#copyright vs fanfiction

[archive-of-fan-owned]

Copyright . . . or Copywrong?

Fanfiction, by its very nature, exists as a work that was inspired from or based off of other works. On a small scale, building off of others' ideas encourages collaboration and improvement within a community, but when the original work in question is considered intellectual property or a copyrighted material, that's when the law likes to poke its troublesome fingers into things.

The creators of the original source material from where fanfiction is made from deserve to have their work protected by the law, of course, but since fanfiction exists only for the sole purpose of enjoyment and not out of any monetary gain, this opens an ethical gray area on what is considered copyright infringement, and an even grayer area in terms of legality.

Fanfiction is allowed to exist because most of these writings fall under the jurisdiction of "Fair Use." According to Copyright Alliance, fair use allows someone to use a copyrighted work without the copyright owner’s permission for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research. However, there are certain situations where problems can arise between fans and creators. In the book, fan CULTure: Essays on Participatory Fandom in the 21st Century, it discusses a similar scenario on fan films, "One of the major areas of contention the studios have with fan films is the perception of fans as "poachers," whereby they pilfer the ideas, characters, and imagery of media properties that the studios own (Jenkins)… The way studios can allow fan films like Browncoats: Redemption to be made without dealing with issues of copyright infringement is through the exploration of hyperdiegesis, which, according to Hills, is, 'the creation of a vast and detailed narrative space, only a fraction of which is ever directly seen or encountered within the text, but which nevertheless appears to operate according to the principles of internal logic and extension.' " This passage illustrates a method where fan creators can avoid copyright infringement by simply using the universe of the original work but not any recognizable characters, although it still demonstrates how original creators do not appreciate the output of such fans and instead think of them as competition.

Susan Estes from Kent Law states, "The more transformative the work is, the stronger the case is for fair use. The court can find that the work is not transformative when the new work is an unauthorized derivative, or stands on the shoulders of the original. Obviously this would weigh very heavily against the accused infringer." It shows that while there protections in place for copyrighted material, the protections themselves are incredibly vague. Perhaps this was done on purpose as to not restrict free speech and while it broadens the coverage of fair use in terms of fanfiction specifically, it also means that there can be very different interpretations on what fair use is.

An article from New York University further investigates this issue, "Despite the barriers to fanfiction that the derivative work doctrine raises, fanfiction writers may find relief from liability through the fair use doctrine. Some advocates of fanfiction, like the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW), argue that fanfiction falls under fair use, which would ultimately eliminate potential legal trouble for such authors." Here is an actual segment from the DMCA policy page of the Archive of Our Own website, a popular fanfiction hub and a child project of the OTW, "The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 512)("DMCA"), creates a safe harbor, or a legal exemption, from copyright infringement liability for Internet service providers (ISPs) and other intermediaries. To encourage and maintain free speech on our sites, the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) will push back against DMCA takedown requests if we believe that the content in question is actually lawful."

We are allowed to enjoy fanfiction legally because of protections such as fair use and we are allowed to enjoy fanfiction on the internet legally because of the DMCA. I would hate to imagine a world where neither legal safeguard exists. Overall, it seems evident that fanfiction can sometimes come very close to stepping on the toes of intellectual property theft, however, in a world where people just want to celebrate their favorite characters, movie franchises, and books, doesn't fanfiction deserve to exist?

[gender-trash]

incredibly funny how a bunch of people interpreted “ao3 was almost certainly scraped as part of the gpt training dataset because it’s a big easily accessible body of english language text, so you can prompt gpt with surprisingly vague stuff and it will autocomplete with snarry underage or wangxian a/b/o” as “elon musk Personally is Currently scraping ao3 and training an ai to plagiarize fic, going to go lock ALL my works on ao3 IMMEDIATELY”

its. its already in the dataset. how do you think these things work. “locking my works to registered users only until after the scraping stops!” my dude the ao3 team just needs to like add a robots.txt and check the useragent and stuff to prevent this from happening in the future*, and theyre already on it, but not only is the existing body of work presumably In the Dataset, the model has ALREADY BEEN TRAINED. that omelet isnt going to get unscrambled

