Showing posts with label Support. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Support. Show all posts

Sunday 29 May 2022

We Should Take Care of Each Other




“ We should Take Care of each-other…

Wouldn’t it be nice to be like, 
Remember that time,
They wuz’ gonna Kill Jesus 
but then He got 
all that Money?

[laughing] 

Real Talk, man. It’s not a racial thing. 
It’s about Us, making 
Our Society better. 

It’s about like even 
these women that 
are coming forward
and everyone says "They’re Brave."
and many of them are. 

And a few of them – a few of them sucked The Dick and got 
buyer’s remorse. 

[laughing]

You know, that’s a huge omission from This Narrative : —
This wouldn’t have gone this far 
if some women weren’t willing to DO it. 

You can’t ask every woman 
to Hold The Line. 
Some Women can carry things 
heavier than others


So, We should fight 
for one another. 

We should forgive 
the ones of us 
that are weaker and 
support the ones of us 
that are stronger

And then we can beat The Thing. 
If you guys keep going 
after individuals
The System is going 
to stay intact. 

You have to have Men 
on Your Side. 
And I’m Telling You right now, 
you’re gonna have a lot 
of imperfect allies.

I’ll tell you What Happened
but I can’t say it directly

There’s a book to me that encapsulates my entire experience -- before I left The Show. 

And the book is called 'Pimp'
It’s written by a guy named Iceberg Slim. 

Yeah, bring it up here. 
This is Matthew. 
Matthew’s from France. He’s White. 
And yet, he has an 
original copy of 
this book 
written by a black 
American who was 
a pimp in the ’40s. Iceberg Slim. 

His real name was Robert Beck -- 
He got the name 'Iceberg' because he was in a bar in Chicago
and there was a shootout in the bar, 
and a bullet went through this n i g g a’s hat, 
and he still finished His Drink. 

Pimps love shit like that. 

They said, “Man, 
You’re Ice-Cold.” 

And he said, “I Like that.” 
And it stuck.

This book is so heavy in the front and has a glossary of pimp terms, because the ideas are so foreign to the American ears. 

For instance, do you know what the phrase 
“mileage on a ho” means? 

[laughing

Of course you don’t. 

Mileage on a ho is a very wild concept. 

It means that, 

Pimps understand there’s a finite amount of bad shit a person can do before they lose their fucking mind

And a good pimp can 
look at A Woman 
that he’s never seen 
before, and Call it : 
"She’s Good for 500 fucks.
That’s her mileage
Anything over that, 
that bitch is gonna spill

They Do it to You -- 
Why the fuck you think most of us work from nine to five
Cause nine to six 
might kill a bitch. 

[laughing]

Iceberg Slim was the one 
that broke down what 
A Bottom-Bitch was. 
Does anyone know what a
Bottom-Bitch is? Anyone? 

What’s a Bottom-Bitch, sir? 

"It’s your, uh– 
it’s your prostitute 
that’s the best out 
of all of ’em
that bring in the 
most money."

That’s right. That’s exactly right. Are you Black? 
[laughing] 

That’s right
A Bottom-Bitch is a pimp’s Number-one Ho. 

She’s even a bitch 
that helps him keep 
the other bitches 
in Line. I will repeat

She’s even the bitch 
that helps him 
keep the other 
bitches in line. 


If The Pimp was McDonald’s
then the Bottom-Bitch is his French fries. [laughing] 

The rest of them bitches like fish sandwiches and 
cherry pies and 
shit like that. [laughing]

Iceberg Slim breaks down 
some of the coldest 
Capitalist Concepts I’ve 
ever heard in My Life

He describes in detail how
 these men break women so that 
they will give them the money 
that they make with their own bodies. 

There’s A Story in here so cold
it makes me shudder 
to think about it -- 
Iceberg Slim is trying to Control The Woman that 
he finds uncontrollable

So he asks an older pimp how he can rein her in. 
And the older pimp says, 
“Oh, that’s easy, Iceberg -- All you have to do
is beat that bitch with 
a coat-hanger -- and then 
run her a bath -- and 
give her some pills.... 

