Strange, nasty matter, Rocking's site closure.
I understand Rocking was popular with many users, since he collected clips and offered a ready, easy way to download them.
I didn't particularly like his site's layout, nor the way he added or deleted clips with little warning, on a whim. He went on like a month without updating, and then rotated clips twice or thrice in a row, giving barely enough time to learn of the update.
Why am I telling this, especially now his site is gone? Shouldn't I join people "mourning" the loss?
Well, I try to think about it clearly.
Rocking added copyrighted clips. And advertized his site on TMF, where producers are quite active.
Willingly or not, he was bound to clash with them, eventually. I don't know if producers really had him close the site down - by legal means - or just he felt too much pressure, and decided to go.
I don't know why he opened his site, to start with: out of generosity? To become popular? To preserve rarer clips? For fun?
I don't know if he should have sided with producers, in the end - but he's become a kind of martyr for many users, and that is bad for community.
Please, think about it: even this site is paid by producers; TT can't afford to pay everything out of his wallet. A certain quota comes from Ads. I know free is nice, but bandwidth, web traffic and hosting cost money. Producers partially cover those expenses.
I'm not saying I love everybody and I like any and every producer that advertizes here or on TMF, nor I'm saying that I like any and every people involved with TMF.
I have no opinion about boycotting the producers. I realize they cover part of the expenses, and if they feel that money is wasted, they might decide to withdraw fundings.
On the other hand, those producers live on the business they make on these forums too, so if they alienate people, they jeopardize their business as well.
I don't know what the offending clip really was: I don't want to be involved in this discussion more than I presently am, nor I want to be sued because somebody with trigger-happy lawyers feels slighted by my faulty memory. 🙂
But I still feel Rocking led his site the wrong way: he wanted to make it too public, and didn't realize some people take copyright laws very seriously - the whole matter revolves about that: Rocking placing copyrighted clips on his site.
Were producers too greedy? I don't honestly know, but since law was on their side - and yet, as far as I know, none of them openly threatened Rocking with legal actions - I don't understand why he chose self-exile.
I think it only caused more ill than good, and added a small rift in relationships between producers and prospective customers.
I'll stop with this unsolicited lecture; I don't usually refuse freebies, but I realize a gift is rarely such.
Reg's.