There's also the issue of us cutting off potentially sensitive (yet related) personal-life discussion when pretty much no other wankee gets that kind of consideration.

Other wankees do get that consideration. We're not always as diligent as we should be, and it varies from wank to wank, but things like contact information are not allowed, kids are off limits, and crossing certain lines will get you dogpiled or banned pretty quickly.

It's extremely likely that WB's lawyers got leads for some of their evidence from FW.

Oh certainly. But it's nothing that wasn't available to anybody with a keyboard, and (assuming they know their jobs) they would have found it eventually.

This kind of thing goes on a lot more than fandom realizes. PTB's legal departments and, more often, security people do pay attention to certain boards and blogs. Not in the way a lot of fans seem to think ("OMG Jared totally reads here!!!"), but as a way of keeping an eye on potential threats. One fan 'journalist,' for example, had her X Files set visit permission cancelled when someone did a background check and found out she was a fairly insane David/Gillian shipper.

"Unlike the mainstream media, these people actually seem to have a handle on what's going on."

I'm astonished at some of the coverage. There was a fact-free article in Newsweek which referred to JKR as greedy and mean (their words). For defending her copyright in a blatant plagiarism case.

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Other wankees do get that consideration. We're not always as diligent as we should be, and it varies from wank to wank, but things like contact information are not allowed, kids are off limits, and crossing certain lines will get you dogpiled or banned pretty quickly.

Well, that's true; there are a few hard-and-fast lines that are never crossed. I think when a couple of people brought up the "no one else gets that consideration" part, they were thinking of personal things that did not actually cross those lines. I mean, Usagi Kou's crazy boyfriends are about as on topic as someone close to SVA saying, "Let me tell you exactly what his private motives for doing all this are." I think the argument is simply that the lines not to be crossed seem way closer in the Lexicon case than usual.

Oh certainly. But it's nothing that wasn't available to anybody with a keyboard, and (assuming they know their jobs) they would have found it eventually.

Well, true. I guess my point is that they could find the information elsewhere, but since they are using us, we have more impact than usual.

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Well. You've been doing an outstanding job keeping all this stuff straight, and they apparently know a good resource when they see it.

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*points up*

What she said.

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