Madoka: The Wind Does Not Respect A Fool (Patreon)

Captains and up got a link to the last Madoka episodes on Tuesday, so some of them no doubt noticed that Wednesday, Episode 12 was blocked. My normal policy has always been to fix whatever annoyed the bot and reupload, but there are cases where they want to move something both clearly essential and clearly, undeniably, fair use. In those cases, I submit a challenge. I don't do it often, and this is only going to encourage that.

In this case, it was so obviously fair use and so essential to the discussion of the episode that I challenged it. I figured it was airtight. Nope. Because there's no independent third party that decides what happens, it's all decided by the original copyright holder. This is essentially the same as that situation in National Lampoon's Vacation when, as Chevy Chase is being robbed by the mechanic, the mechanic shows his sheriff's badge, the power is placed entirely in the hands of someone who has every reason to screw you and nothing to stop them. This not only effectively put an end to the matter, it led to my first copyright strike in ten years.

So, first thing about it is that Madoka 12 isn't going up this week. I don't know when it will, but I'm too bitter for that right now. It also puts me in a rather uncomfortable position. Should I pull down the eleven videos and move them to the anime channel in order to make sure that, now that they have learned of this like the Borg, they might decide to eliminate everything else, and that's all the whim needed to eliminate my 15 year old channel? It seems the most logical move, but I detest the idea of that. Like most decent people, I have an innate dislike of bullies. At the same time, what good is served by risking everything? If the channel goes down, what have I accomplished? I would be like that warrior Kahless spoke of that insisted he would make the wind respect him, only to learn "the wind does not respect a fool."

I guess I've already made the decision, haven't I. The same one I made when Paramount pulled this with Star Trek ten years ago: move it out before I'm tossed out with it. Ugh.

I'm an incredibly lucky person. I never forget the fact that as frustrating as these things have been over the last eight years, these are just setbacks, and don't imperil what is, for me, my dream job. But they are frustrating. I mean, what a happy problem to have that people so like what I have made that they are asking when I'll fix it so they can watch it again. It irritates me that the situation is such that I can't, at least, not quickly. This is the problem at the center of it. Contrary to how it might look, I would much rather move forward instead of looking back. I wanted to continue the Inquisition/Fallout 3/New Vegas. I wanted to finish the work on Elantris I've been fiddling with for eight months now. I wanted to start new series that have been waiting way, way too long. 

I think the reason I spend all my personal time on my book is to just have one thing that I know is completely mine, that no soulless corporation can take away from me on their whim. The one thing that, when I finish building it, the wind will have no choice but to respect.