Totally A Real Skeleton

As a resident of the The Netherlands for 6 years, and a citizen for 7, around the beginning of December I always make a little joke about a children's holiday the Dutch have called 'Sinterklaas'. The tradition is as such:

An old Saint from Spain named Sinterklaas arrives in The Netherlands around the middle of November.

After arrival, he has helpers make candy for all the kids while he appears on TV.

On the night of December the 4th, he sends his helpers to give out this children's candy... by breaking into their houses and having them put the candy in the children's' shoes.

Doesn't sound like a bad holiday. Sure, what intelligent person is going to eat food that put in their shoe. But you have to remember that these are kids, and kids can be down right gross. But what is it about this holiday that recently had 90 people in the city of Gouda getting arrested for causing a public disturbance at a Sinterklaas arrival festival?

Ummm, yeah. Zwarte Piet literally translates as 'black Pete'. Now, everyone outside The Netherlands looks at this and says "Holy shit! That's fuckin' racist!". As an outsider looking in, this is nothing more than 'blackface', a make-up style used to make black Americans seem like idiots and less human during the late 19th to the early 20th century. If I was to list how "progressive" the Netherlands is, this sorta thing might shock you even more. A short list of progressive things the Dutch have done include:

Inventions such as the microscope, telescope, pendulum clock, mercury thermometer, audio(cassette)/video tape, the CD, and CD-ROM(the last two being both Dutch and Japanese).

Contributions of Liberal Theory from Dutch individuals like Desiderius Erasmus, Hugo Grotius, Baruch Spinoza, and Johan Rudolf Thorbecke.

"Progressive" laws such as same-sex marriage being legal since 2001, Legal Abortion since 1984 (and taking the 'Morality Acts' into account, abortion to save the life of the mother was allowed since 1911), decriminalization of marijuana possession since 1976, had our first openly gay Member of Parliament in 1977 with Coos Huijsen (Almost had first gay Prime Minister in 2002 with Pim Fortuyn, but animal rights activist, Volkert van der Graaf, assassinated him the 6th of May 2002).

With such a list of how "progressive" the Dutch are, you'd wonder why the hell they would practice such an obviously racist holiday. Even the UN chairperson of Working Group on people of African descent, Verene Shepherd, stated that this holiday was racist back in 2013, and sent a letter to the Dutch government saying they would be investigated by the UN. As an outsider looking in, you can't help but cringe at this obvious display of racial inequality. However, that's the big issue I see. You're an outsider looking in. You see, no culture is perfect. For example, North Korea has some of the most liberal laws pertaining to marijuana use and it's possession. It's not uncommon to find people smoking it in the streets out there. However, it's also not uncommon for people to go missing because the government as deemed them "untrustworthy". Singapore may be one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world along with being one of the ten wealthiest countries in the world in terms of GDP per capita, but it's also ranked at 150th out of 175 nations as countries with proper freedom of the press by the Worldwide Press Freedom Index, and has the world's highest execution rates per capita. We can talk all the shit we want about Hamas-controlled territories in Palestine, but in the West Bank territories, you may not be protected from discrimination and aren't allowed to marry, but being gay has been legally protected since 1951. While you might might think "but that's an Islamic country", secular Turkey, PRofChina and even South Korea have the similar legal stances as West Bank Palestine in regards to LGBT rights. Don't even get me started on how certain foreigners are denied services and other Ethnic issues in Japan.

The point I'm trying to make, is that no matter what culture you look into, there's always something weird or offensive about them to outsiders. Sure, The Treaty of Rome in 1957 ensured equal pay for equal work in Italy, but even today machismo is still prevalent there. Even when visiting Malaysia, I was offended by being asked 'Massage, boss?' by every massage parlor I walked past. But did I voice my offense? Not at all. Just declined their offer and kept walking. And this exactly how I feel how non-Dutch people should view the Sinterklaas holiday. You don't like it, and it's fine. Just decline and keep moving.

The entire holiday is in reverence to a Greek saint named Saint Nikolaos of Myra, patron saint of Children. The archetype of a Moors helper (Zwarte Piet) dates back to as far as 1850, with some speculating that it dates back even further. If one was to stop listening to professional umbrage takers and read about the concept of 'blackface' outside of the US cultural tradition of it, the tradition of it being used by other cultures has fuck all to do with racism. Including the Dutch cutlure.

