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Can Schwettylens come home?

Here's the thread:
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/photographic-discussions/291518-zomg-first-engagement-shoot.html

Ummmmmmmmm...

Ok, so let me first say that I get the job the moderators have and the things they need to do. I respect them for the time they invest (though I'm not sure if this is voluntary or 'for pay'), and I understand they have to make judgement calls and stick by them. I also appreciate the life the new crew has breathed into the forum here, and I have generally appreciated their firm but reasonable hand.

HOWEVER...

I gotta say, this one seems a little bit much.

I get that there's a fine line between a copyrighted image from a photographer and an internet meme showing Jean Luc Picard doing a facepalm, but there IS a line there. That line may well be right at Kate whatsername and blondie boy on the titanic there... maybe it's not an outright meme, but it basically is. That line gets crossed probably dozens of times a week on this forum and probably hundreds of thousands of times a year everywhere else... it's kind of expected and accepted, and I highly doubt CBS is either going to charge in here and sue the owners of the forum, or even be SLIGHTLY phased by yet another posting of Picard smashing his own face.

Does TPF want to strengthen that rule? Mmm, ok, sure. They could do that, and it would be very well known in short order that posting even images of people snipped from various TV shows and whatnot are unacceptable, but this really has NOT been the practice I have seen up to this point. It therefore seems unreasonable to ban someone for responding somewhat snarkily to one of the mods telling them that the practice is against the rules.

Oh and it doesn't even get into the whole point Traveller was making (which I can now only assume came from this whole thing) about acceptable use, as I'm pretty sure all those memes fall under acceptable use. Yeah, I know house rules... whatever, and that's fine... but I do think this is going a bit far.

You could certainly say that Schwetty deliberately pushed it and kinda asked for what he got... but I think he was pushing it to make a point, and I have to say I agree with him. I think the original posture with Schwetty was heavy-handed and pretty much out of left field. I honestly would have done the same thing in response. (big shock, I know)

And yeah, I get that he can be a bit divisive. Some of the best contributors around here can be from time to time. Some of them very frequently. I don't think it should be weighed into anyone's equations at all.

Anyway, yeah... for my money, I think it was a bit much.

And yeah, maybe he'll come back... or maybe he'll say "screw you, TPF" and we lose a decent contributor. And maybe TPF cares and maybe they don't. People come and people go and we've heard concerns like this and seen threads like this plenty of times since I've been here, but this one seems to stand out in my mind as the worst example of it... and we're talking about 9 years of threads. Nine years, guys.
 
Wow! I take some time off and we have shots fired!
 
I absolutely believe that the captain Picard face palm meme is fair use. It's repurposed, which I believe makes it transformative, it has minimal financial damages to the creator, and oly a portion of the whole was used...
 
Schwettyballs will be just fine!
 
^^LMAO! I always, always, always think about that when I see his name.
 
i cant believe he has been banned i should have been banned ages ago
 
I ban Lew for having a signature which was too big.
 
The process has a small flaw.
The big BANNED thing on someone's name, especially someone who isn't that big a PITA will draw attention.
The smarter, IMO, thing would have been for the MODS just to give him a week vacation by changing his PW and sending him an email.
It would have happened, the mods would have made their point and nobody would be sharening pichforks and gathering up torches.
 
The process has a small flaw.
The big BANNED thing on someone's name, especially someone who isn't that big a PITA will draw attention.
The smarter, IMO, thing would have been for the MODS just to give him a week vacation by changing his PW and sending him an email.
It would have happened, the mods would have made their point and nobody would be sharening pichforks and gathering up torches.

But that would not MAKE THE POINT to the rest of the masses.. be nice, eat your pablum, or else! :)
 
I can think of a number of people, self included, who deserved to be suspended before Schwetty.

Personally, I believe this has more to do with him being a smartarse than being a copyright violator...
 
He got a little snarky with his second post but seriously, that's just extremely anal.
Especially to straight up ban him, regardless of how long the ban is.
 

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