I am confused about the new ruling on photos. I thought anything that came from a copyrighted site would be barred once the merger was complete. Then I 'thought' it would be possible to open special members only photo sites. Now I have seen the thread "Boytoys Best Cocksucking Photo Contest" with a lot of x-rated photos which are definitely not all original pics and would not have been permitted under the old Gay Guides Thailand site.

This is not a criticism. Merely a request for clarification.

On 3/1/2021 at 10:24 AM, PeterRS said:

I am confused about the new ruling on photos. I thought anything that came from a copyrighted site would be barred once the merger was complete. Then I 'thought' it would be possible to open special members only photo sites. Now I have seen the thread "Boytoys Best Cocksucking Photo Contest" with a lot of x-rated photos which are definitely not all original pics and would not have been permitted under the old Gay Guides Thailand site.

This is not a criticism. Merely a request for clarification.

Yes, I want all of those x photos removed. They will be but there were so many.

Sorry again because I know you have already answered this but I cannot find the thread. Will it be possible for members to have a special site for members who apply to join with non-naked photos like those I posted before? I think your answer is 'No' because someone will own the copyright, but clarification would be great. Thank you.

The board software does have some kind of private clubs facility, but it doesn't have the thread structure where people can post replies, so I think it would be of limited use.

I think there might be some benefit in having a photo forum for members with a large number of posts. 

I don't know if there's any way of defining that as a private club and circumventing copyright rules.   However, if such a thread was only open to members with over 50 posts, the chances of getting caught might be reduced, even if this is not the most ethical stance.

Then legally, if a board member sets up a private club and shares copyrighted photos, is that any different to an invitation only sub-forum?

I was/am a member of a previous BT club. It has been long inactive. Today I can see the member list but I cannot access the content.

Club Owners can set up their area and if set up that threads are not viewed by public, what they do inside of them is up to them. The structure is the same as on this site.

Riobard, Club owners that set up and close an area, stops access to it.

Clubs are a great feature and are quiet underused.

I can't find the new guidelines. Would someone care to post a link, please?

So no way to restore the old Photos thread ? ? 

Since I started going to Thailand in 1987, I have boxes of photos of guys I met. I never took photos of genitals as I did not care for a customs inquiry on arriving home. (In all of my trips though, they never once looked.) A 21-year old guy in 1987 is now 54. Would he really mind if I posted a pic of his face all these years later? Naturally I never asked back then as the internet was still young. What do you guys think? Some darned cute guys, just sitting in a box...

On 3/5/2021 at 11:34 PM, Aikuchi said:

So no way to restore the old Photos thread ? ? 

I hope there is because I kept none of the hundreds I posted. I'm happy to open a club.

Sorry to keep harping on about this, but I still am unclear on the ruling re inclusion of photos in threads or separate photo threads. The Prague thread has some clearly porn pics that were posted in January and February after (I believe) the merge of the sites. I thought all such pics were totally banned both on the old Gay Guides Thailand site and on this new one. 

Also, were the old non-photo files on the Thailand site all destroyed? I just do to have copies of all those I posted.

I know and respect that we were informed there could be copyright issues with photos. But I understood that we could have a private club-like thread within the Board requiring additional membership.

Please can we just have all the rules spelled out in one simple post? Many thanks.

There are forums that allow for photos to be posted that are XXX.  I know there are other threads that have X images in them, and when they are reported or I find them, they will be moved. X photos can be posted in:

Latin America Men Member Only Forum

European Men Member Only Forum

Forums inside the Boytoys, Escorts, Forums - including the Photos Members Only Forum.

No copyrighted images allowed. Do not post anything you do not have the legal right to post. All other images will be deleted. What this means is that if you took the image, you may post the image. If the image has a cc on it, you may not post it. Other images, will be at the discretion of management.

This is a work in progress. Patience please.

6 hours ago, TotallyOz said:

No copyrighted images allowed. Do not post anything you do not have the legal right to post. All other images will be deleted. What this means is that if you took the image, you may post the image. If the image has a cc on it, you may not post it. Other images, will be at the discretion of management.

And there lies much of the confusion. If you are not the photographer who took the photo, and the photo does not have a © I.D., it sure as hell is still copyrighted. Make no mistake about that.

And since U.S. court judges are fighting over the definition of "Fair Use," don't expect Oz or anyone else on this board to define it either.

The bottom line is: If you want to post a photo (or anything else that is published elsewhere), you will put Oz at risk for receiving legal threat. Legal threats can cost money. It seems to me, unless you're willing to finance any legal threat you may cause, it is extremely unfair to impose that burden on the owner of this board.

The whole "copyright" issue is an unfortunate circumstance we find ourselves in. Some people are using "Fair Use" as a weapon to irritate and destroy. If someone wants to legally defend Fair Use, it can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Please tell me, what board owner wants to deal with such threats?

As I write this, I think of the clowns at the other site who are desperately trying to figure out a way to basically steal Daddy's hard drives in an effort to keep that board open. I think someone actually started a Go-Fund-Me, and some idiots are sending money. Just goes to show how stupid some gays are.

6 hours ago, TotallyOz said:

No copyrighted images allowed. Do not post anything you do not have the legal right to post. All other images will be deleted. What this means is that if you took the image, you may post the image. If the image has a cc on it, you may not post it. Other images, will be at the discretion of management.