She’ll be so grateful 
that You Fixed her
that she’ll forget 
You were The Motherfucker 
that beat her in 
the first place.” 

That’s some cold shit.

Now. At the end of this book, Iceberg Slim tells A Story. It’s kind of the crescendo of the book. 

And in The Story, 
Iceberg Slim’s bottom bitch is at the end of her mileage -- If she was good for 500 fucks, she was at for 498. 

[laughing] 

She was bubbling, you could see it. She was going crazy. 
She started saying all kinds of shit. 
“I always wanted to be in The Circus.” 

"Circus..!? This bitch is losing it." 

[laughing] 
“I can juggle, too, you know?” 

Juggle? 

[laughing] 

He had to let her go. 

It was hard to let a bottom bitch go, 
and he wasn’t ready to let her go
because his organization couldn’t handle losing her. 

But she didn’t know that. 

She didn’t know how important she was. 

So what he did was, he called her to ignite her -- 
He said, “Look, bitch, you and I got to part ways.” 

She said, 
“Fine, motherfucker, I don’t need you anyway, 
because I know somebody at Ringling Brothers.” 

He was like, 
“All right, whatever." 

[laughing] 

"I got one last trick for you. It’s a big money trick. 
You do this for me, 
You get paid, I get paid, 
and we go our separate ways.” 

She said, 
Fine, motherfucker, what do you want me to do?” 

He said, 
“Okay, there’s a guy in that hotel across the street --
He’s waiting for you in room number seven : 
I want you to go over there and fuck him....

But before you do, I need you to 
put some of this stuff in his drink. 
And then he’s gonna fall asleep. 

When he does
his briefcase on his bed, 
bring the briefcase to me. 

That’s the trick, bitch. Can you handle it?” 

She said, 
“Fuck yeah, I can. I can’t wait to get rid of you.” 

And then she ran outside, 
jumped on a unicycle and peddled across the street. 

[laughing] 

And Iceberg watched her. He’s like, 
“Man, she’s pretty good.” 

[laughing] 

“If I never jerked off in her face, 
maybe she would’ve been in The Circus, now.” 

[laughing] [laughs]

And she runs up the motel steps 
and disappears in room number seven. 


She’s gone for a real long time. Real long time. 

So long, in fact, that Iceberg got a little worried. 

But then, suddenly, she came back. 

[gasps] 

He says, 
“Where’s the briefcase?” 

She said, 
“I didn’t get it, Daddy.” 

“What do you mean you didn’t? What’s wrong with you?” 

She said, 
“I did everything you said, 
but that man don’t look right -- 
Something Wrong, Daddy.” 

“What do you mean? Did you put that stuff in his drink?” 

“I did everything you said, Daddy, 
I put all of it in his drink.” 

He said, 
“Wait a minute, bitch, you put all of it in his drink?” 

Now he had to see for himself. 

So the two of them go to the motel, and they go into room number seven. 

And on the bed laying lifelessly is the white man that she was supposed to fuck. 

Iceberg said, 
“You right, bitch. He don’t look good. What the fuck?” 

So he called a friend of his that was a doctor that was close by. 
And the doctor came in, gave the guy a thorough examination and told them both what was obvious : 
“Slim, this motherfucker is dead.” 

“Oh, God, Daddy. Oh, no. 
Oh, no. We killed him!” 

He said, 
“Calm down, bitch -- We didn’t do anything

[laughing] 

You killed this motherfucker.” 

And then he reached on the bed and he grabbed the briefcase. 
He popped it open. It was filled with money. 

More than any of them had ever seen

Iceberg took a little bit of the money and gave it to the doctor, 
and the doctor left discreetly. 

“All right, bitch, let me think...

[sighs

I can fix this for you. 

I know somebody I can call --
But if I call him, 
I’m gonna owe these motherfuckers a big favor.” 

