too much drama about an unfortunate but understandable happening. GFA wasn't careful or conscientious enough in what they uploaded (Chudah's work). That was a mistake on their part. But, Chudah shutting down suddenly and saying that she doesn't want to go on if her work is just going to get stolen by other sites is a bit overboard. Bigblah and Sensible Squirrel are reasonable people (as Goldfish noted in his post at STC). If she had simply contacted GFA and informed them of this issue, they would like have been able to work something out without all this public drama (whether it be agreeing to not use Chudah's scans, properly crediting Chudah on GFA for her work, or whatever).

Note that I am not very familiar with Chudah or even GFA, but this is just one relative outsider's perspective.

Lace mentioned this in chat today and I gotta say that these people over at STC blew this ridiculously out of proportion. I don't understand why so many people wedge themselves into an fight they don't have a dog in. Blah and SS have clearly been reasonable about this so far and, as far as I could extrapolate from the threads at STC, are working with Chudah to resolve this matter.

It's clear that the tertiary parties that completely blew this out of proportion (sup calling the GFA people "lowlife carpetbaggers and illegal mp3 hoarders") and are the ones that need to be held accountable for their forked tongues.

Also lav coming in with his (her?) on-the-fence argument was fucking classic too. Gotta give the boy(girl?) props for that one. :tpg:

pretty intense discussions.

sad to see it go as well.

Course, I was a little bit disturbed to see that GFA used stuff from CC without permission. I was under the impression that it was all scanned/translated with the hard work of the staff, really. But I'd rather not dwell on this; apologies/explanations have already been made (at STC), so there's no need to twist the knife.

But I have to say that I'm not really fond of how Zane started the discussion over there, as it seemed to be igniting the flame for an internet drama wildfire more than anything else. Still, since he's someone who contributed to CC, I can see how he'd respond like that.

Personally, I'm pretty hopeful about the whole scenario as of right now. Although the threads at STC have been going haywire, it seems less about the GFA plagiarism and more about Chudah's decision to shut the site down. Were I in her position, I'd probably do something similar. It's a pretty understandable course of action... I mean, I've never maintained a soundtrack database of that level, so I can only imagine the dedication that's needed for such a task. It doesn't seem like a permanent close, either, as some of Chudah's posts suggest. Methinks she just needs some time to think things through / chat with the GFA folks.

On that note, Bigblah and Secret Squirrel (and definitely other GFA staffers that I haven't included, but this is just because I don't recall seeing their posts at STC) have shown a respectable display of responsibility and level-headedness in my book. Not to mention that they've kept themselves out of the unnecessary drama floating around the threads in STC, which seems to be a smart move.

I'm sure some agreeable compromise can be worked out. :)

After reading the relevant posts, I've gained the impression that a few people have a pre-existing bias against Gamingforce, and GFA in particular. This grudge is what's fueling the current drama and inciting Chudah into rash decisions.

In the opening post, GFA was referred to as "lowlife carpetbaggers". Is that the sentiment of someone who truly wishes to see things amicably resolved? While this Zane fellow may perceive GFA as representative of everything that's wrong with the VGM community, his muckraking is no less destructive.

The support behind the anti-GFA rage seems to be nothing more than glorified, territorial pissings from little lapdogs who want to sound as though they have something important to say. Chudah's the only one with a legitimate gripe and it's saddening how others seem to pushing her toward further mistrust.

Chudah's work deserves to be notated, I agree. But this is very easily done and doesn't warrant the closure of an otherwise useful resource. To be honest, if no resolution can be found between GFA and Chudah, I'll personally hold the malcontent guttersnipes at STC responsible for fueling the angst behind all this.

This is something SS and Blah need to work out with Chudah. No need for anyone else to even get involved.

Boy, Zane gets me worked up. I like he stirred up more drama right after SS and chudah agreed to come to some sort of resolution through email chat. Anyway, I find it to be a bit of an overreaction on her part. We never claimed any of her work to be ours and yet Zane made it sound like we stole everything from them for ourselves.