(*im assuming that everyone gathering datasets for large language models is being reasonably Polite about it bc these are both very simple to circumvent — if this assumption is false then ao3 might need to graduate to Offensive Measures but also we would definitely need to bully the culprits off of hacker news)

anyway im not taking any Stance one way or the other on the “ai art debate” (other than maybe “none of you know what the hell you’re talking about”) but we’re definitely going to see a whole new world of copyright claims against the big art models and ml researchers developing new tools for “removing” stuff from a trained model, and i for one think that it will be SO entertaining to watch

[axe-que]

Call for Collab on Research：Investigating the Social Stigma of Fanfiction

Hi everyone,

I’m currently conducting a research project on investigating the social stigma of fan-fiction. I am intrigued to find out how this stigma is formed and how it has impacted the creativity of people inside the fandom.

This research is being conducted at Central Saint Martins, UAL, and I’m eager to collaborate with experts from various disciplines. I’m particularly interested in connecting with people who are against fan-fiction in general, or people who avoids reading fan-fiction for a valid reason.

I’m searching for experts on copyright infringement and transmedia as well. So if this research resonates with you or sparks any ideas, please feel free to reach out! I would love to hear from you.

Thank you.

[lexosaurus]

Hi uhh i have a question i was scrolling at ao3 and i keep seeing pompous pep fiction a lot but i thought it was illegal because there is at least 20 year age gap im getting confused

AO3 is a creative writing/fanfiction archive that allows anything that's legal under US creative writing law. There are some limitations, like scripting out an episode of DP would not be allowed because that's copyright infringement, and posting something disguised as a fic that's not actually one (say, posting your headcanons list or your grandma's cookie recipe) isn't allowed because that's not a transformative work. But otherwise, people are allowed to post any fictional content that they so wish so long as it's tagged properly.

The tags are an awesome feature of the site and are why many people, myself included, choose to use AO3 as their main fanfiction domain. It allows you to opt in or opt out of any tag that you do or don't want to see. For example, I read/write a ton of gore, so I often filter in tags like "Dissection" (using the sidebar) so I can only see those types of fics. But there are tons of people who get squicked out by gore/dissection, so they might prefer to filter those tags out. Maybe they just wanna read a good smut fic, so they'd filter in that tag, while for me, I'm not so interested in that content, so I almost always filter it out before I browse.

I know this seems a bit long winded of me, but what I'm trying to get at is that because fanfiction is fictional, that means that ships and tags that you or I might argue are morally gray or even morally unethical are totally allowed on the site (aka no real children were harmed in the making of said fic, so not illegal). This includes Pompous Pep, which is Danny/Vlad. And if you don't want to see that, as many people probably don't, then the site makes it extremely easy to filter that stuff out! Woo!

The DP Phandom is a really really old phandom and we've had a history of "true vs anti" ship wars back in the 00's, which while a bit different than the kinds of shipping wars you see in other fandoms today, they still happened and were incredibly destructive within our spaces. People were fighting, there was lots of bullying, angry cliques, and overall moral policing "you can't sit with us" behavior to people who frankly didn't deserve it. There's not a lot of creatives left from that era, and the ones that did come back don't have a lot of positive things to say about it.

So yeah, maybe some people on AO3 write things that might squick you out, but from experience we've found it to be far more beneficial to just do our own things. Write the content you wanna write, read the content you wanna read, interact with the people you wanna interact with, and block/mute/filter out/whatever the rest. It's honestly not worth your mental health or sanity to try to police fics/art in here. We're too old, most of us got jobs, bills to pay, maybe even kids to feed, and it's honestly not worth our time. Besides, it's much more fun to participate in phandom events and nerd out with other creatives about silly AUs and tropes and geek out over art styles and colors than it is to worry about that stuff!

[patheticpaprika]

Goncharov: Fandom's Struggle Between Fanon vs. Canon and How That's Created A Mythos Rivaling The Greeks

A tag ramble to this post that got away from me and became too long to feel okay putting in the tags lol. It can be easily read as a stand alone though.

It's absolutely FASCINATING to me being able to both watch and participate in the Goncharov (?)fandom(?). It's taking everything that fandom culture is and letting it run free without any barriers to stop it.

