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Thursday, December 23, 2010

Down or Up with FAIO?

There has been a lot of controversy in recent days regarding the FAIO website which, for those of you who don't know, is an online site where over 220 Adventures in Odyssey episodes are available for downloading. Recently an anonymous guy has started up a website called Down with FAIO. On the home page it is written:


This site is dedicated to the destruction of FAIO, a site that provides Adventures in Odyssey episodes to people for free. It takes Focus on the Family (the producers of Adventures in Odyssey) a lot of money to make the episodes. And if all the 6000+ users of FAIO would buy the albums instead of listening for free, Focus would have more money to make more products. So if you would like FAIO to be shut down, let us know. We're doing what we can here, but we need your support.

FAIO is not a good site, but it isn't necessarily bad. It is, however, taking money away from FOTF, but, as the webmaster has stated, they endorse donating to FOTF, and he does so himself. Down with FAIO is also not a good site, but not necessarily bad. It definitely brings up good points about it's point of view, but for a little while, it was being done in a somewhat hateful way. I'm glad it's been cleared up.

On the FAIO website, the webmaster says in response to the question, "Is this site legal?": "Have you ever watched a copyrighted video on Youtube? It's just like that; these episodes are copyrighted, but it's the ones who upload or download them that are in the wrong."

My problem with that answer is that the way the episodes are formatted, it's like he's asking people to download them. He puts a link that says, "DOWNLOAD" beside many of the episodes. It is a choice to just listen to the episode on the website, but many, I'm sure, will take advantage of the ability to download.

The first thing you see when coming to the "Episodes" page is this:


You are about to access the LARGEST archive of online Adventures In Odyssey episodes in existence. AIO does not make these episodes for free. They rely on donations and income from merchandise. If everyone comes here and listens for free, they can't exist. All of these episodes are available elsewhere on the web. All Faio does is collect these already-existing episodes and archive them. Faio does NOT support the uploading of copyrighted content. If you like what you hear, you should buy the episodes on CD. It's convenient, easy, and best of all, you help support a great Christian ministry. Happy Listening!
Elsewhere, on the "News" page, Zack the webmaster says

[A]fter a legal investigation...Faio was found to be perfectly legal....Whether or not this website hurts FOTF is up to it's USERS. If the users want to support AIO, they can click the buy links or a donate to FOTF link.(Found on just about every page in the sidebar, as well as multiple places around the site.) If Faio wanted to, we could provide links to EVERY SINGLE episode. Instead, we only provide links to streaming links. There are hundreds more that are download only, but downloading is against the Faio policy, and it's also against the law. Faio and most of it's users love FOTF and AIO. Many users actively support FOTF. Faio is a website that stands FOR Focus On The Family. These activists are against Faio, so really they are against FOTF too. Also, this is a FANSITE. This website was not made for profit of any sort. Any income it may get (such as from advertisements and such) goes to help this website, or straight to FOTF as a donation.
He makes some very good points, and I pretty much agree with what he says. Therefore, after digging deeper, I no longer believe that FAIO is a bad website, and therefore, do not think that Down with FAIO should be supported. That website's anonymous webmaster also pretty much renounced his hostility toward FAIO yesterday when he said

I'd like to make a public apology. I'm sorry for the things I've said. I was being very rude in some of my comments on FAIO. I've thought about it. I was just doing all this because it sounded kind of cool. I like making websites, and I liked arguing with FAIO Admin. But really, I use his sites and I download episodes from them. I don't really have any major complaint against FAIO (except the swearing and the rude comments by their followers) I will change or delete this site and make [an] apology on FAIO soon. I realize that I was being stupid. I wouldn't really be able to change FAIO by doing all this. So again I'm sorry. To you too Faio admin. BTW, don't stop visiting the blogs because of this. They were not rude in the comments they made in the guestbook. They are both good blogs. Thanks everybody.
That pretty much sums up my words about the subject too. Aside from the swearing that's apparently going on at FAIO in some of the comments, they aren't doing anything that really wrong or illegal. Hopefully my getting involved in the controversy for a short time before I had adequate information hasn't turned anyone away from my blog.

