Perhaps I am the last person to hear what is going on.
I had no idea that donations are part of the program or that AB was being sued. I recommend everyone makes some kind of contribution.
As these things go, I think this board has been pretty clean and I've made an attempt always to remind folks to ensure that links are properly posted. Almost everyone does so in my experience. I believe pretty much everyone here also posts excerpts rather than full articles, absent the possible odd careless exception.
Caveat. By acting as moderator of this board, I do not purport to ensure any poster is compliant with copyright law any more than Bob does. Your posts are your responsibility. AB ALEA is simply a medium for you to express yourself and to do so lawfully.
You will notice in the ALEA text box, I believe in the utility and benevolence of restriction to any society, even one that characterises itself as "free". Indeed, that is the principal subject of this board. So AB's current situation is an expression of this idea. Freedom has its limits and these intrude where property rights and other interests prevail.
This is no criticism of AB. AB offers us a great opportunity to write freely within the restrictions imposed by law. It seems extraordinary to me that Bob, who merely provides a vehicle for free and lawful expression, should be in the firing line for the alleged abuses of individual posters. That's like suing a paper maker for an author's writing.
It sounds as if he may end up having some extremely smart attorneys behind his cause and I hope and trust he will be successful in his defence, not least because AB sounds like a labour of love rather than a business. I suspect any court would take this into account: this site doesn't appear to be operated principally to generate an income. Donations are voluntary (and as far as I'm concerned the requests for them are not well-publicised) and appear to be used at best to cover costs of time and development and little else.
In the news article linked by Bob, it seems the plaintiff is intentionally seeking out impecunious defendants and not offering them simple, cheap, good faith remedies, such as Cease and Desist notices and suchlike prior to taking legal action. Strikes me that suggests a great deal about the character of the suits. These things can be dealt with in a very different way.
One final point. The character of this particular board is intended to be about your opinions, and not so much about assembling a limitless chain of links to third party material. We all know other stuff is out there. I want to know what you have to say for yourself. Links and quotes should be the support rather than the main theme of what you post. Going forwards, folks, if you want to quote an article, please ensure you use only a short excerpt and that you provide the link.
| 