BoyAlley,
Quote:
1. Where's all the money going? How much has been raise? What's the yearly budget? How many members are there? How much are attorneys charging us to fight 2257? How much has been spent on 2257 altogether so far?
It apparently refuses to release financials, or at least I've never spoken to anyone that's seen them. Why? I'll tell you some possible explanations I've heard. According to at least one employee, they've had serious money problems and they don't want anyone to know about it. I heard some time ago from one of them that things were so bad, that they were dipping into payroll funds to put toward the 2257 fight and employees weren't even sure if they were still going to have jobs or not.
I suspect the other reason why is that we'd all blow a goat if we knew exactly how much money some of these attorneys have banked so far.
I have no idea what I've heard is fact and what isn't. That, to me, says more about the lack of information flowing from the organization than anything else.
|
As I am not the ED, I'd suggest that you contact
[email protected] concerning FSC financial and your contact information.
Quote:
2. They suck shitty ass at communicating with their members. Hell, even I, who has raised a ton of cash for them, can't even manage to get a ballot sent to me come "election time", and despite the fact that I've updated my name and address and phone number with them no fewer than 4 times, they STILL have it all wrong from a "data entry mix-up" they made over a year ago.
Their press releases are never timely, and there's never any follow through.
They suck at communicating on the boards (where 99% of their members get their industry new from), to the point where they're bragging that they made a total of 30 posts regarding 2257 since the new proposed regs took effect.
WOW THIRTY WHOLE POSTS JESUS CHRIST SON OF A WHORE THAT MUST HAVE BEEN A LOT OF WORK!
I can fart out more than 30 posts in 10 minutes that are of more substance.
|
Since Tom left for XBiz, we have not had a full-time staff communications person. I have done what I can on GFY, personally; but, I'm have other business interests and family that take away my time from GFY. I apologize and will try to make more comments in the future.
Quote:
|
3. Their membership "subscription levels" are gayer than I am and are about as intuitive as performing cunnilingus.
|
Please feel free to send any suggestions to the FSC offices as they will be appreciated.
Quote:
|
4. I haven't even been able to pay my dues this year assuming I'm suppose to yet (because I have any idea when the hell they're even due), and my 3 separate emails to find out when they are due and how much I owe this year were of course ignored. Did the FSC outsource to Epassporte's Customer Service department?
|
Again, I will pass this on to Diane, the ED, as I believe it is a rather common problem. I suggest you contact
[email protected] with your concerns regarding membership renewals.
Quote:
|
5. They have a total lack of focus. They can apparently barely afford to keep the 2257 lawsuits going, and have not had any success with the fight, yet they're now starting to sing the battle hymn against piracy?
|
Right now, as I understand the situation, the 2257 litigation is temporarily on hold, more or less, awaiting the next move by the DOJ, i.e. the release of the post-comment, revised regulations.
Until the new regs are posted, we don't know how we will be affected as an industry, what particular regs we will challenge, or where the best venue will be for the challenge. Our current challenge is to get the 2257 proposed regs comments of the membership to the DOJ in the next two days. The comments will have an effect on the final regs. The more support our position has in the industry, the more likely we will see favorable regs AND IT IS VERY MUCH A NUMBERS GAME WHEN IT INDICATES INDUSTRY SUPPORT FOR A POSITION.
The FSC information on posting comments is:
http://www.freespeechcoalition.com
Quote:
This isn't like the RIAA or the MPAA where there are only a handful of studios that exist that can all come together to kick pirates' ass (and you see how unsuccessful even they've been). There are THOUSANDS of producers in this industry. If someone steals exclusive content from my little program is the FSC going to go running out to sue the thiefs into oblivion? I think not.
I'm willing to bet this entire initiative would be nothing but a way for a handful of huge dvd producers to save themselves a shitload in legal fees by having all of us pay for their anti-piracy efforts through the guise of an "FSC Initiative". I can smell that a mile a way.
|
There seemed to be quite a few internet adult content producers at the Roundtable who were concerned with theft of their content. I'd say the problem is industry wide, excepting toymakers of course....
As I understand the situation, the FSC will be providing support for the adult content producer's group that was formed at the Roundtable last week.
Any litigation must be initiated by the content producers who's IPR have been violated. Accordingly, FSC's role will be one of research, support, organization, and coordination between the interests when such activities are requested.
In my opinion, the FSC should continue to endeavor change in the laws that adversely affect our industry as a whole such as the overbroad safe harbor provision of the DMCA, Utah/Michigan email registry, XXX-tld and 2257.
I believe that the FSC and Content Producers should co-ordinate their efforts in both legislation and litigation to maximize the industry's effectiveness dealing with this content theft problem.
I appreciate your support and accept your criticism.