Because frankly, I can't think of anything (to my knowledge) quite like it in recent history to reach such a scale. Both the ability to write stories down and the rise of copyright have had a significant impact on the way stories are told. We went from a storytelling culture that slowly evolved each story told by the person telling it, to one that is very close-handed to the narratives created.

And yes, to some extent, this twisting and evolving still happens in fandoms to the point that fanon and canon can become so separated it feels jarring. But that's just it isn't it? There always remains the canon. That will always be the true story. Fanfiction will forever be fanfiction, no matter how much we want it to be "real." You can whittle away at the narrative to shape it into something more appealing, but it will always be stuck as a block of wood.

Yet, the very fact that fanon exists proves that we never lost that want to change stories and make them a little bit our own. All that we lost was the medium to do so. Evolve something too far, and it won't be the same, will it? We're stuck in the confines of "canon."

I have seen fanfiction of fanfiction before, but it tends to quite quickly pitter out without its own foundation to stand upon. More can be added to the universe, but what's there does not change. It does not evolve the way a story passed down orally does; in a story spoken, the canon is forced to slowly change by the memory and style of the speaker. A classic game of telephone.

Goncharov however? There is no original story; there is no true canon. Not only is the story evolving freely from storyteller to storyteller, but the only reason there is even a coherent story in the first place is that there are multiple storytellers weaving the tale at once yet also expecting you to fill in the gaps.

It's like we're all playing that one writing game where each person writes a sentence back and forth to create a story. Yet, instead of you and one friend, we're playing it on this gargantuan sitewide scale that can't possibly all be connected into a singular coherent narrative. But you're not supposed to be able to. Each person can choose what they want to know it as. It's like some big giant exploratory choose-your-own-adventure book. The framework is there, but it's going in 50 different directions and you can always add another one in just for fun. You discover the story as you read, but only the bits you like get added on.

It's fucking incredible.

We all see each piece of media through our own personal lenses but never like this?? Not to this extent. We're all collectively joining together to obsess over the little ideas in our heads we got from each other's prompts and are excitedly spewing them regardless of how contradictory they are. We do something similar brainstorming with others but not with 12k messages in a single day.

Would this have even been possible before the rise of social media? Not to mention the strong sense of community Tumblr has that is so rare to see with such a large amount of people. There's more people than you could ever know on this site but we all act like some deranged extended family. Yes, people can work together but so rarely do people that vary so greatly in personality and life experiences, get together in such larger numbers to do a little silly goofy CREATE AN ENTIRE STORY THAT DOESN'T EXIST.

We pull shenanigans like this all the time. But this time it's not like eeby deeby or even the mishapocolyse; this time we're seeing the power of an entire community working together to create not only layers and layers of memes but layers of memes shaping an entire mythos. It's like we're the Greeks thinking up stories of our gods but instead it's a homoerotic mafia movie from 1973 written by Matteo JWHJ 0715 and Martin Scorsese that all started with a picture of a shoe.

We have stumbled across something fascinating and new. This may not be the first mafia movie that's been thought up and played around with but this is absolutely the first to be created by thousands of people working together but also towards their own individual goal/story. We're seeing the power that created mythology being wielded by fandom culture, and it's letting it evolve like no other story has.

It's free from the confines of prescribed canon, but there is so much being created that can be canon if you want it to be. This isn't changing one by one like some spoken tale towards exponential growth either. This has been created like one spectacular big bang. We had a funny post of a boot, and then we had a poster and that was enough to make Tumblr go collectively insane. (Not that we weren't already.) I want to (politely) shake all of you by the shoulders till everyone realizes how crazy this all is.

This story is ours, all of ours. Goncharov (1973) is held together by the power of belief and love for it. We have fragments of canon, yes, but it only exists because we want it to. And God-damn it, I hope we do it again. Together we can create things that we'd never thought could exist (and in this case still doesn't).

-We- are strong. Please never forget that.

As it now 6am and I have not slept, I will leave you with a quote; Goncharov's final solemn plea as he slowly bled to death, for I feel it's in an odd way rather fitting.

"What is the dust but a remnant of what we once were, all around us coated with it.

But we brush it away in search of something else. Not everything that mattered once matters now.

Yet you seem to think that's the only way, just keep dusting it.

You never stop to think that some things we search for might not be worth keeping.

