's recent journal entry reminded me of something I wanted to ask from the community, namely how to handle deviations that very obviously show illegal acts, but don't seem to directly violate the terms of service. I reported a deviation quite some time ago, but to no avail... I don't want to post a link here, not wanting to give the pic more popularity, so send me a PM if you want it.

It's a photo, depicting the front of a subway train covered in graffiti, including the lower half of the windshield. The "artist" is posing next to the train, which is standing in a depot. They broke into the depot, smeared their crap onto the train in a way that it's unuseable without cleaning, put this photo onto DeviantArt. And DeviantArt says: That's perfectly okay. Well I don't think so. The user in question has many other shots in his gallery, showing mostly German trains full of their shit.. I mean, "art". Sorry for being so harsh, but if it's not yours, and you smear paint onto it, it's vandalism. I'd love to see their faces if I'd come into their home and smear their windows in black paint, as that's just what they do.

What should I do? The TOS state:

You agree not to use the Service:

1. for any unlawful purposes;

2. to upload, post, or otherwise transmit any material that is obscene, offensive, blasphemous, pornographic, unlawful, threatening, menacing, abusive, harmful, an invasion of privacy or publicity rights, defamatory, libelous, vulgar, illegal or otherwise objectionable;


The photo as such is not unlawful, but the action shown therein certainly is. Would it be offensive? It surely is to me. Is it menacing? Could be. But it doesn't seem to fit any of these categories, which is the main problem I think. Surely, there has to be a way to stop these people from using DA to spread their vandalism?

Sadly, I often feel that this is just not the case. Sites like YouTube hunt down people who infringe copyrights in a way that makes me think that it's similar to shooting a kid for throwing away a candy wrapper. Yet, the site is full of graffiti videos, showing how those assholes gain illegal entrance to maintenance facilities, or pull the emergency brake so they can deface a train's side. YouTube doesn't seem to do anything, not one Video that I reported got deleted. To me, this sends the message that it's perfectly okay for them that people spread their videos of obviously illegal and harmful actions on their site. But if there's some unlicencensed background music in some kid's video, we jump at it. If you can see a tit, we jump at it. Kinda makes me sad...


But, let's look at the positive sides of life: Endeavour will hopefully be able to depart without problems today. Good luck to all of them, those who fly, and those who make it possible for them to fly up into the heavens.

EDIT: Fuck, the launch was scrubbed again... Now I'll probably miss it, as I can't stay up that long during before university days...