“Oh, God, Daddy, please. I don’t want to go to jail.” 

“Neither do I, bitch, so you shut up.”

He picked up the phone. She heard him mumbling in the phone a little bit. He hung up the phone, and then she was pacing the room, and he was just standing there cool, and they were waiting and waiting, and then suddenly, a van pulled up downstairs. 

Two guys get out with a carpet. 

They walk upstairs, they roll that carpet out on the floor, they throw the body in the carpet. 

They roll that motherfucker up like a burrito, they pick that shit up, and they throw it in the back of the van. 

They come back up 
and Iceberg opens the briefcase again 
and gives them a little money --

He says, 
“I’ll get in touch with you guys later.” 

They say, 
You’re not going to get in touch with us, we’ll find you.” 

He said, 
“Whatever, n i g g a.” 

And they bounced. 

“Oh, God, Daddy. Oh, God.” 

He says, 
“Relax, bitch. Listen

We getting the fuck out of here. 
You go downstairs and you get the car. 
We gotta leave separately.” 

She went, she got the car. 

Iceberg grabbed that briefcase, waited a few minutes, 
looked out the window, and then he went down with her. 
They both got in the car, and they drove off. 

She was a blubbering mess

“Oh! Oh, we did all this shit!” 

He said, 
“I told you bitch -- We didn’t do anything
You killed the motherfucker
and I cleaned him up
and now we got us a secret. Okay

I know I’m not going to tell, bitch, is you?” 

“Oh, no, I ain’t gonna tell.” 

He said, 
“All right, baby, cool. 
I’m gonna need you 
to stay with me for a while 
till this shit cools down.” 

She goes, 
“Okay, okay. Okay.” 

That’s The Game.

That’s how the whole shit works, ladies. You understand

This bitch was at the end of her mileage. 
She was at for 498, 
she ended up tricking for Iceberg 
for another six months

She must have turned another 200 tricks for him. 

Do you understand? 

That’s some cold shit

And the cold shit about it is, that 
the dead guy on the bed wasn’t even dead at all --
This motherfucker was just 
a friend of Iceberg’s, acting like he’s asleep. 

The Doctor wasn’t a Doctor -- 
He was a motherfucking butcher 
that happened to have a white coat. 

[laughing] 

And the dudes who came in 
with the moving van clothes 
was dressed like movers 
because they were movers --

Iceberg had gotten a new apartment. 

[laughing] 

And the bag of money… 
was Iceberg’s money in the first place. 

The money he got from all those women


That’s a cold game. 
That’s the motherfucking Capitalist Manifesto, 
and that’s Why I Went to South Africa. 

So now we got us a little secret, bitch. 
[laughing]

Tuesday 1 September 2015

Vimeo Stole My Stuff (Again)




Spike,
Firstly, we did actually give you a warning period. We put a contextual notice on the account and sent a warning email at least two weeks before taking action.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but can you tell me when that was? 

Because I didn't see it, and nothing red flashed up on my account to say Take Action Now Before We Delete All Your Work! - I would have remembered that.

If it was from a human being, I would have seen it and responded to it - if it was from a machine, and autogenerated it would have been filtered out by my junk mail filter, along with four thousand overly cheery Your Video is Now Available! emails I get four dozen of per week.

But if you say you did, I don't dispute that.
Secondly, we never said that you weren’t in violation of our Community Guidelines (https://vimeo.com/help/guidelines). We have consistently maintained that you are, in fact, violating our Guidelines. That is the main point of this conversation.

Well, you did say that, because you just said "There are exceptions for PRO members to upload material they did not create as long as they own the necessary rights and permissions", and you haven't asserted or produced any evidence alleging or suggesting that I don't have the right to do so.

You haven't said "We have reason to believe you don't have the necessary rights or permissions to upload this, please can you provide proof of it or take it down",  and provided its for personal use and time-shifted viewing, the law says I DO - that's why VCR's and TIVOs aren't illegal. 


You just deleted all of my work then sent me an email asking me to submit to you four and a half thousand pieces of paperwork.

