EDM364's AP Mod Diary, Page 10

---

Having some issues with blood pressure today, slept 24 hours. Still entirely hacked about the Geo Dash situation but have some news to cover. Herein this long ass section will be an overview of @Troisnyx's petition, why it was made, my own thoughts, and word from Tom regarding the future handling of the relationship between Geometry Dash and our Audio Portal to come, as well as how the game itself is a catastrophe of intellectual property rights' violation in its present state. Also some advice for those of you who choose to disable downloads on your tracks until this is all dealt with appropriately.

---

Last time you heard from me I linked @Troisnyx's petition to remove Geometry Dash from app stores, which netted an absolutely explosive response from Newgrounders, Geometry Dash players, mods, and staff alike. It probably could have directed its ire better, since it's not just the community that's the problem; it's the shitty mangled tether that hitches us together, the custom song feature, the abuse of which endangers our site, and the profiting from which also violates a lot of CC licenses in the process -- but it said quite a few things which needed to be said, imo.

I've made my position clear: I don't care whether GD gets removed or not so long as something gets done, which has since been promised. The jury is out whether Rob will hold up his end of the bargain, but no one can deny that Newgrounds staff has been exceedingly cooperative and accomodating in spite of everything and this has been a long time coming.

Since I signed the petition, an additional 60 some odd signatures have accrued ranging from reluctant to enthusiastic to vehemently angry yet all very much disillusioned with the 3 years of shit the Newgrounds community has put up with. There are now 100+ comments on @Troisnyx's post, ranging from full support to vehement opposition and offense. I don't speak for @Troisnyx or anyone else, but I figure I should clarify the actual purpose of that petition -- to actually get a response, which it did -- and why I myself signed.

No, it wasn't because I think the entire GD community is represented by the thousand flecks of shit that wreck our site and endanger our future. I signed that petition because I can't stand the idea that RobTop gets to take advantage of musicians like me every time someone puts up a level, and most GD players I've encountered seem to think we all should be grateful for the strain @Zhenmuron's irresponsible implementation of these levels has put on us, as if all of our popularity and prestige is owed to this stupid game and we should be happy to see our art treated like dollar store cologne. Someone tried to tell me today that @Dimrain47 owed his popularity to GD, too. Bullshit.

Now, ad revenue from the free version might go to one or two musicians partnered with the ad companies, but you know as well as I do, Rob is making bank after GD 2.0+, and the musicians by and large are not making jack shit. NG isn't even getting compensation for the broad use and abuse of the entire Audio Portal as a hosting service -- and certainly not the users working on custom levels so he can keep selling the game indefinitely as is, without having to make any additional levels.

Let me explain how and why this is a problem. All music on NG is released under a CC license, meaning all songs on NG are licensed property of the submitter. Stolen content of course voids this license entirely, i.e. copyrighted music or NCS music submitted by someone other than the creator, but this isn't what I'm getting at. There are all types of CC licenses on Newgrounds, many of which are NON-COMMERCIAL USE ONLY. Use in Geometry Dash completely violates the terms of these licenses, since RobTop is making money off of Geometry Dash, meaning USE IN GD IS NOT FAIR USE!

So, Rob is making MONEY off of misery, violation of intellectual property rights, as well as his players' collective naivete about the mechanics of music and $$$. Until now, most of us were under the impression that next to nothing was being done about this. Fortunately, we were wrong; it's just that it's happening VERY slowly.

The NG staff and purportedly Rob are working together to fix the current theft issues, as well as the annoying need to disable downloads entirely if you don't want your hard work used to line someone else's pocket or worry about broken licenses you'll never see compensation for -- many of our users have been forced into this, such as @Xtrullor, as an extreme example. He has faced ridiculous abuse from the GD community.

For some like @Dj-Nate, however, it's not as much an issue; they don't mind their having their music featured in a paid game pro-bono, or haven't had the misfortune to find out about it. On this note I'd like to clarify that if GD were totally free, with no ads, I'd have no problem having my music featured, same as I don't mind having my music featured in works on NG because Newgrounds benefits from the ad revenue. I'm NOT okay with Rob getting ad revenue from levels using my work without flipping NG or myself a single penny, especially with all the damage his community is doing to us, and the disrespect that has been shown to our site's artists, all while I'm not making a dime, myself!

And let's not dismiss that if Rob were profiting off of music from some big wig like Skrillex, the lawsuits would be quick, and GD would be dead.

That, or the Big 3 would seize the rights to it like they did to Grooveshark. Go ahead and Google that if you didn't already hear. It's pretty spooky, especially if you recall that Grooveshark's creator ended up myseriously dying not long after he pledged to keep fighting the record labels' monopoly on music, after plenty of lawsuits which held him liable for offenses committed by his users. Don't think Rob wouldn't get treated the same.