Nothing has meaning unless we continue to think it does.

So please... I beg of you, can't we just move on and let this sickening contempt between us dissolve into dust?"

[puraiuddo]

So by popular demand here is my own post about

and why

This case will not affect fanwork.

The actual legal complaint that was filed in court can be found here and I implore people to actually read it, as opposed to taking some rando's word on it (yes, me, I'm some rando).

The Introductory Statement (just pages 2-3) shouldn't require being fluent in legalese and it provides a fairly straightforward summary of what the case is aiming to accomplish, why, and how.

That said, I understand that for the majority of people 90% of the complaint is basically incomprehensible, so please give me some leeway as I try to condense 4 years of school and a 47 page legal document into a tumblr post.

To abbreviate to the extreme, page 46 (paragraph 341, part d) lays out exactly what the plaintiffs are attempting to turn into law:

"An injunction [legal ruling] prohibiting Defendants [AI] from infringing Plaintiffs' [named authors] and class members' [any published authors] copyrights, including without limitation enjoining [prohibiting] Defendants from using Plaintiff's and class members' copyrighted works in "training" Defendant's large language models without express authorization."

That's it. That's all.

This case is not even attempting to alter the definition of "derivative work" and nothing in the language of the argument suggests that it would inadvertently change the legal treatment of "derivative work" going forward.

I see a lot of people throwing around the term "precedent" in a frenzy, assuming that because a case touches on a particular topic (eg “derivative work” aka fanart, fanfiction, etc) somehow it automatically and irrevocably alters the legal standing of that thing going forward.

That’s not how it works.

What's important to understand about the legal definition of "precedent" vs the common understanding of the term is that in law any case can simultaneously follow and establish precedent. Because no two cases are wholly the same due to the diversity of human experience, some elements of a case can reference established law (follow precedent), while other elements of a case can tread entirely new ground (establish precedent).

The plaintiffs in this case are attempting to establish precedent that anything AI creates going forward must be classified as "derivative work", specifically because they are already content with the existing precedent that defines and limits "derivative work".

The legal limitations of "derivative work", such as those dictating that only once it is monetized are its creators fair game to be sued, are the only reason the authors can* bring this to court and seek damages.

*this is called the "grounds" for a lawsuit. You can't sue someone just because you don't like what they're doing. You have to prove you are suffering "damages". This is why fanworks are tentatively "safe"—it's basically impossible to prove that Ebony Dark'ness Dementia is depriving the original creator of any income when she's providing her fanfic for free. On top of that, it's not worth the author’s time or money to attempt to sue Ebony when there's nothing for the author to monetarily gain from a broke nerd.

Pertaining to how AI/ChatGPT is "damaging" authors when Ebony isn't and how much of an unconscionable difference there is between the potential profits up for grabs between the two:

Page 9 (paragraphs 65-68) detail how OpenAI/ChatGPT started off as a non-profit in 2015, but then switched to for-profit in 2019 and is now valued at $29 Billion.

Pages 19-41 ("Plaintiff-Specific Allegations") detail how each named author in the lawsuit has been harmed and pages 15-19 ("GPT-N's and ChatGPT’s Harm to Authors") outline all the other ways that AI is putting thousands and thousands of other authors out of business by flooding the markets with cheap commissions and books.

The only ethically debatable portion of this case is the implications of expanding what qualifies as "derivative work".

However, this case seems pretty solidly aimed at Artificial Intelligence, with very little opportunity for the case to establish precedent that could be used against humans down the line. The language of the case is very thorough in detailing how the specific mechanics of AI means that it copies* copywritten material and how those mechanics specifically mean that anything it produces should be classified as "derivative work" (by virtue of there being no way to prove that everything it produces is not a direct product of it having illegally obtained and used** copywritten material).

*per section "General Factual Allegations" (pgs 7-8), the lawsuit argues that AI uses buzzwords ("train" "learn" "intelligence") to try to muddy how AI works, but in reality it all boils down to AI just "copying" (y'all can disagree with this if you want, I'm just telling you what the lawsuit says)

**I see a lot of people saying that it's not copyright infringement if you're not the one who literally scanned the book and uploaded it to the web—this isn't true. Once you "possess" (and downloading counts) copywritten material through illegal means, you are breaking the law. And AI must first download content in order to train its algorithm, even if it dumps the original content nano-seconds later. So, effectively, AI cannot interact with copywritten material in any capacity, by virtue of how it interacts with content, without infringing.