To you. In writing.

On another continent.

And - most insultingly of all - actually expected me to do it. 

Because you insist that I'm being unreasonable.
While we want to support filmmakers, we do not allow rips of third party material.

Firstly, "rip" is a pejorative term - it has no legal meaning, basis or grounding.

This is why Vimeo guidelines use internal POLICY as the standard, not Copyright Law, as YouTube does.

If you want to use your own rules, you have to define what words MEAN when you use them, otherwise you are just speaking at crossed purposes - and all the Hipster-talk DOESN'T help.

Say what you mean.

A piece of DV video is a rip of the physical universe, but you allow that.

I don't use "rips" in my film-making. I use found footage.

Say what you like about YouTube, but at least they have a system in place based on law and due process.

Your system isn't - so again, let's not pretend that this has anything to do with the Guidelines, because it doesn't.

And that's fine - but when you want to portray yourselves as creator-orientated and appeal to artists and be crazy, temperamental random and unpredictable, then you have to accept that people are people and not corporate entities or naughty children and treat them as such.

Especially when they pay your salaries. And bad publicity of abusing your customers can adversely affect your relationship with say - Apple Inc....?
There are exceptions for PRO members to upload material they did not create as long as they own the necessary rights and permissions but this does not extend to straight rips of episodes of Frontline or films like “Barbarians at the Gate” (as non-exhaustive examples). It is not relevant whether the videos are public or private, the same rules apply from our end.

I completely understand, and you are right - all you had to do was ask, and say "Please".

I am perfectly happy to take that stuff down tonight. Right now.

If there is anything else (specifically) that you take issue you, please let me know, and I will be happy to make my life, and your life easier, and sing your praises to the Gods of the Internet.

Rules are fine so long as they as consistent - I use my account for time-shifting viewing for material I find interesting, and if you look at my stats, you will see that is true, since most of that stuff is marked Private anyway.

I'm storing content for personal use and time shifted viewing, not distributing it to other people.

Every law in the world says I can do that, and there is nothing in your guidelines that specifically says that I can't do that. If you don't want people to do that, when they pay their money to to be able to do that, you should specifically and explicitly say you can't do that - but that would tend to drive away business, I would think.

If you look at the stats for my account, you will see that that is true - the vast majority of the content on there is marked as private, and the only person accessing that stuff (for my personal reference, as. Research tool) is me.
Thirdly, it is true that when we have taken action against you in the past you have taken steps to comply. 

Quite true. I am a good customer.
However, the fact that these are conversations that we keep needing to have actually counts against you. 

Fine, now this is a conversation - that's good. Doing Better.

There hasn't been a conversation (or any issue, so far as I was aware) in over a year - I talk to my mother more often than I do you guys. 

I'm a reasonable human being and we're all adults here and I comply with reasonable requests - I have a 100% track record of doing precisely what you ask me to do, when you ask me to do it (and all these nice conversations all get recorded faithfully on my blog to reflect that fact).

In this instance, I wasn't asked to do anything - I am happy to be proved wrong if that is incorrect.
We have had several different warning about this, and it seems to be a recurring issue. 

Can you list them? I'm not trying being rude or insolent, I just don't recall any warnings since last June, my bipolar can make me rather excitable, and I like to be sure of my grasp of the facts.
As you mentioned, the first time we had to have this conversation we did everything we could to clarify our position and help you comply with these rules. 
And, at that time I did. I think I deleted about 200 videos in 10 minutes, which I had been meaning to do for a while, but you gave me the extra kick needed to spur me into action.

Again, I have a 100% track record of doing exactly as requested, when requested, and I understand what is expected of me.


Eventually, we need to stop giving chances and I am afraid that time has come.
Yes, but if I can change, then you can change - everybody can change.

[Rocky IV]


Lastly, although we can no longer provide hosting for your videos I recognize that you have amassed a wide body of work here and not everything was a rip. 
Magnanimous of you, but still unfair - most of them weren't rips (as you call them), at least if those I made public via my channel, and never have been.


