Two wanks continued!
Wank #2: Copyright issues on a Duncan/Methos group

As most wanks do, this one started innocently enough. A member asks if anyone knows where a certain author's fics are. A post later, she posts again saying that there is no need for the fic search. Another poster says she's been looking for the same author's fics and wants to know the link. Poster number one apologizes for being misunderstood, she hadn't found the link because the author's old fics are now offline. Jeylan steps in and suggests they ask around to see if anyone has saved said fics to their harddrive, as fic trading is common among fic readers. 'Em' replies that it "isn't polite to circulate fics without the author's permission." and suggests they email the author instead to see if she would email the fics. Original poster does and everything seems ok! But Jeylan isn't happy with Em's post.

1) Anyone who doesn't want the whole world to be able to read what they wrote should not post it on the world wide web. Ever.

2) Even before the internet, back in the days of print fandom, when zines were the only way to get fic, fans have *always* copied stories for each other, loaned, and traded. That is intrinsic to the good faith bond of
fandom. Fans share. This is part of fannish *tradition.* (Maybe you're too young to remember?)

Em replies: However, I'm, apparently not the one who needs to 'grow up', round here.

Thus we suddenly go into copyright laws and whether the author owns them or not after a fic is posted on the net. Blah, blah... mod warns posters that discussion so far is fine, but not to start flaming each other. But no sooner had she mentioned this, then the tone of the posts started to turn (while being disguised by intellectual arguments about copyright). Finally, said author comes around and says something about assumptions made by Jeylan as to why her old fics were withdrawn. Jeylan asks what assumptions she exactly made. Admin breaks up the fight and says enough is enough. And thus the thread ends. Group is Duncan_Methos at Yahoo! groups for all interested parties.

Not as wanky as the other list, but hey, it had potential!