You can argue that that wasn't an attack, but it was most certainly an insult. Just because it is not insulting to you, does not mean it's the same for everyone else. I certainly don't appreciate being called a leech, a bloodsucker and a parasite for engaging in creating something for my fandom (I am predominately a fanartist, but I use graphics to tell a story so you might argue that it's an image based storytelling).
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Originally Posted by DrNefario
Well, I claim he wasn't attacking or insulting anyone. It's a fairly straightforward expression of the strictest view of copyright. How else would you put it? The only real term we have for a violator of copyright is "pirate", which is surely worse (except that it has become massively devalued by being used to mean copyright-violator.)
I certainly expect the moderators here to take the strict position.
Defend against the argument, don't shoot the messenger.
Spindlegirl had edited out her responses by the time I saw that exchange, so I didn't really follow it, but it seemed that it hadn't even occurred to her that it might be illegal. Why is it wrong to suggest that it might be? (It does suggest to me that the law is inadequate, and doesn't really square with a reasonable sense of moral judgement, but that's an issue of changing or clarifying the law, not what the law is.)
Anyway, that's pretty well off-topic. I just thought I needed to say that I didn't agree with the critical voices.
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Or if you want a more explicit example of an insult that was not meant as such, but was committed and perceived as an insult, here's one from my experience of learning English as a foreign language (with apologies to anyone who might some terms insulting):
When we were children and starting to learn English, we were taught that the proper term for an African man or a man of African descent was Negro, and Negress for a woman. So our textbooks had examples such as, "The Negress works very hard. She is washing clothes in the river, and later she will be cooking lunch for her mistress." (where "mistress" meant "employer", not "owner") with many illustrations showing the actions. Years later, I had a chance to speak to some African-Americans, and somehow, the terminology we were taught in school came up. They said it was very insulting to hear such terms applied to them but that they would not take offense because they understood there was no malice behind my words. Even though my insult wasn't deliberate, it was still an insult, and they were clearly hurt by it.
He deliberately called fanfiction writers leeches and parasites. It saddens me that you think this kind of language is a straightforward description of many varied persons who engage in writing fanfiction (but mostly women - fandom is mostly a female space) and don't know how else one would express their disagreement with the view that this is not an illegal activity.