This is in response to Hecubus' Letter Writing Campaign. This girl just made a complete ass of herself.
Why do you hate me?
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Why do you hate me?
Yes, I create for a site that maintains a subscription area. I have been associated with that site since it was a Yahoo Group. As a matter of fact, I was the 478th person to join the group. I am also the senior moderator on the forum. So, you could say that I have been there since the beginning and that I know the owners pretty well.
Because of the fact that we do maintain a subscription area, we are, by your definition, a paysite. And we have been painted as greedy opportunists, rolling in our “ill gotten” gains. We are characterized as evil, evil people STEALING from children and swimming in our bloody lucre. You have already decided what I am all about despite the fact that very few of you have taken the time to get to know me as a person.
The decision to have a subscription area was reached after a great deal of soul searching. We attempted to maintain our site based solely off voluntary donations. What we got for that, in the way of thanks, was innumerable hateful comments about how our bandwidth was always used up. The site owner started making mail order candles and selling Avon in an attempt to generate the funds necessary to keep our site free. But it was not enough.
Our site also maintains an “adult” area. A vast majority of our forum members are over the age of eighteen and we do enjoy using custom content of an “adult” nature. I tell you this because it was also a factor in our decision to maintain a subscription area. I know that there is at least 2 very good adult oriented fansites out there. I will not go into details about them here as Kathy & Eric have politely asked that they not be discussed on this forum.
Half of our site’s administrative staff are creators and a majority of those create adult oriented custom content. Creators are, by their very nature, sensitive individuals. And it hurts all of the Creators when we get a rude, hateful email from some angry parent who has just found out that their thirteen year old downloaded “pornographic” content from our site. It is all our fault, despite the fact that said thirteen year old knowing falsified their registration data & claimed to be over eighteen. These parents held us responsible for THEIR parental failures. If we had a dime for every one of those hateful emails, we could maintain the site completely free for two years. So, we moved all of our adult oriented custom content into our subscription area.
At least now when Mister & Missus Too-Busy-Keeping-Up-With-The-Joneses-To-Be-A-Parent send us some electronic vitriol threatening our arrest for making pornography available to minors, we can inform them that we will be filing counter-charges against their innocent little angel for wire fraud because the little darling used Mommy & Daddy’s credit card to pay for access to our adult area.
Why do you hate me?
You hate me because I am associated with a paysite. And because of that association, everything that I have just stated above is completely invalid in your eyes. I used to feel welcome and at home here. Now I feel like...
...the African-American ghetto kid bussed to the white suburban school.
...the overweight, uncoordinated kid that gets picked last EVERY time in gym class.
...the shy girl, wearing the oversized threadbare sweater you pass in the halls without a single glance, let alone a kind word.
...the girl all the “popular” girls spread rumors about how promiscuous she is because they can.
...the mentally challenged kid that gets picked on because he is “just like Forrest Gump”.
...a Jew in Nazi occupied Europe.
I do not expect, or want, sympathy. To be honest, I do not even expect common courtesy here after I post this. But, I felt the need to let you all know how I feel. So, in closing, let me just make a few more points.
The petition that you all are signing is sponsored by an individual with a link to the PaySitesMustBeDestroyed website. This site openly admits that it is violating the Intellectual Property Rights of Creators. It thumbs it’s nose at those Creators from the protection of Malaysia, a country that does not honor the copywrite laws of any nation. Numerous members of this forum also have links to this site in their signatures. And you justify indulging in File Theft by saying that paysite creators broke the rules first by violating EA’s EULA. Folks, I was raised that two wrongs DO NOT make a right.
Hercubus singled out TSR & OpenHouseForSims as two particularly offensive paysites. OpenHouseForSims in her letter has an “This Site Has Exceeded It’s Bandwidth” message up at the time I am writing this, so I have no way of knowing what their subscription rates are at this time. TSR has an annual subscription rate of $42.95US. So, why is TSR more offensive with an ANNUAL subscription rate of slightly less than a new EP, but
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/ , with a MONTHLY subscription rate of $39.95US goes unnoticed in this thread at the time that I am posting this?
In closing, I just want to say this...
There are certainly people out there charging excessive fees for access to THEIR custom content. But that is THEIR right. You do not have to like it. But you DO NOT have a “right” to their Intellectual Property for free. They are the Creators and it is their right to charge, whatever they wish, for their creations. The only right you have is to choose whether or not you wish to pay for their content.
Amadeus451
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Amadeus451
There used to be a link here for my creations. But it's a paysite, so none of you will want to go there.
PMBD
Author