Now that you know your fanworks are safe, I'll provide my own hot take 🔥:

Even if—even if—this lawsuit put fanworks in jeopardy... I'd still be all for it!

Why? Because if no one can make a living organically creating anything and it leads to all book, TV, and movie markets being entirely flooded with a bunch of progressively more soulless and reductive AI garbage, what the hell are you even going to be making fanworks of?

But, no, actually because the dangers of AI weaseling its way into every crevice of society with impunity is orders of magnitude more dangerous and detrimental to literal human life than fanwork being harder to access.

Note to anyone who chooses to interact with this post in any capacity: Just be civil!

[lullabyes22-blog]

On Fanfic, Print-to-Read and Legal Grey Areas

I've had a number of PMs on tumblr and AO3 over the last few months asking if I'd ever consider doing a printed 3D version of Forward but Never Forget/XOXO the way it's popular on fanfictok.

And my feelings are Many :3

It should be noted that there is a difference between printing vs publishing. It should also be noted that sites like Lulu.com have been used in the past to print copies of fanfic - some of which are even up for purchase like regular old books.

However, fanfic, by virtue of its ambiguous occupation in the digital domain, is full of caveats in the form of "Yes, but..." and "Well, actually."

As a medium, fanfic enjoys protections so long as it's being hosted on sites such as AO3, FFnet and other platforms which have the apparatus (legally) to defend the content. To do so, said content needs to be fair use (no profit is being made off its distribution) and transformative, i.e. it takes original content and contributes something new to it.

While the act of printing a fanfic for personal use technically straddles the line between Yea and Nay, it should be noted that the printers, shipping agents and other sundry parties are still making money off of the process. Thus, there is still a commercial profit being made for a technically illegal work, even if the money is not going into the fanfic writer's pocket or to the original creators.

Lulu in its FAQ policy also discourages fanfic from being hosted on its platform - and has been known to take down the accounts/works if they're flagged.

Riot Games as a company are also incredibly litigious when it comes to their intellectual property. They state in their own FAQ that unless it's fair use, any distribution of their stuff will earn you a swat on the rear. Non-commercial projects like Kickstarters, Patreons and Ko-Fi to crowdsource works for widespread distribution are also a no-no.

All of this is to say: it's unlikely I'd put FnF out as a print version at any point in the near future.

:(

I am incredibly flattered folks like this fic enough to want to read it in 3D print, and all the messages of support make me so happy<3

Legal ditherings and blatherings aside:

If you would like to reproduce my works as printed books for your own use, without any intent to distribute them for profit, this is my blanket consent post.

Go for it<3

And please share pics - I would be delighted to see them!

I'm hopeful, that as fanfiction gains traction as a more mainstream medium, that large corporations will be less fussy about its consumption in fandom spaces. However, recent trends are not hopeful in that sphere.

Even fair use content that is now in the public domain has the OG copyright holders clutching their pearls and summoning their lawyers - see the whole Enola Holmes and Sherlock is too Emuuuuutional! hilarity.

I encourage everyone interested in fanfic - and keeping the medium alive and thriving - to check out the Center for Internet and Society. We're going to have a lot of dialogue in the coming years re: net neutrality, fair use, free speech, and copyright, and I promise you, the era will be a litigious one.

Forewarned is forearmed.

Also please support sites like AO3 that, whatever their faults, do so much to keep fandom content alive, and give it a global platform. Especially for LGBTQ+ works, which continue to be squelched and otherwise suppressed in so many parts of the globe.

Also please feel free to contribute further info to this post - and start dialogue.

Just keep it polite and respectful<3

[shiraishi--kanade]

A lot can be said about companies' attitudes towards fanart vs fanfiction but I'm willing to bet the reason why copyright lawsuits seem to often overlook one and not the other is because art is a good way to attach new audience (=profit) and fanfic isn't. You are significantly more likely to see a cool fanart and go check out the source material because of it than to see, and read, through a whole fanfic (which requires much more time, effort, and frankly, attention span) and check out the source material after. How often do you see "I don't even go there but I like this" type of feedback on fanfic vs fanart? Huge copyright holders turn a blind eye to fanart more because they benefit from it.

