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Old Oct 29, 2010, 03:46 AM
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CHz CHz is offline
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I was writing up this stupidly gigantic post, but I don't really feel like inflicting that on anyone (I am sleep deprived), so here is a summary. Yes this is a summary, imagine how long the real thing was.

#1: I'm voting that we stop using the word "doujin" in this context, because it's caused nothing but confusion and it's not really what we're talking about anyway: fan arrangements.

#2: My gut solution was Ira's suggestion of chucking the field altogether and adding a bootleg checkbox and "fan arrangement" classification. Not perfect, but with the gray areas we're working with I don't think there is a perfect. It is better, which is what's important.

#3: Thinking about the "Publication" idea, I think that could work too, if we can apply it on a track-by-track basis like Classification and change the name to something better like "Licensing" or "Copyright." There is overlap with Classification, because copyright by definition involves content, but I think it's probably a distinct enough concept to stand on its own because legal status isn't actually content. It's a bit more overhead, but it strikes me as a bit cleaner than splitting up the legal stuff. Putting "fan arrangement" into Classification isn't ideal anyway because, unlike everything else in the category, it implies more than just the content of the audio.

#4: And then the rest of the post was free thinking about ramifications of the above decisions and what we're trying to filter out, becuase I get the feeling we don't really have a firm idea about that besides "them doujins."

#4a: Bootlegs. We want to hide all-bootleg albums, so albums with the bootleg checkbox set or whose only licensing status is bootleg are gone. Mixed albums with bootlegged and legit tracks aren't possible with the checkbox, but are possible with a track-by-track field. I can think of exactly one album where this matters: the Marginal Sound Track.

#4b: Fan arrangements. "Fan arrangement" seems kind of specific to me for a legal status, but "unofficial derived work" is hella wordy and that's really what we're talking about anyway. We obviously want to hide fan arrange albums (albums with only that classification, or albums with only that copyright status). What about fan arrangement + original work albums? There are a lot of them, but I can't really imagine that someone who isn't interested in fan arrangements would be interested in a fan arranger's original works. Fan arrangement + original soundtrack albums? We probably want to show those, though. And what about albums that are simultaneously fan arrangements and original soundtracks?

#4c: Original works. Completely original albums by doujin groups are currently hidden if you're filtering on "Doujin/Indie." Either solution to the publisher problem would show them, because they're not fan arrangements. Is this what we want? The Synergy albums are hidden by the current system, which is probably not an intended consequence. But trying to quantify what makes them special is a minefield surrounded by another minefield so I dunno.
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