When you post information for the music community to use you should expect it at some point to be reposted somewhere else. That's why I'm kind of surprised that she decided to shut down her website, which people obviously love and use often, instead of bringing this to our attention. We're completely understanding people and are willing to make changes in order to satisfy everyone.

I'm not saying what we did was right either. We should have taken this problem into consideration since we do allow public submissions to the database (through our approval). But sheesh.

Anyway, Secret sent her an email. We'll just have to wait and see how things work out.

Yes. And it would be HIGHLY ADVISABLE for everyone involved in Gamingforce Audio (or GFF as a whole, for that matter) to not develop a John Wayne complex and start posting at STC guns blazing and dicks swinging. This is a pretty serious issue and the last thing that the GFA project needs is for the situation to exacerbate because someone from here decided that belligerence was going to save the world.

Let the boys and girl work out the kinks and a reasonable and amicable solution is only a given with these kind souls.

While I am neutral in the Chudah/GFA mess, I do have a request for anyone here: Please don't hold STC responsible for what Zane posted. He is only a recent member there and doesn't speak for anything resembling the majority there. He is only a staff member over at Chudah's Corner. What I'm not a fan of is why he opted to launch an inflammatory post against GFF from an otherwise neutral website, as opposed to CC or here. Well, I know why: No one goes to CC's forums (so naturally, no one would see the post) and it'd be a riot to do it here. But consider me more of an STC representative: I've been there regularly since 1998 and I still consider it more my home territory even since coming to GFF in 2004 (and even during a period where I was a staff member at CC). It's just a laid-back hole in the middle of the internet with about 30-40 regulars who have better things to do than decide why to hate Gamingforce.

So I'm just asking...Please don't turn this into a forum vs forum issue with STC when it's basically one person from another forum offering up inflammatory bait.

You may have misunderstood, Goldfish. I said I'd hold the malcontent guttersnipes responsible, not STC itself. I realize it's the work of a few people and that they don't represent the opinions of the entire site.

Oh, I know...I just wanted to make it clear that was a single person and they were not only not representative of STC, they were only a more recent regular contributor to the forum. The people in this thread have more than a right to be upset, so I'm just directing traffic a little before anyone gets the wrong idea and incase anything gets out of hand.

Quoted for absolute truth.

I can understand why Chudah would have the intention to close her site - I know I would do the same if I spent countless hours coding a database that had 400 soundtrack listings, complete with tracklists and scans, and all of it was stolen by another website. What I DON'T understand is why Chudah decided NOT to contact SS or Blah, but rather, publically announce the closure of her site and create a drama shitstorm. She could have kept the website open while she would then email GFA coordinators and if we didn't reply or we weren't reasonable, then she would have all reason to close down. But this is not the case.

It's unfortunate that some people aren't willing to work things out privately and instead start drama just to see what happens (looking at you, Zane).

But then there's the other side of the issue - Chudah's work is indeed copyrighted according to disclaimers posted on the pages of the site (I am assuming she ripped most of the album scans and translated most of the tracklistings herself. Correct me if I'm wrong). I think it was a serious mistake on our part that we didn't ask Chudah for permission to use her resources. But that's in the past anyway. What matters now is that SS and Blah are going to try to work something out with Chudah.

I hope for the best.

I feel absolutely saddened and disappointed by this huge debacle, mostly in part due to the flaming response that some members in the different "worlds" of the VGM universe have decided to pursue. I'm not necessarily talking about the moderators or the people in Gamingforce; after all, GFF was initially neutral in the discussion until someone pointed it out. There are just some people in the different forums who are solely biased against different groups.

Understandably, not everyone agrees with the opinions of different people. IE: I might like one track of music better than others, or I might frequent one location more than another. However, everyone is bonded together by a sole unique experience: the pursuit of the diversity and quality of game music as opposed to other forms of music. This by itself is particularly relevant, because it's not often that people hear an "oh, you love game music? I do too" in public.

