[MOD] Important rule reminder.

[acidae.livejournal.com]

It has been brought to my attention that several individuals and subbing teams in this fandom have recently implemented the use of for-profit links from adf.ly, something that is addressed in our community rules:

☆ Sales posts are banned in the community; any and all posts pertaining to sales will be rejected. If you have something you want to sell, please check out the links to the right for more relevant places to post. Links to online shopping sites such as Yesasia and CDJapan are allowed provided they are not affiliate or webgains links. For-profit links such as LinkBucks are banned as well.

I'll be honest: it's disappointing to hear that this trend is returning to our fandom. I would have thought that with all the issues regarding PayPal's refusal to let us collect money for the Japan fundraiser because they considered it a "sale of copyright infringing materials", and after the brief panic over people linking said fundraiser to VSA's producers, that everyone would be more careful and unwilling to both use and support money-earning methods like this.

We've addressed the dangers of copyright-violating content before. We've discussed the legalities of the things we do in fandom. People can debate over this until the cows come home and still get nowhere, because some will have no issues with it and see it as the subbers getting some well-deserved reward for all their hard work, while others will find it hugely hypocritical considering the fears that many subbers have about being subject to legal action.

But regardless of each person's personal morals and views on this matter, regardless of whether this is ethical or not, it is clearly stated in the rules that this is not allowed. I cannot impose these rules elsewhere on Livejournal, but there will be no profiteering off other fans for things that are free in this community, and it will always stay that way.

Therefore, I will be deleting all the posts in violation of this rule shortly; if I miss any, you're welcome to link them to me either through PM or in this post and I will delete them as well. Recurring rule breakers will be banned from the community. I cannot check locked posts in external subbing communities, so it would be much appreciated if people can alert me to reoccurrences in the future.

As per usual, feel free to comment here with any opinions, questions or concerns. Thank you for reading.


EDIT: I almost forgot to link to this, which was from about a year ago: http://arashi-on.livejournal.com/3866427.html

I'm going to copy and paste a part from it because it is very important and relevant to this issue at hand:

The suspect was in violation of the Japanese Copyright Act during the period of November 22nd of last year to February 5th by publicly sharing Arashi's concert footage from two different products including the DVD "ARASHI AROUND ASIA+ in DOME" as well as commercial broadcasts of variety shows on Youtube. According to the police, he has testified that he "wanted to earn some spending money" from it. The suspect Miyazaki had been directing viewers onto his own homepage in hopes of generating ad revenue. A copyright organization provided information and alerted the police to the matter. [T/N: In another article, it was further stated that his site had received tens of thousands of hits.]

Comments

[ninodaisuki83.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much for writing this post. I noticed the recent spate of ad-linking in the past few days and was pretty disappointed to see it myself. :( It does seem a bit hypocritical to have ad links when selling or profiting is specifically prohibited in a community's rules. :X It taints the joy of sharing, even though I understand the hard work and time that subbing teams do put into their projects...

[kajalmonsta.livejournal.com]

and this adf.ly site is rumored to spread evil virus as well... i remember the mod of bestfiction warning her users... another reason why it acutally shouldn't be used.

[baratohana.livejournal.com]

I agree and share your concern. I noticed some ad links in another community as well, so i'm happy that you're taking an action since it is against the rules... hope those people won't make it harder for the other fans.
Good luck~

[mikarocker.livejournal.com]

I'd actually noticed this recently and was confused by it. I'm happy you addressed it and I agree completely. Anything that endangers the community and the contents of it needs to be taken care of.

[ninodaisuki83.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I wasn't the only one confused! I thought I missed some memo somewhere. x.X

[koichiko.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry if this sounds utterly ignorant, but what is a pro-profit link?
I understand what it means, just not how it works.
And why would anyone do something like this?

[mintceres.livejournal.com]

It basically means you can put that link anwhere you want and get money for every click that happens.

When subbers put these links 'over' their links to the download side to their subs, it gives them line 200-500 clicks, depending on the popularity of that sub.

That link usually refers you to a webseite with advertisements, which (if you're unlucky) can give you viruses. In this specific case, a comm uses these links to link to the password.

[inuhariko.livejournal.com]

It's a bad idea, I'm glad you're not supporting it, and I'm sincerely hoping refrain_subs reconsiders and that more groups won't follow suit.

[ariange]

I feel the same. Thank you for addressing this issue.

[maytevb.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for addressing this, it is really disappointing that some subbing communities/subbers are doing this. What I find surprising though, is how some people seem to fully support this, I really don't get it.

[jhope.livejournal.com]

thank you for addressing this.
I also encourage users to install the extension/add-on "AdBlock" to their browsers. It's available on almost every browser, now, I believe-- all you have to do is google it. It helps in case you accidentally click one of these links. It blocks the ads and can help block whatever virus is floating around. I have a mac, so I never get any viruses, but I am very up for helping people prevent potential dangers to their computers, as I know how easy it is for the common user to get sucked into something that screws up their machines - which are not cheap, lol.

