There seems to be a shift in some of the policies of this forum.
The 'Donation' concept, when's it ok, when's it not.
The existing rules state:
http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Fan-edit-preservation-forum-rules-and-FAQ/forum/9/topic/5950/
1. No discussions about financial transactions except for the buying, selling, or trading of official retail media. All For Sale/For Trade/Wanting To Buy posts belong in the buying/selling/trading forum.
Do Donations fall inside/outside this category? The policy shift seems to be that Donations (direct paypal links for instance) are ok to ask for and can appear anywhere on the site. (since for some they are part of users signatures) The community tends to shoot down newbies, but projects are actively implementing this financial transaction structure.
Also does this forum perceive that a project could surface which could require an amendment to the rules so that the project and it's author are able to remain on premises.
I would like to throw up 'Thee Backslacpkping With Media' (tBSWM)
http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Thee-Backslacpkping-With-Media-5-years-ago/topic/7758/
as an example of a project which hopes to showcase that there can be creative works which do meet the ideals of a fan edit but push the concept to a length where the final work can't be confused with any existing works although they might share material. In copyright law, there's a statue called 'Fair Use' which allows creators to reuse culture to produce new culture. (an exception which promotes the advancement of culture often for educational purposes) Since I feel that tBSWM falls into these ideals, i'm proposing the idea to see if a rule amendment is worthwhile or things can stand as is and these deviations will be explained as they are questioned.
In relation to the shift in Donations, (which haven't received any complaints) tBSWM has also violated Rule 4, without any complaints:
4. No direct links to media downloads of copyrighted materials (VOBs, WMV, QuickTime, torrent files, NZB files, ED2K links, etc.) with the exception of short clips to demonstrate quality or content. No direct links to pages containing such files.
The violation being that the entire presentation is available from one webpage and the full DVD also available from a link click.
And then to make things more messy, i've offered the entire tBSWM project ownership able to be bought. (i'd like to start a company which could make the program i'm speculating to exists) To do that someone would symbolically purchase everything of that project, i'd relinquish ownership and receive funds to start a company. This as it stands violates Rule 2:
2. No profiting from any activities related to fan edits or preservation efforts. Those found selling their fan edits or preservation projects here or elsewhere will be banned.
So besides being highly outlandish and more relevantly unobtainable, what's the conscientious?
none