# Reverend Mykeru banned. SDMB Pit vultures rejoice. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 26, 2003, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reverend-mykeru-banned-sdmb-pit-vultures-rejoice/157718 "2003-02-26T20:13:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![Sauron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sauron)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reverend-mykeru-banned-sdmb-pit-vultures-rejoice/157718/282 "2003-02-28T22:16:36Z")
**Ogre** , I’m not sure **Reverend Mykeru** can hide behind the Fair Use provisions, since the Supreme Court ruling in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music specifically says “Section 107, which provides that “the fair use of a copyrighted work . . . for purposes such as criticism [or] comment . . . is not an infringement . . . ,” continues the common law tradition of fair use adjudication and requires case by case analysis rather than bright line rules. The statutory examples of permissible uses provide only general guidance.” In other words, “fair use” is determined case-by-case. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reverend-mykeru-banned-sdmb-pit-vultures-rejoice/157718/283 "2003-02-28T22:18:57Z")
> [@](#): > > He could have been here purely to collect fodder for that pissant webiste of his. Or am I just being paranoid again? 🙂 Indeed you are, since I’m sure there’s plenty of stuff to make fun of on the internet without having to subject oneself to abuse. > [@](#): > > Possibly Ogre, too – I forget whether he said he’d communicated with him via e-mail. Yep. I’ve emailed him once or twice. > [@](#): > > Now THIS is the funnier than any of the insulting crap Mykeru spewed. What? He didn’t edit posts, he didn’t skip crucial parts of arguments. He left things in their original contexts, and even linked directly to the threads in question, so, if one were masochistic, one could go relive the entire thing oneself. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reverend-mykeru-banned-sdmb-pit-vultures-rejoice/157718/284 "2003-02-28T22:23:49Z")
**Ogre** , that was same sort of joke that attracted his attention to me in the first place. This time I made sure to include the smiley. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reverend-mykeru-banned-sdmb-pit-vultures-rejoice/157718/285 "2003-02-28T22:25:38Z")
Oh good heavens, **Sauron**. It’s not like **Mykeru** ripped tons of Chicago Reader material off the website, claimed it as his own, sold it, and used the profits to buy out Cecil Adams’s contract. He took a few posts, criticized the hell out of them, and gave them proper attribution. Good luck wringing a case out of that. ---
**Author:** ![Sauron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sauron)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reverend-mykeru-banned-sdmb-pit-vultures-rejoice/157718/286 "2003-02-28T22:31:16Z")
Hey, I’m not a lawyer. On the one hand, you’ve got an admonition at the bottom of every SDMB page that says you can’t republish or repost anything written here without express written permission. On the other, you’ve got a Supreme Court decision that says everything is judged on a case-by-case basis. I don’t think I’d want to try to argue the reverend’s position. I don’t see anything on this page that says I can reproduce it as long as I don’t “claim it as my own, sell it, and use the profits to buy out Cecil Adams’ contract.” ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reverend-mykeru-banned-sdmb-pit-vultures-rejoice/157718/287 "2003-02-28T22:35:49Z")
you keep using the word ‘abuse’ here. bottom line - he got called names over the internet by a bunch of people he didn’t know at all and have never interacted w/before. yet, **december** gets pitted so often he must feel like an olive, its’ such a standard that it’s damn near the level of ‘gotcha ya’ line here or JDT references. **Jersey Diamond/Joe\_COol** currently have two pit threads dedicated to them (even tho’ it’s only **Joe’s** name in the title), and people routinely tell them they’re evil, loathsome people, their child(ren) are pitied etc; many of the gay posters here get to hear over and over how loathsome they are, that they’re going to hell etc etc etc. and all of this is from folks we’ve interacted for longer. and all of them have managed to not commit self assisted banning. Some stranger once called me a bitch IRL. I laughed and walked away. When some one I’d thought was a friend did so, it bugged me. he was called bad things by folks he didn’t know, some folks he didn’t know treated him rudely. Others did not. has anyone found a response from him directed to some one who extended any support?? Or were all of his posts either non directed or directed venom? there were posts that supported him and or his POV. again - seemed (and continues to seem) to me that he got exactly what he wanted to from here. I didn’t get the idea at all that being called names or having folks jump in his shit bothered him in the least, but rather gave him an opportunity to fling his own brand of insults back. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reverend-mykeru-banned-sdmb-pit-vultures-rejoice/157718/288 "2003-02-28T23:00:46Z")