[peachywink.livejournal.com]

I hope the people who need to read this do. Communities can be shut down because of a few members either knowingly or unkowingly breaking the rules and putting the group in a position of infringing on a copyright. If your unsure just don't do it!

[amhrancas]

*applauds*

Thank you for posting this.

[mellastella.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, I feel so stupid. I think it was either yesterday or Saturday, but I specifically remember a post form a community I'm a part of suddenly changing the way we'd get the password. Because I was ignorant in not knowing they were advertising their usage of ad-links, all I said was "Thanks for informing us!" or something like that. God, I feel so dumb . . .

Honestly, thank you so much for informing me PROPERLY. I really appreciate it. :)

[akren-mizushi.livejournal.com]

Shit, I'm sooo stupid TT_TT
When I saw that, without knowing how bad it is, I clicked. Just wondered why they were doing it suddenly, but did not care much... At least now I know.
Well, excuse me the question, but ... Because I have clicked on it, is there any danger?

[kanojokhj.livejournal.com]

I agree!

[mizumi10.livejournal.com]

thank you for addressing this problem! i saw the post the other comm have posted. i too do not support it. to me any form of money transaction or earning is to be considered as making profit. how sad some people would start this kind of thing.

[nekobot01.livejournal.com]

This is a very reasonable response.

Thank you, mods! ♥

[tensaibaka.livejournal.com]

That's why i always love this comm and not others :D

[rui-matsuri.livejournal.com]

Thank you addressing this issue. I wasn't even aware of this as I only download raws now, but I have been noticing ad.fly links here and there in the j-media community and was wondering what was going on.
And thank you to the commentors that explained the specific situation that's being referenced to. I had no idea that ad.fly was a for-profit linking site, and from the explanations I'm failing to see the necessity for any money-making in the subbing process :/

[hpswf1.livejournal.com]

I was surprised with their decision >_> I'm not a big fan of Arashi, but I like watch their shows sometimes and now I need "pay" for it. And with MU's story it just stupid and can affect not only on Arashi-fandom ><

I think if they want make money for the translation, they should make softsubs and just tell people where take raw file for their subs. At least they are owner of it. Or removed profit links for hardsubbed.

[acidae.livejournal.com]

I think if they want make money for the translation, they should make softsubs and just tell people where take raw file for their subs. At least they are owner of it. Or removed profit links for hardsubbed.

This comment (http://arashi-on.livejournal.com/4416175.html?thread=53723311#t53723311) already touched on it, but even translations are technically violating copyright. It's not your own property, and you would still have to require permission from the copyright holder to do anything. The only difference is that there is more room to make a case for fair use... but only if you're not earning anything off them.

Therefore, even if they were to offer softsubs with these links, or even text translations, the minute they start profiting from what they're doing they would basically be saying goodbye to anything they could have used to argue their stance with at all.

[anakawai.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this post!!!

[ocha_oja]

too sad that this trend is not only happens here in LJ (fansub comm) but also happens on D-A for the RAW file since the 8th-9th week of last season :/

[ofs1992.livejournal.com]

oh my! i'm so ignorant abt these pay for clicks things :( and that some are "virus-carriers" too

[chubby-sue.livejournal.com]

Uwa…..how stupid I am!!!
I commented to R_S that if it’s for the better than it should be for the best
(well basicly we just want what‘s best for us, right…
since the MU crap incident)
but then when I go through this thread
I just realized how I not realized the ‘hidden matter’
but I haven’t take anything from them yet since they announce it
what’s even more shocking that it is virus-carrier?!?!

I fully against/oppose things that will bring harms to our fandom
thank you guys for the info and thank u dear moderator for warning us
and to ‘those community or even individuals’….
I really really hope that this matter is to be brought into their consideration

[tensaibaka.livejournal.com]

it's really disappointing to see it coming from a subbing team in LJ.

I appreicate and thankful for the subs in the comm.

but seriously see no need for those things. there are lots of ways to backup/save/store files online. I don think MF is the ONLY site right?if you ask around, i'm sure people will provide places to store files. this way of earning money... is really...dirty and unforgiven...

And even MF is the their only place, it doesn't need a premium acc to upload those files. They can ask for member of comms to provide minor links, asking some members to back up those links in their MF. isn't it better? Arashi fans are easiest people to talk to, i believe.

r_s team, really a huge disappointment. (sorry for the harsh words i use)

[キャラ エンスイ (from livejournal.com)]

No no no. It's not harsh. Thank you for the opinion.

[hunnypooh.livejournal.com]

omg i din even know thats a for-profit link, i thought that was some kind of 'protection' for the download links and passwords. Thanks for informing us, appreciated much~!

[redpanda.livejournal.com]

Thank you for saying this. I saw the post at the subbing community and honestly I was pretty shocked about it. I understand wanting to protect your passwords but to make money off of it, and through a site that spreads viruses... In my opinion, that's just wrong. I'm really disappointed that they chose to do this.

[addictus-96.livejournal.com]

i don't even have a slight idea how that's done... the linking and profiteering stuff, that is.
but i hope people will stop doing that in Arashi fandom.