I understand why it's offensive to Americans, and those with an Americana cultural upbringing. But if I'm to be blunt with my opinion, it's American culture that made it so racist in he first place with the 'danified coon' archetype. Remember that UN person I told you about, saying that the holiday was racist and that the government would be investigated about it? Turns out, she had no right to do so. In fact, a representative of the UN's cultural organization, UNESCO, stated;

"She's just a consultant who abused the name of the UN to bring their own agenda to the media. All the hoopla that Shepherd has caused with her letter is nothing more than a bad move in the game of pressure groups in the Netherlands."

While some people and businesses have decided to give a bit of change to the tradition (e.g.: having multicolored Pieten), most Dutch people are against changing the holiday. It's not that they're trying to go out of their way to offend you like some leftist idiots, or even looking to make this a tradition outside of their own country. (Though, it is practiced in places like Belgium and France.)

The fact remains, is that the holiday has more history to it than most people care to look for. They see something at face value, and if they don't like it, they deem it as offensive and culturally insensitive, while at the same time not realizing the hypocrisy of the cultural insensitivity they're showing by judging something outside of their culture at face value with no real knowledge of the history of the people's cultural or traditions. You can't claim to be someone who's globally-minded and culturally sensitive, while at the same time believing that your own cultural ideas of what is morally and socio-politically right or wrong, should be accepted as canon everywhere you go.

As The Economist put it in 2013;

"For many, even if a year ago he (Zwarte Piet) was not a symbol for Dutch racism, he is now."

Whenever I look at the self-loathing behavior of your average Social Justice Whiner, I can't help but smile. It's part schadenfreude, part lack of pity for these suburban souls. Every day, it's one non-issue or another that ends up getting their literal panties in a twist. They see something that some "poor soul" (read: Professional Umbrage Taker) has deemed offensive, they bitch and moan about how non-progressive or how "ist" it is, and after they're done readjusting their privilege-checking anal beads they go on a massive virtual shouting campaign to publicly shame whatever it was that pissed them off. The funny thing about all this though is that deep down inside their fragile psyche's, unbeknownst to themselves, half of them are just taking part out of self hatred. Why? Because they're taught to. I really don't have to argue much about this. So let me point out a few examples for you. #KillAllMen RadFems have already been making asses out of themselves with #ShitStorm and #BanBossy. But this radical feminist hashtag, that pretty much speaks for itself, has been around just a bit longer. I get that there are plenty of misandrists out there sitting at home in fear because the thought of seeing anything with a penis in close proximity to them might end up causing them to go into fetal position and scream for an adult. But when the misandrist is someone with a penis themselves (but not a chick with a dick), I just have to ask myself "Who did you rape to have so much self-loathing?". It's clear to me that this male has something against themselves to, ironically or not, suggest that killing all members of their own gender is some wonderful solution to all the worlds problems. I mean, if all men are gone, who's gonna mine that coal? White Privilege(or any 'Privilege) Now, I understand that POC (Asians have a lot of white privilege)black people and hispanics in the USofA are kinda still pissed about some of the shit that went down there. I understand the sentiment, but what they don't get, is how belittling it really sounds when you tell someone to 'check their white privilege'. And it's not belittling white people either. To be honest, telling anyone to check any kind of "privilege", well.. Grumpy Cat says it better:

Pretty much that. It's unconsciously telling the person that they are some how better than you because of some illusionary 'privilege'. Worse are the people that actually believe they have some kind of privilege. To be honest, a rather popular YouTuber (who's name I won't mention because I doubt they ever want their name associated with the shit I say)said it pretty clear. The whole idea of social privilege is a pretty 'Ameriocentric'. Where's the white privilege for white farmers killed in South Africa? Where's the white privilege for Irish taken as slaves? No, you don't talk about that, because it didn't happen in your country. To be honest, other conceived privileges can be downright stupid. Thin privilege? Don't even get me started. It's not my fault you're a fatty. And don't blame genetics because all you're doing then is blaming evolution. And evolution is an ice-cold bitch. Evolution says 'ride or die', and she ain't changing the size of the seats for your fat ass.

In the past 48 hours, a #GamerGate supporter has stated on Twitter that he had been forced out of his home by a few women who believed him to be a "internet misogynist" for his support of #GamerGate. According to Twitter user and writer at Revelabs.com Steve Tom Sawyer, at around 1am Los Angeles time, a few female friends of the woman he was dating showed up at his apartment. Shocked that he was there, an altercation started which ended in him being forced out of his apartment moments later.

