teddy_radiator | The Final Crank Of The Broken Record (Reply)

Grr. I've just received my final appeal request back from deviantArt. For those of you who'd like to read the whole sordid story, it can be found here:

ME: Hello, I just received notice that my account has been permanently banned. I am respectfully requesting a second chance, as I did not realise these art pieces were considered ban-able material. I will, of course, remove them permanently and immediately from my page.
Please reconsider. As you can see, I have just purchased a two-year premium membership and have a huge amount of favourites I have amassed. I had no intention of ever posting anything that I would consider improper, and all of my work did carry mature content warnings.
I have made many friends and contacts on this page, and I would be heartbroken to lose them for something I truly didn't realise was wrong. Those art pieces have been on my page for almost three months now and I had no idea they were considered graphic pornography.
I respectfully ask that I be allowed to resume my page. This is a very important forum for me, and I would hate to lose all my friends and favourites.
Rest assured I will do whatever is necessary to comply with your regulations. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Thank you for your consideration, and I must plead with you to reconsider. I did also wish to mention that the drawing that was banned as depicting someone underage was drawn as a companion piece to a story called For Someone Special, by Lady of the Masque. In that fanfic, it is stated at the beginning of the story that, at the time of the story, Hermione Granger (the woman in the drawing) is over eighteen. Technically, the picture is depicting a sexual encounter between consenting adults. I appreciate that this may seem a bit redundant, but I did want you to know that I did not post this drawing to depict underage sex, nor would I ever do so.
I have posted these art pieces only after looking through various different bits of art and photography on the site, and I did not think it was in any way any more inflammatory than some of the photos I saw in the, say, fetish photography section, where there are quite shocking and pornographicly depicted photos.
I say all this to tell you I truly did not think any of the Marquise drawings I posted would be remotely considered inappropriate. I listed them all as under the Mature Content warnings as well, and even had someone complain to me that they couldn't view one of them because they were underage and, when that person asked to lift the mature content restrictions, I refused.
I am sorry to harp on, but I will do whatever is deemed necessary to re-establish my account with deviantArt, especially since I still have a 23-month premium membership that I would like to use.
Thank you again for considering this appeal.
dA's Reply I've left out the dreary policy quote::
Thank you for contacting deviantART, I will be assisting you with your support ticket.
I have checked the records for this action and it appears that your account was banned due to the submission of content which was considered to be pornographic under the official definition outlined in deviantART policy.
Specifically the work in question featured a depiction of explicit sexual intercourse between an adult character and a character in an established series and in that series they are primarily portrayed as being under the age of eighteen(18).
Since you committed a severe violation of our terms of service the penalty for this was the banning of your deviantART account and your removal from the deviantART community since we cannot tolerate this sort of content being submitted to our galleries.

ME Again: Does this mean that my 23 month premium membership has been forfeit? As I said, I did not and was not aware that this was considered child pornography, but I think if you are banning me permanently, after I have shown every effort to make this right, you could at least refund all or part of this membership. I did NOT willfully flaunt the regulations of this site.

I think I have shown every possible effort in rectifying this situation, and I think you are being a bit inflexible, especially since I have seen other, much more graphic pornography on this site.
I do think an explanation is in order if I am to lose 23 months of premium membership, not to mention the gallery I worked so hard to collect.

dA's Reply, in its entirety:

My apologies, but a refund is not possible:

(This is the FAQ that was attached to the above explanation:) I've changed my mind about my purchase and would like a refund, can I have one?

In accordance with our refund policy, non shippable items (AdCast, Print Subscriptions and Community Subscriptions) are non refundable.

So, I've written back:

I am sorry, but that is not an acceptable answer. That is like going to a shop and giving money for a product and having the product taken away from you before you can leave the shop. That is akin to stealing. I think I am owed a better explanation than "My apologies but a refund is not possible." I have read your FAQ on this, and no where on that policy does it say that a subscription that has been cancelled by deviantArt and not the subscriber can be refunded.

I am incensed at this whole situation. If you wish to ban me, so be it. But you have in effect stolen my money. I didn't ask for my subscription to be cancelled. You cancelled it, and that is NOT part of your policy. You will have to no doubt write a brand new policy for the people like me who subscribe to what they believe to be a site which celebrates freedom of expression, takes money, then doesn't even adhere to their own policies.

I hate hypocrisy big time, and they are the kings of it. Well, onwards and upwards, I say.