Yup, LJ really did tell us to drop dead...

[liz_marcs]

xanphibian and bubble_blunder  have both found this gem in this dw_news  thread:

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Source: http://news.livejournal.com/102095.html?thread=54713039#t54713039


Dear LiveJournal user stormcloude  ,

The comment you are referring to is correct; the content does not meet the legal definition of child pornography. As other, more recent entries in the community explain, however, non-photographic content involving minors in sexual situations which does not contain serious artistic or literary merit is likely in violation of Federal obscenity laws, and is content LiveJournal has chosen not to host.

Additionally, the Terms of Service (http://www.livejournal.com/legal/tos.bml) does not include any statement indicating that users will be warned prior to alternate actions. Specifically, section XVI Member Conduct, at the bottom, explicitly states "If LiveJournal determines, in its sole and absolute discretion, that any user is in violation of the TOS, LiveJournal retains the right to terminate such user's account at any time without prior notice." While LiveJournal does not do so in the instances of many violations of the Terms of Service, the policy adopted for this particular violation is to terminate without warning. You can find information on other policies at http://ww.livejournal.com/abuse/policy.bml.

The standard for artistic merit is not whether a work simply has technical merit; it is whether there is serious artistic value that offsets the sexual nature of the content. A group consisting of members of LiveJournal's Abuse Prevention Team, LiveJournal employees, and Six Apart staff reviewed the content that was reported to us. This group decides whether material potentially in violation of this policy warrants consideration for serious artistic value. In this case, they clearly did not see serious artistic value in content that simply displayed graphic sexual acts involving minors.

Regards,
Eric
LiveJournal Abuse Prevention Team

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The bolded bits above are mine.

This is why I was pissed about the complete lack of clarity that LJ kept wafting at its users just before the perm account sale. This is why I said people should keep their wallets shut until we got that clarification on what those nonsense words actually meant.

Look, I have no problem with LJ deciding they don't want to host some content but are perfectly okay with others.

My issue is that LJ has been blowing smoke up its user bases ass for two months about what is and is not acceptable content. They have not been clear (at all) about what will get you permanently banned from LJ with no warning whatsoever and what will get you a mere order to remove a single post. It appears that there will be no clear rules on this forthcoming. Oh, no. We have to learn how to read minds to figure it out.

Looks like all those vague statements (the ones I was screaming about last month) have come back to bit us all in the ass and all those nice little assurances that we got in comments on the last policy "clarification" from 6A/LJ was basically bullshit. In short, 6A can and will ban your ass without prior notification, is the 6A employees decide that you're not the sort of person they want to host anymore.

Add to the whole deal that there's now an easy peasy way for people to turn you in to the LJ cops with one click, and I think what we have here is the real potential that more than a few of us could sign in one day and finding your journal gone.

Think about this people who write slash: How much hate mail do you get? Now imagine getting tuned over to LJAbuse every time you post slash. In theory, you're posting about consenting adults. And maybe 99% of the people on LJAbuse won't give a shit about your slash story.

What happens when you get that one guy/gal on LJAbuse who doesn't give a shit about ages, but the fact that you've got a same-sex pairing and that's all the excuse they need? Or what if you got someone who thinks that all pr0n should be FLocked (I don't just mean under a an LJ-cut...but locked...)?

Yeah. This can definitely spread beyond FER THE CHYLDRERIN!

Continued from: And So It Begins...Again (The New 6A/LJ Journal Deletions) and Watch LJ Repeat Its Mistakes...

Comments

[0x.livejournal.com]

What a nice way to say 'fuck you guys'. Taking our money and then kicking us out of the apartment. Our stuff doesn't end up on the lawn, it gets destroyed without warning.

And here they are hiding behind obscenity laws, saying nothing directly, and then telling us 'we don't want you here'.

I feel bad for the people who think threatening to leave will affect anything, when that's clearly what they want.

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

I keep telling people...stop paying 6A, knock your journal down to basic with no ads, and keep posting. In essence, you'll be sucking up resources and not giving them anything in return.

[0x.livejournal.com]

I'd like to, but I'm pre-paid til 2008. No refunds.

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

I'm prepaid until July 2008 because back in Feb I had some extra cash and decided to even out payment for all the different services I was using. So, yeah, I'm here for another year no matter what.

[0x.livejournal.com]

Bastards.

[heptadecagram.livejournal.com]

Under US Law, if a business changes the nature of a contract, you have the choice to cancel it and get partial payment back.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

My paid account expired last week. *grins evily* Such lovely timing. I shall miss all my icons, but they're not getting a penny out of me after this crap.

[elentari-valie.livejournal.com]

Fantastic idea. Too bad mine has always been free anyway *g*.
I've always kept all my fandom material far, far away from LJ. Still, the sudden rise of Moral nazi is pissing me off. I have an extreme pathogenic alergy to censorship. As well as the bull it's used to disguise it.