PayPal Screws the Pooch Again

[lordshipmayhem]

Remember the great Something Awful/Hurricane Katrina debacle, where PayPal accused the SA site of perpetrating a fraud by accepting donations on their site through a PayPal account, and then not shipping the goods to the people? (WTF. Seriously, PayPal, WTF.) And then they claimed they couldn't forward the money to the Red Cross as requested (apparently nobody at PayPal has authority to sign any cheque that isn't a paycheque.)

Well, they've managed to do it again. The Federation of Canadian Naturists, which is all about social nudity and not sexual nudity, has a quarterly magazine called Going Natural. They've been a client of PayPal for four complaint-free years. Suddenly their account's been suspended because someone has decided not only is the magazine "pornographic", but sells "sexually oriented goods or services involving minors" or "services for which the purpose is to facilitate meetings for sexually oriented activities." Apparently the prude who made this decision has never actually read the magazine in question. If they had, they might have noticed that it gets a grant from the Federal Government's Canada Magazine Fund.

And in return for this little insult, the FCN is looking to sue the ass off of PayPal. That ought to make for one interesting law case.

Comments

[sierralad.livejournal.com]

Yeah, PayPal's a bunch of dicks. Unfortunately, it's kneejerk reactions that are the rule of the day lately. Jack Thompson is looking to ban games without ever having played them (and accusing The Sims, of all games, of being subversive to minors), people are finding scandal where there is none (look up the LeapFrog Alphabet Pal for that bit of fun) and the list goes on and on.

This isn't the first time one of your groups has been affected by PayPal being stupid. Remember when the Fanboys account was shut down due to pornographic material, of which we provide none?

[morganskye.livejournal.com]

Isn't PayPal owned by Ebay? Hmm...

I hope the FCN screws them hard.

[lordshipmayhem.livejournal.com]

I recall it being shut down, now that you mention it, but I'd forgotten why. 'Twas a while ago.

At least good ol' Jack is now facing disbarment proceedings and is under the Vexatious Litigant regulations - only way he can launch a new lawsuit is if a member in good standing of the Florida Bar will sign off that his complaints have some semblance of connection to the real world. He has now expanded his Grand World Conspiracy to include the entirety of the Florida bench including the Florida Supreme Court. He'd already accused George W. Bush and many of his left-wing (??) friends of conspiring against him.

[lordshipmayhem.livejournal.com]

And EBay submitted "cease and desist" nastygrams to PayPalSucks.com and PayPalWarning.com. Both sites responded with FOAD nastygrams of their own, citing "fair use".

I hope that FCN screws them hard too. They're talking about launching a class action suit and are soliciting others who have been screwed by PP.

Thing is, FCN is the wrong organization to take on. It's an umbrella organization responsible for political and legal advocacy, not some family-run campground. Not the kind of organization you'd want to take on. They've successfully taken on Children's Aid!

[morganskye.livejournal.com]

They can't do that. Those sites have the right to list complaints. If they don't like it then they shouldn't run a crappy business!!

Keep me posted. I really want to know what goes on with this.

[lordshipmayhem.livejournal.com]

Ebay's PayPal is much like Microsoft: damn near a monopoly. And as the old saying goes, "Power corrupts, Absolute Power is even nicer!" (or is that, "Vodka makes you drunk, Absolut Vodka makes you Absolutly drunk"?)

Just as you can't do anything endangering Microsoft's monopoly without Microsoft leading a full-press charge (witness the character assassination endemic to the current OOXML/ODF format war), so too does PayPal try to maintain its monopolistic situation by ignoring Right of Free Speech.

They legally can't, but sometimes you have to hit them upside the head a few times before they get the message.

[morganskye.livejournal.com]

I'd love to hit them repeatedly with large heavy objects. Is there I line I can get into to do that?

[lordshipmayhem.livejournal.com]

Ya wanna kick a li'l booty? Then there's someone who wants to hear from you!!

From the FCN press release:

Any organization which believes it has been refused service by PayPal because of political, social, or religious views should contact the FCN.

For further information: Judy Williams, Title: Government Affairs Director, Federation of Canadian Naturists, Phone: (604) 856-9598, Cellular phone: (604) 308-6336, E-mail: judyw@fcn.ca

Spread the word - they'd love to make this a class action lawsuit. The full press release is on the FCN website here (http://www.fcn.ca/news_announc.html).

Warning: Link is probably NSFW, unless you've got really cool bosses - it IS a naturist website, and although it's about halfway down the page and not very big, and it's the only picture, this particular page has a shot of the cover of the Fall 2007 issue of their magazine Going Natural/au Naturel. No total frontal, but enough to freak out those with Victorian sensibilities. ^_^

[morganskye.livejournal.com]

I'm sure SA is alllll over that. ^_^