This is why we must learn to disagree about our different opinions. Understandably, I have completely opposite views of music from others, and sometimes strongly defend my biases towards certain composers and styles of music. However, I do take everyone's opinion seriously and understand that others have their right to their own views. In the same way, I believe that we must learn to respect other peoples' views about their forums, and I'm a heavy participant in GFF simply because I believe that the forum is willing to accept opinions. Gamingforce NEVER fully anticipated this debacle, as it basically used the equivalent of an mp3-tag script to upload many of the translations, tracklists, lyrics, and scans to the server. I personally know bishop743, who was one of the most major participants in uploading lists to the server. He absolutely loves game music, and frequently rips for #gamemp3s as well as other sources. There is no reason why his, or any of the other GFF members' tracklists should suddenly be removed from the server. Rather, it is implausible to not use other sources in the construction of a database, because we're a community. If people publicly decide to release music in the form of a game album rip in order to share our interests, why should we be saddened if other people decide to use the same material to spread information about our community.

That is why I feel that Chudah's Corner should really be proud about their database. Honestly, if Gamingforce accidentally uses the same tracklist info and a few scans, I would be proud, because it would mean that my information has spread to the rest of the community. It is arrogant and somewhat demoralizing to have to keep a single database and assume that the database will be the only one that exists, and I don't believe that Chudah seriously thinks that way.

Don't worry about Zane too much... he's just one of those types of people (anyone that has been to a normal high school knows what that means); not to mention he likes to consider himself very close to Chudah so it makes sense he would do such things. Although he was really out of line when he kept on going even after Squirrel and Blah posted their apologies.

It didn't help that other people just started joining in the debate too in an attempt to get both places to shut down.

But yeah just let the important people do what they gotta do to get things settled.

Mind if I add, in case my above post seemed somewhat biased towards anyone, but I think the best solution to this crisis is really what's going on right now. GFA will probably add some sort of member credit system to credit certain people for their hard work, and that will be that.

On the question of if GFF should continue to host the scans? I'd say yes, if credit was given to Chudah. It'd probably help decrease server costs on CC, and that would solve all the problems, especially with credit given.

Anyone else think this Lavender cat is awesome?

My personal favourite bit so far is the comment about her family waiting for her and this little obsession. Bitch, STOP HURTING YOUR FAMILY FOR VGM. This is simple. Chudah and Zane both seem like fucking children not worth the effort. I appreciate Blah and SS' attempt to be decent about all this, but seriously. They need to grow up.

INTERNET. SERIOUS BUSINESS. Etc.

Jesus, great job guys. After all ther shit we (GFF's VGM fag population) have given ghoulies et al for issues like this you'd think that we'd actually have the sense not to copypasta or to at least give credit.

Well, now that CC's gone, GFA is only half as superfluous. Just as planned, am I right?

Wonderful! I ever thought that our little VGM community needs a soap opera!

But sad about CC. ;(

Given I have at least talked to people on both sides, and both sides have been reasonable, helpful, intelligent and kind, I doubt there can't be a solution found.

As stated previously, BigBlah, SS and Chudah need to talk and sort it all out. And that DISINCLUDES me, 99.9 % of members of GFF, 99.9% of members of Chudah's forums, and especially Zane.

Not to mention, it would be like, the lamest "forum war" in the existence of the Internet.

WHOEVER WINS, THEY ALL LOSE.

I like how I can sum this up as "looooooooool, What a bunch of crybabies." What's next, Chudah seeing if Wikipedia has her scans in articles?

If Chudah is truly so selfless that she even neglects her family in favour of the game music community (hah hah), why such outrage about another site with a better-organized database making the materials available to more people? It's good for expanding the community.

Not that credit shouldn't be given where it's due, but seriously, way to overreact out of the blue.

I've only got a moment, but I wanted to thank you guys for being level-headed about this, and not inflaming the siutation any further. I've got meetings all morning, but I'll try to make full statement sometime soon.