One thing I can do is to put your account in Temporary Access Mode. 

See? All you had to do was ask.


That's exactly what I expected you to do in the first place.


This would force all your videos private and create a limited window for you to go in and archive them so that they are not lost when the account is shutdown.

That would be very helpful, thank you, since I do not have a single respoitory of back-ups.

I actually don't have a computer currently, but provided you can give me a few days, I should be able to sort out a portable HDD to rip everything onto and archive it (which seems more than a little ironic to me, and I am sure you).


I realize this is frustrating, 

That isn't the word I would use.

Only in the sense that Moby Dick was rather frustrating to Captain Ahab.

The word I would use probably only exists in Japanese, Old Norse and Klingon.

But you probably wouldn't like to hear it.
but we have elected to no longer provide hosting for your material.

Well, I have elected to continue to be your customer. Whether you like it or not.

Deal with it.


Please let me know if you would like me to put your account in temporary access mode.

I would like that very much indeed. That's all I expected to begin with.

Please let me know how much time I have to clean up my account/rescue my work.

Sean M - you are a gentleman and a scholar, sir.

Thank you.

TTFN,

Spike


Sincerely,
Sean M
Senior Manager, Trust & Safety

Stay in touch! Vimeo Staff Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Tumblr
Paul
AUG 23, 2015  |  12:30PM EDT
Sean M, Milisa B, Logan O, et al,

Good morning, welcome back, I hope you all enjoyed your staff retreat. I shall make this brief :-

Now - I am (and have been) perfectly happy and willing to do any and all housekeeping to tidy up my account with regard to the videos I uploaded to it for my personal use only, with no intention of sharing - or indeed with any Public videos which may be in breach of the Golden Rule - I am the first to admit there may be some that slipped through the net of my due diligence, certainly not many, and I am perfectly willing to take down any you may legitimately have a grievance with or believe are in violation of either the spirit or the letter of your guidelines or terms of service - indeed, your own records will reflect the fact that in every instance when I have been asked to take remedial action on my account, I have done so.

I accept the fact that I am overdue in such housekeeping and there are perhaps a few things uploaded to my account which perhaps should not have been there - again, I was, and am perfectly prepared to be reasonable about this.

Now - I love being a customer of your company.

I wish to go on being a customer of your company.

We all know that though the final decision to terminate accounts is no-doubt discressionary to members of the Trust and Safety Team, you yourselves have rules and guidelines about when and where this action should be taken, and it's quite clear to me that you haven't followed those.

You have admitted that I am not in breach of Guidelines - so, though you may not admit it, this is a discretionary decision on your part, it has nothing to do with the rules.

You know that you are meant to notify me before terminating my account, give me enough (reasonable) time to take remedial action myself (which I am perfectly willing to do), and which you have not done.

I have a good idea myself of the precise parameters of the content you have concerns about, and I am fully confident myself that I can have the whole corpus cleaned up within 20 minutes, never mind 24hrs, which is what I propose as a reasonable amount of time to take remedial action (although, the last time this occurred, I believe you offered me One Week to take action, and the outcome was satisfactory to all concerned.

I am prepared to take remedial action. I want to take remedial action. I want to continue to be your customer.

The ball is currently in your court, because the decision lies with you as to whether or not to aallow me to do any of those things.

In the absence of those options, the only course of action open to me is to complain, and complain publicly

Your company is one, we both know, which likes to pretend that they don't care about money and is entirely staffed by quirky creatives and starving artists.

And we both know that isn't true.

I am a film-maker and a documentarian who has had his work taken away from him - my experience (currently) of Vimeo in the last 7 Days is one of a company that steals my work, destroys my content, throws my money back into my face and patronises me whilst doing it.

This stands in stark contrast to my experience of the previous two years, where your company (to me) has been the best thing since sliced bread and oxygen and the one thing I would recommend to all my friends.

Film-making is my life. And I would like for film-making to continue to be my life.