> [@](#): > > On the one hand, you’ve got an admonition at the bottom of every SDMB page that says you can’t republish or repost anything written here without express written permission. Look! I’m carrying around a poster that says anything you say to me in my home becomes my property, and you can’t have any anyhow and I’m taking my ball and going to my room, so poop on you. Does that mean that I can make it stick? Uh uh. Why on earth do you think a messgae board legal notice trumps Fair Use law? > [@](#): > > On the other, you’ve got a Supreme Court decision that says everything is judged on a case-by-case basis. Ayup. That’s why it’s called “case law.” All legal cases are judged on a “case-by-case basis.” The question is, why do you think he can be sued for using a series of posts (many of which were defamatory) from a public message board as a mode of redress on his own website, especially since he uses proper attribution (not to mention the fact that this is the INTERNET. Guess Instapundit, et al. better watch their step.) ---
**Author:** ![Sauron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sauron)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reverend-mykeru-banned-sdmb-pit-vultures-rejoice/157718/289 "2003-02-28T23:08:25Z")
Just out of curiousity, **Ogre** , can **Reverend Mykeru** do _anything_ wrong in your estimation? > [@](#): > > Why on earth do you think a messgae board legal notice trumps Fair Use law? I don’t. But I’m intelligent enough to realize that Fair Use law isn’t absolute. As you so astutely noticed, it’s adjudicated on a case-by-case basis. Which means a message board legal notice could indeed trump Fair Use law, depending on the case. Is that a difficult concept for you to comprehend? I assume that if an information provider on the Internet explicitly says “we own everything on this site, and you can’t use any of it unless we say so” they mean it. I guess I’m just funny that way. In case you didn’t notice, over in Cafe Society they’ve explicitly asked people not to post the complete lyrics of songs to avoid any such complications. I dunno, **Ogre** , I guess I’m just an abide-by-the-rules kind of guy. I see no reason to attempt to flaunt them, as both you and the reverend seem to want to do. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reverend-mykeru-banned-sdmb-pit-vultures-rejoice/157718/290 "2003-02-28T23:12:16Z")
Ah, I see. Because I don’t think he has done anything wrong, I’m a “flaunt-the-rules” kinda guy. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Robb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a183cd/32.png) [@Robb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robb)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reverend-mykeru-banned-sdmb-pit-vultures-rejoice/157718/291 "2003-02-28T23:15:39Z")
> [@](#): > > The question is, why do you think he can be sued for using a series of posts (many of which were defamatory) from a public message board as a mode of redress on his own website, especially since he uses proper attribution (not to mention the fact that this is the INTERNET. Guess Instapundit, et al. better watch their step.) One thing to consider is that if you are invoking fair use provisions of copyright law, you are admitting that you infringed a copyright. This would be a factor in favor of suing. Fair use is a defense to infringing, and if you begin by using it you’ve already yielded on the most important part of an infringment case. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reverend-mykeru-banned-sdmb-pit-vultures-rejoice/157718/292 "2003-02-28T23:22:22Z")
Ah, so I suppose you guys are as upset about all the excerpts, snippets, and pieces of web pages that get posted here on SDMB from other websites, right? Cause those websites have copyright notices too. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2003, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reverend-mykeru-banned-sdmb-pit-vultures-rejoice/157718/293 "2003-02-28T23:25:34Z")
Jebus, **Sauron** , let it go. I’m no fan of the guy, but if the SDMB PTB decide the **Rev** ’s done something actionable, they know where he is. If he hasn’t, or if it’s not worth their while, why worry about it? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2003, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reverend-mykeru-banned-sdmb-pit-vultures-rejoice/157718/294 "2003-03-01T00:07:04Z")
FTR: I’ve asked the Admins what they think. **Ogre** has it dead-on unless **Rev.** decides to do more than copy snippets. ---
**Author:** ![White\_Lightning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@White\_Lightning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/White_Lightning)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2003, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reverend-mykeru-banned-sdmb-pit-vultures-rejoice/157718/295 "2003-03-01T00:15:08Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by **Tee** _ > I still don’t see a point to this flailing hysteria, and RM’s posts in between were actually somewhat level-headed. The point of the Tool thread was to tell the guy he was a shitty person exactly as the title implied. Says so in black and white…nice revisionist effort though. Make up your mind. Is there a point or isn’t there? Speaking of revisionism, it’s cool how you underline a sentence out of a paragraph and pretend like your pet sentence is the only part that’s there ‘in black and white.’ Try this one on for size: > [@](#): > > That is what we are doing here. We are telling you that you are a shitty debater and a shitty person. (my emphasis) Based on the evidence shown today on this board, that is the only reasonable conclusion. That is what this thread is about. It’s not about whether or not Pat Robertson is a piece of shit. It’s about the fact that some people do believe in sympathy for humankind, for Robertson and for his family, and the fact that you can’t accept that as a valid point of view. Apparently my actual argument was that anyone who agreed with me was a ‘shitty piece of shit.’ OR you could actually read for comprehension, which I know your friend the **Reverend** was always a big fan of, and keep on reading till the end of the paragraph where I explained what I saw as the point of the thread. There’s also the possibility that you could read any of the other of my posts on the first 2 or so pages of that thread explaining and reiterating what my intentions were in starting the thread. But that might be too easy. > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by **Ogre** _ > What? He didn’t edit posts, he didn’t skip crucial parts of arguments. He left things in their original contexts, Puh-leeze. ---
**Author:** ![Avumede](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/avumede/32/7235_2.png) [@Avumede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avumede)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2003, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reverend-mykeru-banned-sdmb-pit-vultures-rejoice/157718/296 "2003-03-01T00:28:29Z")
I just read Mykeru’s web page. I think he has a point. Also think he’s a bit confused about some things. But his point about the SMDB being a bit of a clique, and the moderators being jerks sometime is right on. I think we can help that situation by doing the following simple steps: 1. Remove the post count and registered date on each post. THis is a pointless status indicator, and serves only to highlight when new posters come on board. Also it would get rid of MPSIMS 3000th post parties (or whatever), which is a good thing. 2. The moderators should try be a bit more patient, especially with newbies. In general, the mods do a great service, but sometimes it’s like the NYPD. Sure they can clean up a city, but sometimes an innocent guy gets taken out. If it’s not so easy to tell if people are newbies (which point #1 should take care of), point #2 is more likely to happen. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2003, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reverend-mykeru-banned-sdmb-pit-vultures-rejoice/157718/297 "2003-03-01T00:34:00Z")
and if it’s more difficult to see if some one’s a newbie, exactly how would the mods ‘be more patient with the newbies’ ?? ---
**Author:** ![super\_head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@super\_head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/super_head)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2003, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reverend-mykeru-banned-sdmb-pit-vultures-rejoice/157718/298 "2003-03-01T00:38:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Robb \* > One thing to consider is that if you are invoking fair use provisions of copyright law, you are admitting that you infringed a copyright. This would be a factor in favor of suing. Odd, since it’s listed in the US Code (Sec 107) as a “limitation on exclusive rights” not a “defense of obvious infringement of exclusive rights.” In other words, no exclusive rights have been violated if it is determined it is fair use - so it’s not an admission of guilt, but a counter-position to a charge of infringement. If you accuse me of murder, and I say it’s self-defense, I’m not admitting to murder. I’m not a lawyer, of course, but am reading the US Code as it’s written - other interpretations most welcome. By all this “look at the bottom of the page” crap discussion, it’s like saying that if someone on SDMB engaged in libel against me, I wouldn’t be able to copy the quote in an e-mail to my lawyer. Or that the owners of SDMB could refuse to allow the quotes to show up in court documents if they so chose. I don’t think so. ---
**Author:** ![Avumede](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/avumede/32/7235_2.png) [@Avumede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avumede)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2003, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reverend-mykeru-banned-sdmb-pit-vultures-rejoice/157718/299 "2003-03-01T00:42:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by wring \* > and if it’s more difficult to see if some one’s a newbie, exactly how would the mods ‘be more patient with the newbies’ ?? Because they wouldn’t easily know if they are newbies, therefore they would treat not treat them as potential trolls. Kindness through benign ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2003, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reverend-mykeru-banned-sdmb-pit-vultures-rejoice/157718/300 "2003-03-01T00:46:05Z")
so, you specified that they should be more patient to newbies 'cause you thought they should be more patient with everyone??? ohhhhhhh. I see. ---
**Author:** ![Avumede](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/avumede/32/7235_2.png) [@Avumede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avumede)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2003, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reverend-mykeru-banned-sdmb-pit-vultures-rejoice/157718/301 "2003-03-01T00:55:47Z")
Wring, I’m sorry I don’t understand your point. I think mods are more patient with people who have been around for a while then they are with newbies. This actually is a sensible way to police the a message board, but it is unfair to the newbies. I think if the newbiness of a poster was not pointed out on the left of his post, the moderators would not act like that so much. Which is a good thing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reverend-mykeru-banned-sdmb-pit-vultures-rejoice/157718.md?page=14) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reverend-mykeru-banned-sdmb-pit-vultures-rejoice/157718.md?page=16)