We at NG don't have the kind of money to pursue lawsuits or fight them. If we did, it would be put to use funding the artists we have on site instead. However, with GD players uploading Skrillex songs to our portal by the day and the fact just a couple DMCA's and some follow-up lawsuits could put us under, it becomes abundantly clear GD has not been and probably will not ever be a good thing for us if things don't change. We will be the ones that get sued to death for hosting the content Rob is making bank off of!

That's why I signed the petition, not because I hate GD players or RobTop himself, but I hate the way in which custom songs were implemented so thoughtlessly as to not only completely take advantage of our site without any consideration to how our CC licenses work -- rather than just "oh, music I won't have to shell out a penny for monetizing!" -- but also without explaining beforehand to his community, who knows nothing about us or our contributions to the net as a whole, that their disregard for our rules and regulations could break not only our banks and the site as a whole but also the cash cow he's been riding for the past 3 years in the process. They don't know the legal implications of what's happening here!

Now, in regards to the petition, we all know full-well it's unlikely the game actually gets taken down, and that might actually be a good thing, but if threatening that cash cow was the only way to get change, fast, before it kicks us in the ass for good, it's worth the trouble. Better than sitting idle with our thumbs stuck up our asses complaining.

Now, all being said, some changes @TomFulp and @BrentheMan been thinking aloud about on our end to help users like @Xtrullor and @RealFaction, who have had to disable downloads on their own tracks rather than have them used/abused, is an in-built option for AP submitters to enable or disable tracks for use in GD, sort of how our CC licenses work, since notably, disabling certain IDs in GD alone has not stopped the theft and reupload of tracks, and shady users seem to just steal whatever they can get their hands on anyway. Unfortunately currently, that change is not possible without entirely disabling downloads until future updates from RobTop's end.

This has apparently been in the works for quite a while but atm we're in the dark. @TomFulp has said on the issue, "However if GD updated to use a JSON call we set up for it a few months back, then we can use that to control access - waiting to hear if it is using that currently or not, otherwise it's something that could go into future updates." He also mentioned a bulk feature to work for our compositions, so we don't have to go one by one and disable or re-enable. This should be handy for users like me who have a pretty big body of work.

Others have mentioned that NG is going to face a lot of backlash from ungrateful twits over on the GD side of the kitty pool, so with that in mind, I have a little something to say... I mean, other than that those users can go fuck themselves into a less entitled state, realize we have a right to do whatever we want with our content, that NG is not a file-dump for GD, and before dropping that scathing 0 star review, they should probably read this.

USERS WHO DISABLE DOWNLOADS ON YOUR TRACKS: Please be aware that if you're getting reviews from GD players giving you shit for it, you CAN and SHOULD flag them abusive. Users are supposed to be reviewing your track, not your CC license or advertising that some site, game, or app exists, and reviews like "FUCK YOU FOR DISABLING USE IN GD GAEEM!1!1!" are all kinds of rule breaking!

Back to GD, we're also hoping RobTop will implement some banners and questionaires on his end in English AND Spanish to let his users know that it isn't cool to steal songs just because they aren't already here, how to properly use the Portal, etc. I'm not sure how the hell anyone could miss this one here, but who knows.

I'm slightly less optimistic about more banners and popups users can click through since most users, even the Spanish speakers (most of whom are taught English in primary school), seem to be just trying to disguise their theft rather than not knowing it's against the rules. HOWEVER, getting them to understand that they aren't going to just magically GET AWAY WITH IT BY BEING SCOUTED might help.

Ultimately, my hope is that some power is given to the Portal. It's our songs being used and often abused, and we deserve a say in how that happens just as much with third-party apps as we have here. If something as simple as this can happen, maybe I'll start thinking that we don't need that petition. As long as we don't have that option and Rob is still turning our hard work into his $$$, not only is the community wrecking our site, but the game is also robbing us and breaking the law (in the case of non-commercial CC licenses). That's not acceptable.

Now, moving onto my day.

---

SLICE OF LIFE:
Not much doing. Have spent most of the past couple of days sleeping. Losing appetite. Did however get some video editing done. Went to bed yesterday around 8 PM. Woke up today at 4:47 PM.

---

MOD PERFORMANCE:
No. Thefts: 44
Music Maker Jam: 3
Ear-Rape: 2
Total: 49
Bans: 36
Per capita: 1.361

---

BREAKDOWN:
Of 44 thefts, 43 were for GD. 3 Music Maker Jam tracks were also for GD and used the same dubstep bassline sample. 2 submissions were ear rape "How-To" songs. Most users were one-off, fire and forget offenders, with most giving incriminating or gibberish descriptions. A few obscured names. 49 offenses per 36 offenders equates to 1.361 offenses per capita, which would seem like a marked decrease in theft but in actuality is about the same judging off of what I've seen @Exedor go through.

---

CONCLUSION:
Same shit, different day, just hoping to bring light to the situation.

SUBSCRIPTIONS: @littlemisfortune @maorrichan @RealFaction

Thank you!

<< PREVIOUS ENTRY - NEXT PAGE >>