[genericpuff]

I have a fandom I'm into where the world building and writing in general is kind of terrible, and I keep going "Maybe ill make a comic retelling" but then I remember I haven't even gotten my personal comic started and think about how much effort you put in to this retellkng and go "No. I actually don't want to do that."

hey, whatever you do decide to do, it'll keep you creating! Rekindled is a side project that's helped me heal through a personal project that I'm currently recovering from burnout on, I didn't really think too hard about doing it, I just went where my interests were and it's gone through a lot of evolution since then. Don't feel like anyone else's work existing should keep you from creating, that's not why other work exists and ultimately the only one stopping you from doing what inspires you (or what you're inspired by) is you (•̀ᴗ•́)و

That said (big edit ahead because I realized I had more things to say on this LOL), I think it also depends on what you're retelling and why. I feel the reason why LO is so ripe for retellings is because it, in and of itself, is a retelling. Whereas original stories that aren't based on any sort of pre-existing source material aren't really able to be 'retold' in that same way because they're telling exactly the story they intend to tell from the beginning, vs. LO which is poorly adapting original source material that pre-exists it by hundreds of years. Case in point, I wouldn't feel compelled at all to "redo" a comic like Let's Play or The Kiss Bet because neither of those are attempting to retell specific stories, they are the story and so to put them in any other form wouldn't be the The Kiss Bet or Let's Play anymore, thus defeating the point lmao In that regard, Rekindled isn't exactly LO, it's as much a retelling of LO as LO is a retelling of Greek myth. But because it does have that original source material that predates it, it makes people feel more compelled to retell it with the foundation that LO laid (with its vibrant bright colors and modern setting) but tweaking things to make them more accurate - or at least respectful - towards the original myths.

So I think you do have to ask yourself what it is you're attempting to re-interpret and what the goal is in doing so. Remember that it's all still fanfiction at the end of the day so don't be doing anything risky that might implicate yourself of copyright infringement lmao (do your own research and well-testing to see if it's something that would be worth it for you in the long run).

There are definitely times I'll encourage people to focus on their own projects rather than try to polish someone else's turd if it's in the pursuit of "fixing" things, art can and should be allowed to exist regardless of whether or not it's perfect and LO isn't an exception to that. I'm not gonna try and defend Rekindled as an exception to those times I'd suggest people to work on their own thing, I could - and should - be working on my personal original projects rather than what Rachel brought into the world. But that's also why I give it such an original spin because I also want to tell my own story, simply through the lens of recreating a comic that I loved for so many years and was retelling myths that I have a close connection to. All in all, that's why I tell people to take my experience and advice and rants with mountains of salt. I'm not a one-stop-shop for all-encompassing advice or guidance on what you should or shouldn't do. And my work definitely doesn't exist as a metric for what should be done by others lol Focus on you and your pursuits! <3

[txttletale]

could you elaborate on what you mean by "the ethics of of an antagonistic mode of writing"? the way i understand it is something along the lines of artistic value vs. effect (?) on audience? i mostly just don't understand what it means! chilli + chocolate factory was a fascinating read, but i feel like i can't really wrap my mind around it. i also haven't read hs or any of the epilogues except through hsmtw and even then i didnt get it, so i might be missing common culture. thanks!

yeah i just mean, like--for me, at least, the emotional/thematic nexus of the whole work is chapter six, where an internet commenter has a breakdown about the candy contest which is very obviously also about art and the artist-audience dynamic:

