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

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...

Quote:

KUSOOOOOOOO! *punches a nearby wall so hard it crumbles to dust* GODDAMMIT ALL! Why the hell did this have ta happen!? If this site shuts down, one of my favorite sites of all on the web will be lost!

I'll never forgive whoever did this...THEY'RE DEAD!!!!!!!!!

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.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

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.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by CelticWhisper

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.

Originally Posted by Secret Squirrel

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.

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

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Mr. X

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)

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 am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?