Steve Tom Sawyer has stated however that the assault was not perpetrated by anti-#GamerGate individuals, however the fact that he is a supporter of #GamerGate did help propel the actions of his said attackers. While he has decided to not comment any further about the altercation, he has said that he's contacted the local authorities and they are investigating the incident. A supposed video of the altercation is said to exist, however only two other individuals on Twitter have claimed to have seen it. As it now stands, it's impossible to validate the claim made by Steve. Until further evidence is given, it's only speculation that this is the first documented case of a physical assault on someone due to their support of #GamerGate. Whether true or not, the story reminds us all of the importance of the personal responsibility we all have in regards to our personal information on the internet. Let's be completely honest. As the debate about Net Neutrality and what happens with our personal information online begins to grow, we need to remember that, whether behind the (illusionary)safety of a computer screen or not, there are people in our world who are batshit crazy. It wasn't too long ago that certain individuals who are against #GamerGate had openly threatened to stab a 10 year old child on Twitter after finding his home address and even claimed it was "justified". Even threats against anti-#GamerGate pundits like Anita Sarkeesian and Brianna Wu should illustrate the necessity of securing your personal information online, if not opting in for complete anonymity. You see, in my opinion, securing your personal information online is a lot like fiscal responsibility. We all expect that we all know what we're doing, but our actions and behaviors prove otherwise. What's more, it's YOUR responsibility, no one else's. Sure, it's nice that your friends and family on Facebook can see what your new telephone number is, or what city you live in now, but unless you set it up in Facebook's privacy settings that only select friends and family can see this info, it's your own fault when others find it and look to use it for all the wrong reasons. Did you share a picture of yourself that's also used in an dating profile where your current city and other information is shared? Same thing. Simply put, you should have been more careful with what you share online. While I myself prefer complete anonymity, but I understand there are people who don't mind their real names and places of work/home address being openly available for professional reasons. But as we can see with Steve Sawyer, this can also back-fire. Some people are gonna claim I'm victim blaming, and I can understand their sentiment. Let me make myself clear. I'm not saying it's right or just what happened to them, but saying "Don't tell me to be more secure with my personal info, tell people not to doxx!" uses the same logic as "Don't tell me how to dress, tell men not to rape!". The more civil men and women among us know that doxxing people and sending them death threats are illegal. I underline civil for a reason. Even when the threat of arrest and legal problems are present, people with malicious intentions and a false sense moral-superiority will often ignore laws to do what they want. It's called criminal contempt. Whether it's threatening someone's life online, or trying to rape someone, both are criminal actions. And criminals are criminals, because they don't listen to the law. So once again, I'm not saying victims of doxxing were "asking for it", but they could have been more careful.

I've been working. What other reason would you expect? I've had to travel a bit for work, and now I'm taking time free from that to get back into what I really want to do. Write. Since this is just a quick update post, thought I'd share a picture I love.

Earlier today, Gamastura’s Editor and Chief Kriss Graft released an article called ‘Losing Our Voices’. I would like to state a head of time, that I do hold a bias against Gamasutra, including other gaming new sites, for their mistreatment and misrepresentation of gamers in the last few weeks. Out of protest, I have “blacklisted” these particular sites, including Gamasutra, and have not given them any traffic or ability to generate per-click ad-revenue from my viewing of their content. The article I read was an archived screenshot, linked to me by Twitter user @The_VVarlock.

Let’s Play Pretend

Let’s say I had been caught in unprofessional and unethical business practices, and evidence had pointed to the possibility that this had been going on for awhile. My readers found out, and called me out on it. If I told you, my readers, a week later that you are all manchildren, scum, and just pathetic wastes of air, would you be angry with me? Of course you would. Now after arguing with you for the past week, I came along with an article that told you “Look, we all had nasty things to say this past week. How about we just let bygones be bygones and get back to how things were, huh?” Would you accept my invitation? Of course you wouldn’t. You’re smarter than this. However, I feel Mr. Graft’s article assumes that we, the gaming community, are gullible idiots.