5Gpants: there is never going to be a moment for me when i understand everything on the big marble 5Gpants: but someone can make a little marble for me, and if they put heart and care and thought into it then i get sucked into it 5Gpants: and if they do a really shrapgrinking job, it has an ending and it all comes together in the right way 5Gpants: and when that happens, man 5Gpants: that fucking feeling of just 5Gpants: "I get it. I understand everything." 5Gpants: we never get that feeling anymore 5Gpants: we never ever ever ever get that feeling, and when we do it's bullshit 5Gpants: but i live for that bullshit 5Gpants: those little marbles are few and far between and i love them so much 5Gpants: they make me want to care 5Gpants: they make me care 5Gpants: they even make me start to care about the big marble again 5Gpants: it's religion, almost 5Gpants: not almost 5Gpants: it's religion 5Gpants: so imagine being a person who figures this shit out 5Gpants: and imagine having the power to make those little marbles 5Gpants: and you go and say, you know what 5Gpants: i'm going to make little marbles on purpose 5Gpants: and i'm going to get people to like them 5Gpants: and i'm going to get people to like them a lot 5Gpants: and then i'm going to take the marble, right before that feeling of understanding can come, like right right right before 5Gpants: and i'm going to crush it 5Gpants: i'm going to step on it and toss it out and LAUGH at them in their dumb fucking faces for having the audicity to wanting to LIKE something and KNOW something 5Gpants: to want to figure out an answer 5Gpants: to want to make the world better 5Gpants: to want to feel 5Gpants: to want to stop experiencing that neverending apathy in the face of constant complication and convolution 5Gpants: to want some shred of understanding 5Gpants: it's evil

like obviously the novel continues a long way past that and a lot of the most interesting stuff is in this second half but this chapter (which was titled 'the end'--remember this was uploaded serially!) kind of signposts a lot of the ideas that the fic is throwing about, about how artists and audience interact--raising questions like "do artists 'owe' anyone anything?" and "do stories 'deserve' to end?" which are a lot of the basis on which the fic's broader critique of dahl and children's literature more broadly is built.

like, the stuff with the GAG and its distillation of characters and what that means for a work's moral outlook, what it says about how people view children and things targeted towards them--i think that is a much better exploration of questions around, like, 'what does canon mean for characters' than anything homestuck did because it's grounded in form and an understanding that texts are written intentionally rather than taking the pseudoplatonic 'characters are real and exist independently of their writing' hussian position.

and unlike the totally surface-level pretence of being 'post-canon' or 'non-canon' that the v. much officially licensed and copyrighted homestuck epilogues put on, fudge revelation is in fact a fanfiction! it's a fanfiction that shows an intimate deep familiarity with dahl's work and a deep loathing for it at the same time! it's a fanfiction that repurposes dahl's characters and stories, and puts them to new and interesting and primarily critical purposes as a form of direct and hostile engagement with the original text!

also, mahuika vapes

[pecanpiespie]

Team Fortress 2 is Sill Alive

I know I don't have much of a following, and for those not interested, I'll be as short as possible: Team Fortress 2, a beloved and timeless game, has been suffering for half a decade, overrun by hoards of hacking bots and dangerous bot hosters. Please help us in our campaign by signing this petition (save.tf) and spreading the word of our efforts.

I have played Team Fortress 2 since 2012. I witnessed the hype for Meet The Pyro and saw YouTube crash when it dropped. I watched Meat Vs. Match unfold. I was one of the first to the front lines when Gray Mann raised his metal army. I patiently waited between updates, even when those updates became fewer and farther between, until eventually year long silences between updates became the norm as the developers and programmers slowly fell out of love with their game. All content in recent years has been community made. There hasn't been a Smissmas or Scream Fortress comic in years, and their ongoing comic series has been all but abandoned. I still check their website at least once a month, hoping that maybe they'll quietly release that last comic, but I know all hope for that is lost.

I met the love of my life because of this game. I have made literal hundreds of friends and countless fond memories playing it, reading and writing fanfictions, admiring and making fan art. This community is the most compassionate that I have ever seen, especially for a game that is nearing it's 18th birthday.

But as with any other good thing, there are groups of people whose sole intent is to ruin it for everyone else.

I've watched this game slowly rot away for the past five+ years, and it kills me to see such a loved game be abandoned. I've never loved a game as much as I love Team Fortress 2, and DAMN IT, I AM LIVID with how Valve has treated this game. It is completely overrun by bots. Hacking bots that mic and chat spam, DDOS players, and in some cases even SWAT certain content creators. These bot hosters are vile, abusive, and dangerous. Their programmed demon spawn spew absolute FILTH on every casual server they join. Click this link for a more in-depth review of what Team Fortress 2 is facing.