Either this is saying nothing or everything.

Disclaimers to this post. I obviously have loyalties to Gamingforce, but I didn't work a lick on GFA myself. Minimal bias there. I do not mean to inflame, but this is the lightest way to put my opinion. I know not much about whatever faux net feud is going on here, but I do know this. Once you post something publicly on the internet, it spreads. Chudah, did you expect it not to?

I fail to wrap my head around this mentality. The idea that these things are protected under some sort of conditional sharing circumstances. You are not posting this stuff on a public website so that only your close and trusted cohorts can view it. It is now out there.

Artists in the fields of music, art, or literature deal with this regularly. Their original work. To see someone made a bold move of a statement over photos of things he/she bought is misguided to say the least, and I only edited out a stronger description not to look foolish after SS's post just above.

Not saying issue shouldn't be taken, but don't call the strike on and rally the troops for god's sake, how old are you to be taking your ball and going home? Sure, it's harsh to tell someone they're acting childish, but when it's the case, it should be said.

(Wow, good posts people. Sounds like it can be resolved, at least.)

In light of Chudah's decision, I wonder what you folks think of the following proposition:

Should GFA shut down because Galbadia Hotel has leeched most of its' rippers music, and scans?

My vote is yes, because I've foregone getting my wife pregnant to work hard bringing the community high-quality game rips, and now THOSE BASTARDS over at FFShrine..

(You get the deal I hope.)

- Spike

Everyone has expended real effort on this one way or another, so it's discouraging to see other people dismiss our work as wholesale cut and paste. All the tracklists I've uploaded are my own translations -- even if there was an existing translation available I'd re-translate it. I'm doing this because I'm insane I enjoy it, not because I have something to prove.

That's exactly the point: Bigblah could be said to be involved in GFA for love of VGM, in the interest of the music itself because it's a passion of his.

Didn't CC have some tagline about "promoting appreciation of game music" or something to that effect? I suppose it should have read "Promoting appreciation of game music insofar as it nets this site's owner fame and fortune in all the lands of the internets."

Seriously, either you're in it for love of the game, so to speak (GFA, anonymous crackers/warez groups) or you're in it for the recognition and ego trip (CC, groups like DEViANCE, Razor1911, Fairlight).

I do love the kids pretending to be anime superheroes in the CC forums, though. Like...

Because acts of homicide always make everything better. And it's worth risking felony charges to defend a website. Or was he not serious?

Oh, wait--INTERNET IS SERIOUS BIZNESS.

EDIT: I do want to clarify, though, in case I came across as a touch caustic: I would like to see the situation resolved amicably. CC is a fine resource, albeit one I use less freuqently than others, and the work put into the site was obviously no trivial matter. That said, I think Chudah is making a mountain out of what should by all rights be a molehill and this entire fiasco could have been avoided had people at STC not let their tempers flare. If there's anything I can do to help GFA in the way of scanning, compiling tracklists, etc. I'd be more than happy to take the job.

This is very unfortunate. I've always respected the work put in for Chudah's Corner from when I first stumbled on it years and years ago. So if CC does really close, it will indeed be sorely missed for its meticulous database and reviews. Hopefully, any misunderstandings and conflicts can be resolved amicably.

I wasn't targeting Chudah. I'm saying that everyone's making far too many assumptions -- saying that Chudah is running CC only for self-promotion is akin to saying that GFA is purely a rip-off. However the fact is that the terms were fully spelled out on her site, we infringed upon that regardless of the circumstances, and we're now working towards a solution that'll make everyone happy.

There's no need to make judgements on her character or motivations based on a single outburst. Chill, guys.

Ech, I was afraid of sounding like I was coming down too hard on her. Sounds like I did anyway. Sorry about that, Blah.