The Content

Graft’s first false assumption is that “the problems we’ve seen the last few weeks were born out of fear”. If Graft is talking about the accusations of bigotry, misogyny, & racism used by gaming journalists to describe gamers, along with the PR stunt of 10 different articles being printed in a single day declaring the gamer identity “dead”, along with a plethora of nasty comments made on Twitter towards supporters of #GamerGate and #NotYourShield by gaming journalists and developers, then yes. These last few weeks, these people have been acting out of fear. However, gamers were never fearful. We were angry. From the very beginning. Angry at the fact that the same sites that had been pushing their own socio-political agendas down our throat, while claiming to give us “objective gaming news” were involved in shady business practices with each other. We had already speculated as much, but for once, we had proof. And we were pissed. Graft goes on to talk about how we’re all scared of losing our voices. I can understand him and his colleagues being scared of losing their voices. The video gaming industry brings in more than $13 billion a year. Let me put the zeros in this. $13,000,000,000. That’s a lot money. Maybe not as much as the energy industry or porn industry brings in yearly, but a significant number none the less. Graft and his ilk get a mere fraction of that number every year. A fraction so insignificant, that Graft and others could easily be replaced. So it’s absolutely understandable that gaming journalists are fearful of losing their voice. But let me get back to them later.

The second false assumption that Graft makes however, is that gamers are afraid of losing their voice. What Graft forgets however, is that gamers DID lose their voice. While the gaming journalists remained silent to our questions, we went to sites like Reddit, 4chan, and others to vent our frustrations and demand answers. What happened? We weren’t merely censored, we were banned from many of these sites. Why? We were told it was because we were “spreading misogyny”. And when we pointed out that Quinn’s gender wasn’t an issue, and that we wanted to talk about the ethics in gaming journalism, it didn’t matter to these sites and the mass banning continued. Thus, #GamerGate was born (Thank you Based Baldwin).

You’re Starting To Piss Me Off

But what really pissed me off what the following quote: —“What does a “gamer” stand to lose? Again, their voice. What is a “gamer’s” voice? A gamer’s voice is in play. What they play, who they play with, how they play — these are statements of taste, of personal preference, of identity.

As we’ve seen, there are some terrible people who co-opted this fight by using that identity as a weapon. They have no joy, only hate, which drives the way those people act, how they “play,” whose ideals they align themselves with, and how they react to an identity threatened to be taken away from them… And there are many people who have nothing to do with any of the events of recent weeks — including many who don’t even know of this “war” — who are good, decent people, who identify as “gamers,” and want to retain their voice under that banner.”— So let me get this straight. The gamers who are not aware of what #GamerGate and #NotYourShield are about are good, decent people. But the gamers who are actively involved in #GamerGate and #NotYourShild are hateful assholes? Because we want professional ethics policies in place for gaming journalists and an end to the cronyism and nepotism that takes place?

I'll admit it… I’m impressed.

I didn’t think this would happen. I mean, many of us figured gaming journalists would turn to bargaining at some point. But Graft can’t even bargain with the gaming community without letting us know what lowlife pieces of shit we are. I fucking applaud you, Mr. Graft. You’ve certainly outdone even the likes of Ms. Alexander with this one.

Calling Leigh

Graft then goes on to defend Ms. Alexander….(!!!)…. With everything we know of the cronyism in games journalism, I don’t think I need to explain this one.

Developers DO Matter

Graft also talks about game developers’ fears of losing their voices. Frankly, I agree that with many games, they are an extension of a developers personality. But I said ‘many’, not all. Just because games like Battlefield are made, doesn’t mean the developer wants to go around killing enemy combatants for a living. Sometimes a game is made simply to be fun. Developers know people will buy it, because they know what their demographic wants.

Real Intentions

But I feel Graft finally comes to explain why he and his ilk are fearful of losing their voices later in his article with this following quote.

---“If video games don’t go in the direction where some of us want to steer them, we lose our will to speak at all.“---

Here are two innocent questions, that I think all of us should be asking: Who exactly is “some of us”? And where exactly are you trying to “steer games”? Graft. You and your colleagues are GAMES JOURNALISTS. If you wish to be called bloggers, then that’s fine, but you better figure out which you are, and stick with it. It’s not a difficult job. When one is reporting about games, you talk about the controls, the mechanics, the graphics, the storyline, and you give your opinion. No one is completely objective, we get that. But games journalists have taken part in a current trend of looking at games from a Social Justice Warrior and even 3rd wave Feminist epistemology. However, most gamers are fucking tired of that. There’s no objectivity when you’re giving an opinion from only one point of view. This makes your reviews completely biased, and are not only uncreative, but fucking stale. Sure, we let it pass because we couldn’t do much about it. But then the gaming community found out about the unethical behavior of many of the gaming journalists and some gaming devs, and instead of thinking that perhaps your audience deserves and explanation, YOU FUCKING ATTACK US FOR IT. Let me explain very simply why this is stupid. Remember that figure I mentioned earlier? The $13 billion the gaming industry is bringing in yearly? Maybe with your next article, you should think about how exactly that number got so high. Because the same people that helped raise that number for this industry by BUYING AND PLAYING THE GAMES are the same people you’re attacking. My Conclusion

My only piece advice for games journalists, is to pull your heads out of your asses.

