Friday Q&A

Questionable Reclamation

Greetings, crickets and trolls. Welcome to a very special edition of the Friday Q&A. Today, we're talking about an issue close to the heart of every Fark photoshopper. No, I'm not referring to the search for a herpes cure. I'm talking about copyrights, and how they affect our medium.

Q: What do you think of copyright infringement?

A: I spit on copyright law. I spit on a lot of things, but copyright law is definitely one of them. You probably do the same thing, if you're a photoshopper. Every one of these pictures we hack up has an owner, usually an arrogant twat who thinks you're stealing from him. You have to wonder about the thought process involved when a person makes a photograph publicly available, then complains when it gets used by the public.

Q: Why not just ask permission?

A: Asking is for pussies. It's pointless, since the picture's owner invariably says no, assuming you're able to get in contact with them. Even if they share your artistic vision, waiting for each source to say go kills any of the creative freedom that makes photoshopping so enjoyable.

Q: Why are we even talking about this?

A: There was a bit of a dust up recently. It turns out the photographer for a couple of Fark's contest pictures doesn't take kindly to what we've done with his work. The copyright holder for the originals featured in threads 3652847 and 3272197 is, by all rights, a complete fucking douchebag. He sent harassing emails to at least one photoshopper, and even created a Fark account so he could post this image:

Image credit: Some whiny prick who thinks taking pictures of a barn is an original idea.

What the text overlay shows us is that farradhim takes his work very seriously. So seriously, in fact, that he never took time to master the delicate art of spelling and punctuation. His loss is our gain, however, as the insipid ranting in thread 3652847 is by far the most entertaining thing I've read in a while.

I find the fact that his Farkback went ignored to be excruciatingly hilarious. I had put off writing about this for a while, since there was a danger of both threads getting deleted. However, it appears that Drew and the gang have decided to give a resounding "fuck you" to this clown. Way to go, Drew. If this idiot didn't want people using his images, he should have tried watermarking them, or maybe not uploading the damn things onto a public server in the first place.

That's all for this time, gentle reader. Thanks for stopping by. I'd like to close out the post by apologizing to TheSniperZERO for not insulting him in this week's edition. I know he comes here expecting a certain level of animosity, and I'm sorry if I failed to deliver this time. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a load of stolen intellectual property that needs to be submitted to the Fark queue.

Stay tuned for more copyright violations from the Doctor!

Friday Q&A

Questionable Options

Greetings, crickets and trolls. Welcome to another thrilling edition of the Friday Q&A. It was an exciting week, so I'll have to dispense with the formalities of insulting Boner's mom and implying TSZ is a closet homosexual. No time for all that now, though I may be able to work it in later on.

Q: What happened to Photobucket?

A: They pissed off the wrong people. As many of you may know, quasi-reliable image hosting site Photobucket.com came under attack by an elite (or possibly L337) group of Turkish hackers with ties to Wayne Newton. Clearly, this is the latest shot fired in Newton's war against Rupert Murdoch. That rhinestone-clad lounge lizard (Newton) has laid claim to Newscorp, since the media conglomerate shares the first three letters of his name. He's already exacted bitter vengeance on the makers of Fig Newtons, so I tend to take his actions pretty seriously.

Q: Were any contests disrupted?

A: Not as such. But while I can't confirm that we're through the great Photobucket scare of 2008, I can sadly report that the damage has already been done. TheSniperZERO was officially right about something. You may recall a while back that he railed against free image hosts, making Photobucket a specific target of his rant. TSZ's argument was that since the photoshop work you do for Fark is your legacy, you should care enough to host it on your own domain. That way your creations will stand the test of time, until you forget to pay the bill.

Q: So what's the best hosting option?

A: Good question. Obviously, paying for a domain will only ensure that your work lasts as long as your interest in this particular hobby. You can forget about setting an example for the future generations of 'shoppers, because when your domain runs out, everything you hosted with it is going to red x. On the other hand, using a web-based host leaves you wide open to hacker attacks and censorship by over-zealous content mods. There's also nothing to stop the host from accidentally deleting everything you've ever posted. My advice is to just forgo image hosts altogether, and post ASCII text-style drawings, like that one of the middle finger I always used to see.

That's all for this time, gentle reader. Once again, thanks for stopping by. I want to personally congratulate TheSniperZERO for being right about something. Web-based hosting companies with an unreliable track record, such as Imageshack and Photobucket, are ill-suited to the needs of the Fark community. Hopefully, this week's uproar has served to teach a valuable lesson about the perils of web-based hosts, because the problem is only going to get worse.

Stay tuned for more dire prognostications from the Doctor!

Friday Q&A

Questionable Intrusion

Greetings, crickets and trolls, and welcome to a special Friday the 13th edition of the Q&A. This may be an unlucky day, but that doesn't change my mission one bit. Week after week, you point your browser here in search of truth and justice. Unless you're TheSniperZERO, in which case you're just checking to see if any of your invisible enemies have made disparaging comments about you. Either way, I'm glad you took the time to stop by.

Q: Why don't you harangue anyone besides TheSniperZERO?

A: Is someone else in need of harassment? I charge fifty dollars an hour for my services. Seriously though, I don't have time to berate everyone who pisses me off. Even if I did, they wouldn't deserve it. This blog isn't about my petty grudges. I keep up the Clinic for the good of the photoshop community. And to maintain my petty grudge against TSZ, of course.

Q: Did we have another Fark outage this week?

A: We had a couple, and you can bet your ass I was rejoicing. After all, it gives me something non-TSZ related to write about. A few months ago, outages were a serious problem at Fark. No doubt spurred on by my constant ranting, or perhaps that of another blogger, the powers that be worked long and hard to resolve the issue. Unfortunately, like many problems, such as the metric system and Boner's case of herpes, these things tend to return when you least expect them. In a situation like this, it's only natural to look for a place to lay the blame, and I think we all know who's responsible here. Damn you, Wayne Newton!

Q: Will we ever get our 700 pixels back?

A: I love it when you ask a decent question. They make the rest of your eye-scratchingly asinine queries almost bearable. No, we'll probably never see a return to 700 pixel width for photoshop contest entries. It's been over a year since the redesign, and while the Fark brass have given us many new features, 700 pixel width is definitely not one of them. I'm dismayed and bemused by the situation. They could have easily resolved it a long time ago, but have chosen not to. I guess we aren't on their "to do" list. Drew and company have a lot to worry about, after all. Maybe they can work on it after dealing with the never ending stream of GISers and trolls.

That's all for this time, gentle reader. As always, thanks for stopping by. Got a question for the Doctor? Drop me a line at my email address, and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. I value the opinions of all people who agree with me. While I can't promise that I won't read your message in a mocking tone to whomever may listen, I can assure you that your concerns will not be forgotten, until I forget them.

Stay tuned for more diligent unreliability from the Doctor!

Friday Q&A

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