February 12, 2008
Airliners.net;
Crash and Burn?
 by
Phil Derner, Jr.
At airport perimeters, online message boards and social gatherings
everywhere over the weekend, aviation enthusiasts were talking about
the new Terms of Use posted on Airliners.net. Demand Media, the
new owners of the site, closed business Friday with these new rules
for the photos in their database, which are to "grant Airliners.net
an irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive
license to use, reproduce, modify, transmit, distribute, publicly
perform and display," the photos, and also let everyone know
that, though "it is our general policy to include your name
alongside your Content, we are not obligated to do so."
I've always said "For whatever you don't explain, people will
be left to assume the negative." However, there is no misunderstanding,
no misinterpretation, and no confusing the verbiage of the new Terms
of Use. It flat out gives Airlienrs.net the ability to do whatever
the please with the work of thousands of shooters, many of whom
have spent thousands of dollars and countless hours generating their
passion-filled photographs.
The response was more than the typical few threatening to pull their
shots. I never seen such a backlash like this before. It was a full
call to arms of photographers, threatening to pull literally, and
perhaps beyond a hundred thousand shots. Thankfully, and obviously,
Demand Media's Paulo Emanuele, DM's General Manager, pulled the
new TOU while they "rework" it, only after several days
of outrage.
I have always been a supporter of Airliners.net. I've given them
the due credit for taking charge of the hobby after the unleashing
of the internet. I've also backed the site during mini-rebellions
after long-winded rejection complaints, server downtime, and of
course, the transfer of ownership from Johan Lundgren to Demand
Media. I tried always to remain positive; to instill a little bit
of hope that a photo rejection is not the end of the world, that
server trouble can be expected following a site-move, and that the
future of our hobby would be bright in light of a changing of the
guard. I tried to help show people the view of the administrator,
and what it's like to run a community in our hobby.
However, I have to say that this time around, I've become a little
concerned, and then some. I believe them when they say that it wasn't
their intention to really steal the rights of the pictures from
anyone. I certainly do not question that. Though the words themselves
will be changed and something much more appropriate and protective
for the tens of thousands of photographers will probably be placed
on the site, I'm troubled because of several things that we learned
and that occurred over the past few days.
The first major problem was that the screeners and other crew had
no idea that this was happening. It truly frightens me that this
was as much of a shock to them as it was to the rest of the world.
Volunteers or not, they are a huge part of the operation of the
site and they need to be aware of what's going on so to represent
the site to the masses. It's disrespectful to them and their efforts.
The biggest slap in the face was their explanation was that their
legal department had spent weeks preparing it and upon completion,
just wanted to get it out there to get some feedback. This is insulting
to us all, because this "new" TOU is almost a straight
copy-and-paste from other sites in their network. Someone in "legal"
had better explain why it took a month to hit "Ctrl + C".
In addition, if they merely wanted feedback, then they could have
easily made a post on a message board saying "Hey guys….let
me know what you think," instead of "Here it is…it's
effective March 8th." Are we really supposed to buy that?
I am a very forgiving person. Perhaps a fault of mine is that I
give people the benefit of the doubt too much and that I give too
many second chances. Just like when Airliners.net posted some aviation
t-shirt ideas, one of them being NYCAviation's "Ride a widebody
without being teased" phrase. Upon notifying them that this
was our idea, it was explained to me that they merely read it off
the message board, didn't realize it was from our site, and they
had no intention of producing the shirts. All the while, the previous
sentence on the message board said that it had come from our site.
How convenient. I looked past that and continued to offer support
on my site, and on theirs.
One of the things that are starting to tire me are the attempts
by Demand Media's staff to convince us all that they are enthusiasts
just like you and I. At the end of his first reply, Paulo explained
that he'd have replied sooner, but he was at the Confederate Air
Force Museum with Dad. I'm not doubting his explanation, and I think
that's very sweet and special, but when you're replying to all of
us who are concerned that our creative works are about to be yanked
from a site we've supported for years, we don't care what you were
doing…we just want the problem addressed. And it wasn't truly
addressed with that post. It was a "Sorry, we'll get back to
you Monday".
I can understand them for wanting to relate to the members, though.
They are a previously unknown company run by previously unknown
people who took over a large but tightly-knit community with the
sole intention of creating a profit. We aren't going to just wander
blindly towards anyone, and they know that we need to approve of
and accept them as a "leader" in the hobby.
Demand Media is a business. Are we supposed to get angry because
someone wants to make money off of our hobby? Of course not. NYCAviation
is a business. But, any money we bring in goes right back into the
site. It wasn't my plan to create a profit when I started this 5
years ago, and I pay for much out of my pocket…on an airline
salary.
But do I expect and plan to make money in the future? Yes, I do.
In fact, I have every intention of making enough from NYCAviation
and its upcoming projects so that I can support myself comfortably.
I plan on doing this full time and living off of it. Why? So that
I can spend even more time on the site, for the hobby. My goal is,
was and always will be to contribute to the betterment of the hobby
of aviation enthusiasm, regardless of how much money I am, or am
not, making.
No matter how much Demand Media employees like airplanes, they need
to prove themselves, because we aren't buying it. Airliners.net
is not the owner of aviation enthusiasm, but they play a major role
for so many who practice their passion through their domain. Those
people need to be taken care of, and as long as profitability is
the first thing on their mind….the hobbyists are going to
lose every single time. Show us that you're looking out for us,
and that our hobby is more than just a run-down home that they want
to turn for profit. Though he never showed his face, we must ask
ourselves…WWJD; What would Johan do?
Our hobby exists for our enjoyment, not for us to be jerked around.
Make your voice heard. Make your opinion and your feelings known
by what you type after the "www.".
Contact Phil Derner, Jr. at phil@nycaviation.com.
Discuss this editorial on the message boards HERE.
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