With a recent article by Gamasutra's writer Greg Costikyan, I feel I'm understanding the motives behind the anti-#GamerGate crowd a bit better. #GamerGate has been pointing out multiple issues within the gaming journalism scene, and it's involvement with indie-game development. Some will point to the nepotism, the cronyism, the SJW narrative pushed by their contributors and supporters. However, I personally see something more. I myself have issues with Costikyan's article. Many pointed out that his article is so full of White Knighting, it's practically sexist. Costikyan had determined that most gamers read Maxim, women hired to cosplay are “bimbos”, and that female gamers only play Candy Crush and not Call of Duty. What got my attention however, was the four “stories” he told regarding “misogyny of the industry”, and a particular individual he mentions. The Stories The first story he mentions is when he and a female employee are invited to a “strip club at a conference” and were “expected to have a good time”. Firstly, adult entertainment is used by most businesses in the US to conduct business meetings, to the point that you can write off the drinks as a business-expense when you go to a strip club. The second story, Costikyan and Mr. Scherlis were approached by a “scantily clad woman” and it almost sounded like he was insulted by the fact that she was hired to “show him a good time”. He turned this woman down, but that's fine. Don't get me wrong, I respect the fact that he declined due to his involvement with someone he's happy with. There's nothing wrong with that. What I don't like, is how he makes this woman sound less than human for working in adult entertainment. He makes it sound like she was forced to dress as she did, and that she was merely there to be objectified by him and everyone else. Firstly, I kinda laughed at this, because lets face it. IT'S A FUCKING STRIP CLUB. However, I take a lot of offense to this as well. As the critic Maddox recently said, “Just because a person is sexualized doesn't mean he or she loses value as a human being.” His story of the strip club events are so low-quality and biased, it seems like it was written by an insufferable religious puritan rather than someone pushing a social justice narrative. His other stories about his “very gay friend”, scared of being “outted” to his new boss, and his trans-gender friend Danielle, leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I personally don't know what happened, because all of his “stories” are merely cliff-notes and leave out a lot of information. I'm not gonna call him a liar, but I'm taking these stories with a grain of salt. Most people in Human Resources know this little thing called the ENDA. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act. The fact that it's a Federal Law enforced in all 50 states and makes it illegal to discriminate against someone based on race, religion, sexual/gender orientation, gives me a feeling that there's more to these stories than he's telling us. **Update: I'd like to thank @Chriss_m on Twitter for bringing it to my attention that the ENDA is still an Act, and not yet a law as it's waiting to pass the House.** I understand that the narrative Costikyan is trying to convey is to be received on an emotional level. But I'm gonna be a prick and use logic and reasoning. Because if completely true, I really hope that these people filed lawsuits if they were being harassed.

The Unusual Suspects & Strange Happenings (But no Fappenings) The other part that stuck out to me was his mentioning of another key individual of #GamerGate. And before you ask, no. I will be talking about Ms. Sarkisian. She's not important. (Sorry FemFem) “Leigh Alexander is one of the most interesting journalists working in games.” That wasn't even in a paragraph. It stood by itself near the end of the article, like it was thrown in last minute. Leigh Alexander has already been shown to be working PR as well as gaming journalism. Her connections with Maya “Legobutts” Kramer , Zoe Quinn, Patricia Hernandez, and countless others in both the gaming journalism and indie-game development scenes is already under scrutiny by many gamers. What makes it worse is how she has no problem threatening people to fall in line with what she and others want.

Such behavior in a public forum is extremely unprofessional. It makes one wonder why exactly companies and indie-game devs would allow representation from someone who obviously has no problem using their own business connections to ruin someone else's career, simply on the grounds that they disagree with them. Before #GamerGate existed, gamers had already seen evidence of Ms. Quinn using her supporters, such as Legobutts, to undermine and practically destroy the original fund-raiser of The Fine Young Capitalists.