I presume photos off massage websites etc are allowed ?        This guy seems to think so: 

 

5 minutes ago, z909 said:

I presume photos off massage websites etc are allowed ?        This guy seems to think so: 

 

Since this guy pays the bills, he gets to decide. Right?

With all the free porn available everywhere, I could not care less about pictures. Hopefully, Gayguides is to share info that we cannot find anywhere else.

20 hours ago, Latbear4blk said:

With all the free porn available everywhere

Copyright law is not exclusive to porn photos. The law protects authorship of much intellectual property. If members of an information-sharing forum are confused over what material can be shared openly, a lot of members will feel stifled in their desire to participate. The inability to freely share a lot of "public" information can force a board like this into boredom and relevancy. Not a good formula for success, IMO.

The letter of the law notwithstanding, millions of images are shared across forums like this, across Facebook, Twitter and a plethora of other social media platforms every day.

And notwithstanding rules of particular forums like this (I am a member of a few nowadays and they all have their own rules), I have three personal 'rules' of my own when including pictures in any of my social media postings.

First, I never try and pretend that a picture is mine unless I actually took it, or do what some do and trim off any identifying names,

Second, I don't seek to make any money from other people's pictures,  

Third, I will immediately take down any picture on request, and for whatever reason,

 

20 hours ago, Vessey said:

First, I never try and pretend that a picture is mine unless I actually took it, or do what some do and trim off any identifying names

Pretending to be the owner of copyrighted material is fraud. Removing I.D. information from copyrighted material and then re-posting it is illegal. If a member of this board chooses to do these things, it is Oz who has to pay the price since he is the site owner. If Oz wants to legally go after the asshole member who put him in this position, then that will cost him further. If Oz wants to submit the offending member's information to authorities, there may be those ramifications as well.

20 hours ago, Vessey said:

Second, I don't seek to make any money from other people's pictures

While you may have no financial stake in posting copyrighted material, that does not mean the owner of this site can make the same claim. As long as the owner is making advertising dollars on the website's he owns (or any kind of income), I'm sure the government will view that as a for-profit venture. It is illegal to make one penny off of copyrighted material without written permission from the author/creator.

20 hours ago, Vessey said:

Third, I will immediately take down any picture on request, and for whatever reason

If Oz (or any board owner) receives a DMCA violation, he has to take the time to find the photo and delete it. If the owner is not a techie who understands code, he has to hire someone who does understand. The owner also has to contact the member who caused the violation, and deal with whatever comes after the altercation occurs. Time is money. Imagine dealing with only ten violations, and communicating with ten members who are pissed and feel personally affronted.

It is obvious to me, some gays think that running a board like this is a piece of cake. Simply pay the Domain Name registration and the hosting service every month and you're done. Home free. The escort-loving family, or "community" can just continue to go on as if no one is responsible. Well, here's news: the owner of every board in the U.S. is legally responsible for the content. If an owner can't afford a good lawyer, a good IT person, and can't afford to defend himself from any and all incoming threats, he probably shouldn't start a controversial site.

What a disheartening and discouraging post; it's a wonder that anyone would ever try and run any forum yet alone a mongering forum,

And yet Oz  does.

Now Oz and I have crossed swords in the past over posts in this section of the forum, and I don't always agree with all the rules of his forum, but the fact remains is that it is his forum, and yes he has a responsibility for running the forum, and its often a seemingly thankless task; so it is entirely right that he sets the ground rules and we either comply or move on.

But at least he has the balls to run a forum, and many of us get pleasure, news and information from reading and taking part in it.

Getting the balance right between encouraging new posts and new members, and at the same time keeping us all within his boundaries (and feeling that it's all worthwhile), must be an unenviable task.

So for me he should be thanked and encouraged.

 

5 hours ago, Vessey said:

What a disheartening and discouraging post

Wasn't it Chaucer in the 1300s who coined the idiom "all good things must come to an end?" It's moments like these when I miss Adam Smith.

5 hours ago, Vessey said:

it's a wonder that anyone would ever try and run any forum

That's a bit dramatic. Comparing "any" forum to one specifically designed to discuss, review, share tea, dirt, and photos on escorts, an illegal activity in the U.S., is totally naive, way beyond normal thinking.

The days of Hooboy are LONG GONE. Twenty-years later, the porn world has changed. Thanks to Jeffrey Hurant's greedy hubris and self-serving behavior (most of it illegal), the RENTBOY.com catastrophe is now our recent history. And thanks to the rise of conservatism in the U.S. (hello Supreme Court), linking our sexual freedoms and our love of adult escorts to SEX-TRAFFICKING and MONEY-LAUNDERING has become way too easy and troublesome, even for the little, overweight man in his basement with a forum-making dream.

There is no more easy money to be made from porn advertisers, especially the gay ones. In many ways, escorting is transitioning elsewhere, especially to OnlyFans, forced by Covid. These days, it takes more than passion to run a site like this. You need super-thick skin, a lot of free time, deep pockets, and a host-server outside the U.S. And then you have to be comfortable with spending money on a stubborn group of people who may not actually appreciate the effort or even know or care what the effort entails. All most gay members care about is their free-speech rights, while someone else is footing the bill.

5 hours ago, Vessey said:

So for me he (Oz) should be thanked and encouraged.

+1

You often don't know what you have until it's gone.

 

is this US-based?

 

On 4/21/2021 at 1:01 PM, Aikuchi said:

is this US-based?

It looks to me like the server is located in Amsterdam.