The way I see it, though, is that yes, she does have the right to set whatever terms of use she wishes for her scans and database. However, in my mind it calls into question her intentions when there's so militant a movement based on appropriation by a purely noncommercial and well-meaning effort, doubly so when that appropriation may well have been an honest mistake.

I think we're all a little shaken up by the way Chudah and company (though it seems that the real rabble-rousing was carried out by that Zane fellow) came in with guns blazing and sabers waving. Chudah even said herself once that "there's been no contact yet" between herself and Blah or Squirrel. I'd think that there would first be some kind of heads-up--a polite notification that "Hey, you're using my stuff, what's the deal? If it's not just a temporary placeholder, how about some credit?"

I just get the nagging suspicion that someone, somewhere (not necessarily Chudah, though I won't rule it out) wanted drama to come out of this. I mean, it's not as though trade secrets worth millions of dollars are being exposed here, and one needs only browse the animemusicvideos.org forums to see how anime fans have a tendency to overreact (that was a stretch, I know, but I'm thinking back to KUUUUSSOOOOOOOO guy), so I get the sense of something a bit...unnatural going on.

Blah, Squirrel, and Chudah all have my unwavering support though. If there's going to be a resolution to the problem, I want one that puts VGM first and individual forums/sites/indexes(indices?)/databases second. I fear this leading to people losing sight of the goal of GFA and CC--promotion of the appreciation of game music. I don't think it's that much of a problem around GFF, but I know better than to trivialize the risk.

I personally don't want it to mean anything. It's just me putting it in my own perspective.

In the end, it's just a silly little Internet spat. I'm sure that everyone who should be involved (GFA Staff, Chudah Staff, and no one else, looking at Zane right about now,) with working out this discrepancy can be level-headed enough to get something worked out.

To have this spiral out of control would be the dumbest thing ever, and everyone should realize that.

I agree with you fully that it's something that the staff of both sites should get their heads together and everyone else needs to basically stay out. It's no business of mine, or any other random user of this site. It wasn't our work, and we don't have a stake in this.

However, just as a point of fact, it's been stated that Zane is a member of staff at Chudah's Corner, so he sort of does have a stake. I don't really like the way he approached this, but I can't deny that he's involved.

Yeah, for anything to get any further out of hand is helping nothing, but I dunno. It's not my actions to take, but from where I'm sitting, righting the situation should not involve pandering or walking on eggshells. Taking down the site and alerting the media was a jump of the gun and only served to bring people like Zane to the forefront, creating animosity. Anyone who's said so has gotten the whole, "How dare you," routine from Chudah. Identify the lifted material, take it down, offer apologies (which I'm sure has already happened), make it understood among GFA staff that this stuff isn't kosher.

I just hope it's done in a dignified manner that doesn't hold up Chudah as a bruised victim and GFA as a bunch of douches just to come to a resolution.

I spent a couple of hours talking with Chudah tonight, and the situation is essentially resolved.

One thing to keep in mind: the information is not what's important -- it's the experts, those who have built up a knowlege of game music and share it through buying new albums, ripping, translating, scanning, and promoting game music positively in the community. This is what must be fostered. Someone could come and steal our entire database, code and all, and set up shop somewhere, and it wouldn't matter, because we're the experts.

This recent situation is ironically turning into a catalyst that will finally bring several disparate (and sometimes disagreeing) segments of the VGM community together to work on something that will be much better than any of us could have done on our own. Obviously, there are some things to be worked out, so I'd like to ask everyone to be patient and keep an open mind.

Glad to hear it, Secret Squirrel. A huge thanks to you for being so mature about the whole situation, 'cause it's gotten us at a nice resolution, here. Exciting to hear of the new-found ideas, too.

one can only hope part of this resolution involes this zane fellow taking a very long walk off an extremely short bridge

it is FOR THE BEST

Cheers on the rest though. Hopefully GFF will stay alive long enough to see GFA come out of just being a beta.

Why all this concern over someone, somewhere on the internet getting mad? If Chudah was blowing this all out of proportion, why bother placating at all? I have to assume this is a PR thing as much as anything else, because it'd be silly to feel responsible for someone else mistakenly feeling slighted.