Thank you for reading! Please comment!

23 comments:

  1. nicely stated! i'm glad that everything's figured out.

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  2. Ditto what Alina said, and I appreciate you saying that. A difference in opinions probably wouldn't stop me from reading your blog, and if others feel the same way that I do then I don't think you'll have anything to worry about.

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  3. No way would I stop reading this blog!!! It's one the top 3 of my favorites!!!! Keep up the great work Christian!!!!!!! :)

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  4. Thank you guys for your comments. That last line was directed toward the commenter on Down with FAIO who said that he'd no longer be reading my blog because I sided with Down with FAIO for a time. So I was just putting that out there for anyone else who might feel the same way. I'm glad you guys are committed to the blog. Thank you for your support!

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  5. I know this is kind of off topic but I don't much like your new background.

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  6. Oh, not at all, Tim. Thank you for voicing your opinion. I was waiting for someone to say something about it.

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  7. yeah I was gonna say something bout it but it sliped my mind lol I DO like ur background now!!!

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  8. what was it anyway? it knoda looked like a monster of some sort

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  9. It was a weird, disfigured painting of a person, I think. It did look kind of like a monster. : ) I thought it went well with the CD's in my title picture, but I always change things when people say they don't like them.

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  10. HAHA So.... r u doin another poll? Just kidin I knew you'd remember.... didn't ya lol

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  11. Thanks for changing the background. This is much better. (BTW, sorry if I sounded too critical)

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  12. @ Brittini: Actually, I remembered this morning, but I'd forgotten already. Thanks.

    @ Tim B.: You're funny. No, you didn't sound critical. I like it when people tell me what they think about changes. So, thank you. : )

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  13. Well, I don't like this blog. The end. So change it. :x

    ooohh, did I say that? I LOVE this blog, and if you change it, then I really will have something to say. *maniacal nod*

    Anyways, Merry Christmas Christian. :D Hope you've enjoyed 2010 and will enjoy 2011.

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  14. Ditto to you. ; D I definitely have enjoyed 2010 and definitely look forward to 2011. Don't worry I shouldn't be making any changes to the blog anytime soon. Other than the occasional switching the background. ; )

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  15. Christian I really like the poll that u did this time!!!! here i will give away who I voted 4 mitch Connie Also a Merry Christmas 2 u!!!! Though i will prob. be on, on Christmas day so I'll say it agian then lol

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  16. I added myself to follow your blog. You are more than welcome to visit mine and become a follower if you want to.

    God Bless You :-)

    ~Ron

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  17. Hey Christian, visit my website and look at my latest post. I think you might be surprised (unless you've seen it already) Oh and leave a comment if you can. www.downwithfaio.weebly.com

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  18. I pick Mitch, Connie, Whit, and then Wooton. Or maybe Leanord. Or Trent. Or...:P

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  19. @ Anonymous: Yeah, I did see it already. I quoted it in the post you just commented under. :P

    @ Marvin: Yeah, you're funny. I thought people'd like that poll. It was fun to come up with all the different answers.

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  20. Just to clear something up: The download button(s) on faio doesn't download it and save it on computer. By clicking the button it plays it in a player like windows media player, or quick time.

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  21. Christian, you are confused. I am Soldier101, a member of FAIO.
    The episodes that have a download link are the ones that were made free by FOTF themselves and FOTF gave the ability to LEGALLY download them.
    As for the other links, they take you to other hosts, not hosted by FAIO, as you already know. Then, there are the quick listen links. They stream strait from FOTF's site and can be heard on FAIO. Faio does not host these, either.
    Faio IS NOT illegal in any way. The ones who are illegal are the ones that actually post the episodes. Faio simply makes it easier to visit these links. downwithfaio.weebly.com's owner has officially pronounced that he is sorry and just was bored. Thank you for reading, Soldier101.

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  22. Very well said. I'm glad there are people like you who can see both sides.

    However, Faio was not created to allow downloading. The few download links we do have listed are for the podcast episodes and other LEGAL releases that FOTF put up for download.

    Thanks again for seeing both sides, and not just trashing and spaming as some other do.

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  23. Awesome post. Thank-you!!

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