What the FAQ ?!?

With less than a week to go in my suspension from deviantART I decided to get some clarification from their Copyright and Etiquette Administration as to the actual rules applicable to linking to works outside of said site. Yes, deviantART's moderator officiating entity is officially called the Copyright and Etiquette Administartion....sounds more like a subdivision of the Department of Homeland Security.

I was fully expecting to receive an actual rule or policy relating to this issue. What I received however, were several FAQs.....you know, Frequently Asked Questions. By definition FAQs are listed questions and answers, all supposed to be frequently asked in some context, and pertaining to a particular topic. Generally....no, scratch that....Globally, FAQs ARE NOT actual policies, rules, or even guidelines by which a site, company, or any other entity follows in order to implement rules upon it's clientele, subscribers, etc.

Thus far, since the acronym FAQ was developed in 1983 by Eugene Miya of NASA for the SPACE mailing list (yes, that's the real origin of the acronym), deviantART would be the only entity that I'm aware of where the FAQs are the company's actual policies and guidelines....other than it's Terms of Service (TOS). Man, I would absolutely love to see a real, honest to god copy of deviantART's business model...and then point and laugh hysterically.

At any rate, here are the actual FAQ I was sent that pertain to my suspension...read FAQ 565 is you want a really good laugh:

FAQ #565  FAQ #305

The portion of each FAQ to pay attention to are the very last sentence(s) that (in each case) seem to be added as an afterthought.....but more like "after the fact". Essentially, each one states that providing any outside link to another website which provides access to prohibited content is verboten. This mostly pertains to providing links in the "artists comments" of a picture or (in my case) somewhere on an individuals page. What this doesn't say is that if you internally note someone with a prohibited outside link you also run the risk of getting suspended (or worse).

As of today I have three weeks left on my "Premium Membership" on deviantART....I DO NOT plan on renewing said membership. Granted, my whole whopping $7.95 isn't going to financially ruin their day-to-day operations....but I ain't gonna be paying for their morning Grande Latte Enema anymore either.