Because it's still an important part of the game music community. Ignoring an issue like this would only cause separate "factions" inside the Internet world, creative a rupture within the community itself. Like I said, I never thought that Chudah honestly was self-centered, after the amount of music the released to the community.

There will always be people who hate GFF, or vice versa. But seriously, we just have to ignore all of the other flaming idiots on the internet. There's a difference between what can be solvable, and what can't, and preventing asshats like Zane won't really do anything.

I don't think it's fair for those who have little conception of how difficult it is to run a site as large and demanding as Chudah's Corner to condemn the actions of Zane and Chudah. I can empathise with their distress and anger quite strongly from my personal experiences. Their actions, though extreme, are understandable given the circumstances.

That said, I'm not antagonistic towards any party on this debate. I just wish people would be more sensitive and thoughtful before making cruel judgements. I'm referring more to SoundtrackCentral, but some comments here were unnecessary too. I am very glad issues are being resolved.

Now that's what I'm talking about. Rock on, Squirrel.

Chudah's Corner is back up! :o

I guess there's hope for this "internet" thing after all.

Just goes to show what simple discussion between civil parties can accomplish. :rock: on SS.

What I'm still not getting is why Chudah would close CC in the first place. She didn't give any reasons whatsoever in her first announcement and later sounded like it was too much of a burden what with all her private life and so on.

From what I gathered at CC and STC, Zane was the first person who jumped in with this GFA hate tirade, starting the whole pointless bandwagon that Chudah herself would eventually hop on.

I'm under the impression that the whole GFA affair was not the main reason for Chudah to close her site in the first place, but it became a welcome excuse and reasoning when the drama unfolded later on.

The most fascinating piece of information I've picked up here is that Chudah, who I've heard of for what seems like years, is female. Glad to see things are headed in a positive direction though; and that Chudah isn't a jackass like some of her representatives in this thing.

Understand that 99% of the harsh comments here were retaliatory. The vast majority of VGM fans here have been nothing but supportive of both Chudah's Corner and STC. There's a healthy respect for the vast collections of information that each site brings to the table.

So imagine our shock when many of us learned that our own site was being blamed for CC's closing. Nobody argued the reasoning; Chudah deserves full credit. But the slanderous methods that were used to rally people against GFA, that was bound to create some stiff resentment. Can you sincerely blame any of us for wishing to defend ourselves, or for becoming upset at a few individuals' scurrilous remarks?

Thankfully, most people here, especially those in control of things, are capable of maintaining their composure. Secret Squirrel is as excellent a diplomat as anyone could ever wish and Bigblah's dependability is unrivaled. I'm certain that if they weren't the ones in charge, this whole situation could've become much messier.

Still, when people start casting stones, expect a few to be cast in return.

Yes, I realize most negative comments here were retaliatory both to Zane's comments and the somewhat unfair accusation. However there were comments both here and, much more significantly, SoundtrackCentral that were hostile for the sake of it and showed little understanding about the difficulties of running a site. After Zane made such offensive and unnecessary generalisations, I understand why people would want to retaliate. However, about the illegal downloading comment, I could understand why he would feel threatened by a possible 'alternative' to his site (which has always been purchase, purchase, purchase) hosted on a forum with a focus on sharing in large quantities. Given I know Secret Squirrel, Seanne, CHz, and probably many others involved in the project buy great quantities of VGM and it's been previously indicated that there won't be many downloads on GFA, perhaps this isn't so much of an issue. Personally, I don't care either way; legitimacy would be lovely but I'd also love something to take Galbadia Hotel down. Anyway, sorry for the misunderstanding.

Another reason why I love GFF so much--it's laissez-faire perspective on piracy. It's bugged me for a very long time how a lot of fans of Japanese pop culture (I hate to sound like I'm ragging too hard on anime fans but this issue seems to have stirred my memory) are frothing-at-the-mouth crazy about piracy, to the point that they take personal offense whenever someone, somewhere downloads an anime episode or an MP3. Again, see animemusicvideos.org.