Your company depends on its reputation with up-and-coming creatives, hipsters and starving artists.

If they start to get the idea that "Vimeo will steal your work, destroy your content, doesn't want your money and is incredibly patronising to starving artists and up-and-coming film-makers", that creates a PR nightmare that need not happen.

I am not asking for special treatment, I am only asking for fair treatment and consistent treatment, in line with that which I received when this problem last occurred and when you last prematurely terminated my account.

I am prepared to do whatever it takes to put this right and get my work restored, I just ask you to be fair, follow your own rules, tell me what I need to do and be reasonable, which is what all your previous communication have emphasised in making these decisions.

I will do what is required - in fact, as a hyper-manic bipolar documentarian with a blog, I might do just about anything.

Please be reasonable, and if you can't be reasonable, give me a reason - because I am NOT in breach of guidelines (as you yourself admit, Sean M) and this has nothing to do with the rules.

Give me 24 hrs to clean up my account, and after that, I am happy to pay again to have my PRO Mmbership restored (since Sean M has already initiated a refund without waiting to hear back from me).

I hope you can respond to my plea constructiveall,

Spike
Paul
AUG 20, 2015  |  05:38PM EDT
>>> It is true that PRO members can upload videos they did not create as long as they hold the necessary rights and permissions
>>>

Then I would consider that fact very carefully, as it leaves you in an extremely actionable position - by your own admission, I am not in breech of Guidelines.
Paul
AUG 20, 2015  |  05:31PM EDT
I am not in breach of Guidelines, and I am a paying customer - what gives you the right to destroy my work and destroy my business?
Paul
AUG 20, 2015  |  05:05PM EDT
I do not want a refund - I want the service I have paid for.
Paul
AUG 20, 2015  |  05:01PM EDT
Which videos do you allege I did not have a hand in creating?
AUG 20, 2015  |  04:32PM EDT
Paul,
The golden rule of Vimeo is that you are only supposed to upload videos that you created yourself or had a hand in creating. Fair use and/or permission from the rights holder do not make an exception to this general rule.
It is true that PRO members can upload videos they did not create as long as they hold the necessary rights and permissions, but this is not a blanket permission to upload rips. We have actually gone over this before, and although there was some progress it has become a recurring problem and there are several rips uploaded to your account.
I am afraid that we can no longer provide hosting.
That said, I do see that your most recent PRO subscription was within the refund window so I have initiated a refund.
We wish you the best of luck in finding a hosting platform better suited to your needs.
Sincerely,
Sean M
Senior Manager, Trust & Safety

Stay in touch! Vimeo Staff Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Tumblr
AUG 20, 2015  |  08:35PM EDT
Hi there,
I’m assigning your case to a member of our Trust & Safety team who can better assist you with this inquiry.
You’ll hear back from us again shortly. Thank you for your patience.
Sincerely,
Zena H


Stay in touch! Vimeo Staff Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Tumblr
Paul
AUG 19, 2015  |  07:44PM EDT
Original message
> We sent an email notifying you that your videos may be in violation of our guidelines, and when you did not respond within the grace period specified, our content moderators took action on your account.
>

That is not true - I received no prior notification of possible violations at all, this happened completely without warning, and I was given no opportunity to take remedial action.

> Permission to use copyrighted material can come in a variety of forms, but the permission must be given in writing. You can acquire a formal license from the copyright holder, or receive permission via email.
>
There is no mention of this in the content guidelines or terms of service, and this is the first I have heard of this - and from memory, when I last checked, I had well over 4000 videos, primarily for personal use and access hosted on my account.

It's not reasonable or consistent with with either your own guidelines or terms of service to request or expect me to produce at this stage somewhere in the order of several thousand pieces of documentation in a formalised manner, particularly when with my account suspended, I cannot even myself see what content of mine you are currently hosting.



Sent from my iPad
For your reference this is Case #: 1177481
[[e687af183b8474896ac7681bfe056ade0d94fe44-510541148]]