What we're seeing is indie-game devs and other gaming journalists being intimated into keeping their mouths shut, no matter how much they want to speak out against the constant corruption occurring between the same individuals. Sure, they could go to someone else. But who? Anti-Competition And that's the pattern I'm beginning to see. These people are using their professional positions along with nepotism, cronyism, and even intimidation to create an anti-competitive culture. I know that sounds really ludicrous, but think about it. Here we have people with careers that not only inter-lap, but are seemingly helping each other out all the time. It's not just with business and coverage, many of these individuals are also donating to each other via Patreon, Tipjar, and other methods. Actively crushing dissenting views, and threatening to cause problems for people who either speak out or wish not to work along with them. Utilizing the connections they've made, these individuals are capable of creating good, bad, or even no press at all for developers and other journalists, simply depending on whether they like them or not. These practices give them a sort of “monopoly” within their field. Sure, there are plenty of other gaming news sites out there. But the bigger names like Kotaku, Gamasutra, Polygon, and others are interconnected to each other by using these same journalists and PR people. By controlling who gets positive press and who doesn't, they are actively creating a non-competitive market environment. Now, I'm not claiming that any laws are broken. I'm not a lawyer. But these kinds of business practices are extremely shady and, in my opinion, should probably be looked into by people with a much better understanding of law. In Conclusion

As a veteran 4chan troll user of 9 years, I think the internet has finally seen the inevitable. The recent changes to 4chan via introduction of a DMCA policy gives many mixed feelings and some are not entirely sure how to cope. Change is something everything and everyone has to deal with, but sometimes the fear of change isn't about things not staying the way like it, but rather, losing something dear to you. You always wonder how to deal with these changes and what you should do after you've accepted/rejected them. Luckily, we're not losing anonymity, nor are we really losing our free speech. Instead, we're being forced to accept something. We're being forced to accept that 4chan is growing up. But then you have to question, are we losing the 4chan we grew up with?

A Brief (and totally not Canon) History 4Chan has been around since 2003 and was started by moot when he was 15 years old. Since then, the site as seen a lot of changes. Not just many new boards, but a lot of internet history have been made because of this site. I don't think anyone, especially moot, expect so much from an obscure imageboard. The chaotic nature and anonymity culture of the site not only provided people with the ability for fun(albeit often malicious) raids on places like Habbo Hotel and MySpace, but also gave way to the cancerous spreading proliferation of memes, and the creation of the counter-culture movements and activism of Anonymous. We've really watched 4chan grow over the years. And many of us have grown with it. However, I'm not simply talking about aging.

My Personal Experiences When I first learned of 4chan, like most people I started out on /b/. I spent a good year lurking and having fun. After about a year though, I felt /b/ was just... shit. Why? Because /b/ IS shit. /b/ was always shit. But one didn't come to that realization until after being there awhile. Like most children growing up, you start to wonder what else is out there. To this day, I still participate on 4chan, but mostly in threads on boards like /g/, /fit/, /pol/, /v/, and /ck/. (/ck/ is the Food and Cooking board, and for all you Ramen fans out there, I highly suggest you look into this board) I haven't been to /b/ in years, nor do I really care to go back. The point is, is that everyone matures and leaves behind the cancer childishness of /b/'s board culture and looks for something more. Simply put: 4Chan users grow up. With the recent #GamerGate/Gaming Journalism scandal, we've even seen that 4chan users (especially /v/) have become very anti-raiding and anti-doxxing, calling out anyone trying to push for these actions. Whether this comes from them not wanting 4chan being attacked, or because it's against the rules, it's evident that the users have certainly matured in comparison to the early years of the site. They've come to realize that the fun they had before isn't always the most acceptable behavior. So with this maturity, changes have had to be made. The DMCA Was Not Rape The recent DMCA policies were inevitable. The celebrity photo leaks were just the push it needed to have this happen quicker. Let's be honest, a lot of illegal things happened here. The hacking of iCloud was illegal. Don't get me wrong, Apple will not get one ounce of sympathy from me and I still pray for the day they go bankrupt. These celebrities, like everyone, have put their trust in vulnerable corporate servers and have paid the price for it. I really hope it helps people across the internet reflect and bring up more discussion about whether or not cloud-computing/storage is really the way we should be going. But I digress. Corporate servers were cracked (not hacked) into and were exploited. Do I really need to explain how illegal that was? And let's not forget that leaking the personal photos of these celebrities was illegal as well. Especially the nude photos. I personally have not seen these photos, nor do I care to, because frankly I don't give a shit about these celebrities or their boobies. However, leaking nude photos of people, celebrity or not, is already illegal in many places. So of course lawsuits and arrests are soon to follow. Moot doesn't wanna be sued, so he's gonna make sure he puts policy in place to keep this from happening. And the action he's taken reminds us of what we're having trouble accepting.