I mean, I've spent easily $1000 on game soundtracks alone, and that should be more than enough to show my commitment to supporting the industry. So god dammit, I'm going to download if I see fit: 9 times out of 10 I buy the soundtrack anyway and the other 1 time I delete the MP3s as they weren't any good.

Honestly, kiddies, the industry has its packs of rabid lawyers for things like bootlegs and downloading. They don't need a bunch of whiny teenagers playing sycophant and thinking it's going to do any good.

The issue of bootlegs I understand and can somewhat sympathize with. I personally own more than a few (which were money on top of the $1000 I've blown on legitimate copies) and it doesn't bother me at all. However, for those who insist on owning 100% official moychandise, the super-duper-look-a-like pirate versions can be very confounding.

Yeah, I love VGM and want to see the creators make piles of cash as much as any other fan. Thinking there's any way to stop people from downloading in the age of prolific broadband and readily accessible P2P/FTP/Usenet services, however, is plain lunacy. If you want the fandom to be a "self-policing community," then do me a favour and police yourself. Trust others to do the same. If they (we (I)) don't, it's not your fault and you needn't lose sleep over it. I'm getting very tired of being called a dreg of humanity for firing up my Direct Connect client, doubly so when it's often because I have a spare $50 burning a hole in my pocket and want to sample some VGM to decide what to BUY.

Man, this went way offtopic. Sorry again, but I guess I can say it's related due to Chudah's policy of promoting 100% legal acquisitions on her site. In and of itself, that's great, and $DEITY knows I've seen far, far worse than Chudah--she's actually quite level-headed in this respect by comparison to the animemusicvideos.org psychos, but what can I say? Never rub another VGM nerd's rhubarb, I guess.

I would certainly hope not! As much as I love Chudah's Corner and use it a lot, there always seems to be albums I need info for that aren't in it's database. Personally, we need as many of these databases as we can get... ;)

That said, I only just now found out about this topic and it doesn't seem much like an issue to me. Really, once something hits the web it's free game in this day and age, though perhaps it shouldn't be, but that's the way it is for most people. Oh well, hopefully Chudah and those here can come to an understanding, it's not like the whole layout and content was stolen. Really, why rescan something if you can easily get it off the web and it would be the same thing anyway? That said, getting permission wouldn't hurt either.

As for those on STC, I can understand being pissed that Chudah decided to shut down, but still, they would do better to get over the drama and find a solution that would fix the issue not exacerbate it. Anyway, the people over there have always been great when I posted, but some need to get over themselves too! :D

Oh well, looks like Chudah's is up again. Good to know!

Its a shame if CC does decide to close but I have a bitter taste from Chudah's Corner as I came to her with all kinds of ideas of building up a radio station for her, she told me no thank you and within a few days had announced a radio station for chudahs corner so obviously most people are just as bad as everyone else.

However if there's room for a large database to built of VGM releases I'm feeling quite hungry to construct one!

Si

I bet Chudah can brew up a mean bowl of Clam Chowder. That's always the word association answer that occured to me when I saw her name.

I can't help but look at people complaining about GFA 'stealing' from Chudah and think "MUGEN creators."

It's not "your work." You shouldn't need the burden of worrying whether your name is attached to a fact-finding service.

That's...not a good analogy. Mugen is taking something existing and modifying it (some of the shit they come up with is pretty creative, in sort of a geek-laden underground way). Chudah isn't modifying anything...She's just presenting what's already there, since most people will never actually see the real things anyway.

Now, if Chudah had a section what you make album covers fight against each other with Street Fighter-esque moves...Yeah, then I'd see.

Chowdah's Cornah?

Of course. =o

Most mugen characters are ports of characters. No imagination required to enter.
So yes, it's essentially the same thing.