At the start of this crisis, Valve pushed out an update that completely silenced its free-to-play playerbase. Not even built-in voice commands could be used anymore until these players made an in-game purchase, leaving them unable to strategize, communicate, ask for guidance from more experienced players, or even call for a Medic. It was such a vile "solution" and nothing more than a weak cash-grab. Valve had essentially created a way to profit off the very thing that has effectively destroyed their game, because these bot hosts PAID FOR PREMIUM ACCOUNTS to let their bots continue hacking, ear-raping, chat spamming, and DDOSing.

And 2 years ago, when the Team Fortress 2 community asked nicely for Valve to pay even the smallest amount of attention to this beloved game? Valve puts out one tweet, pushes a couple of small updates, and fades back into silence. That's when we made our fatal mistake. We were placated by the response, and Valve took that as a sign that the matter was taken care of. We were heard, but we were not listened to.

This time, we will not back down. We will not give up. We will not stop our digital march until Valve PROMISES to fix our beloved game, and FOLLOWS THAT PROMISE THROUGH.

WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED UNTIL THE BOTS ARE GONE.

I still love this game, but I am absolutely *sickened* by the way Valve has acted lately.

And now for something slightly different Still Alive (Portal end credits)

Rewritten to reflect the current state of Team Fortress 2 and Valve's reluctance to fix it. Portal and its theme song belong to Valve Software, this lyric rewrite is not intended to infringe copyright, it falls under fair use as parody.

This is just tragic I'm making a note here: Huge Unrest It's hard to overstate my disappointment Valve Software Game Devs: "We won't do our jobs Unless we must Updates aren't worth our time Until communities beg"

But this game's not dying We're just taking a break Until VAC is working And you fix your damned game Once the bots are all gone You'll return to being loved Because Team Fortress 2's STILL ALIVE

We're so very angry We're being so sincere right now All because you broke our hearts And killed us And tore us to pieces And threw every piece into a fire As they burned it hurt because We're all so pissed off at you

Now these bots and cheaters Will keep logging online They're harassing your players Yet you're saying it's fine So of course we're all mad Think of all the fun we had Way back when the game was Still Alive

Why did you leave us? We don't want this game we love to die Maybe we'll find someone else To help us You have to realize VAC is a joke! Ha. Ha. What bans?

This game could be really great If you would get off your ass

Look at us all begging Cause it's all we can do You say "we love this game And we know you do too" But you gave us empty words And your product barely works It's a wonder the game's Still Alive

And belive me we are Still Alive We are relentless; we are Still Alive We're disappointed; we are Still Alive You think we're dying; we are Still Alive Team Fortress 2 will remain Still Alive

Still Alive Still Alive

Want You Gone (retitled: Want Them Gone)

Well here we are again Never got your shit together Remember when you said you'd kill the bots? Oh how relieved we were Except you didn't kill them Under the circumstances we've been shockingly nice

TF2 has been ruined You're who we counted on The cheaters want this game dead Valve, we really want them gone

Counter Strike has them too And there are just as many Your greedy company ignores them, too One day the bots woke up And swore they'd stay forever It's such a shame to see Their threats may really come true

We have run out of patience You're who we counted on We won't accept your silence Valve, we really want them gone

Thank you for staying here Oh, did you think I meant Valve? That would be funny if it weren't so sad So much for those updates You promised to push out If you ignore us maybe We'll just get off your back

It's been a huge disaster You're who we're counting on You can still solve this problem Valve, we really want them gone

Valve, we really want them gone Valve, we really want them gone…

If you made it through all that text, thanks for sticking around. Please consider signing the petition, spreading the word, and helping us take our game back. Enough is enough.

[avaantares]

Fanfiction Piracy Masterpost

Since my post about pirated fanfiction being sold on Amazon has grown some serious legs and people are not seeing ANY of the follow-up posts, I've put together a list of all the relevant posts for easy reference.

The OG fanfiction piracy post WITH UPDATE ADDENDUM (please reblog this version if you're going to reblog!)

IP vs. copyright, U.S. copyright law, and how it applies to fanfiction in this specific scenario

More info about the whole piracy situation

Finding creative motivation in the face of piracy

Proving plagiarism to Amazon

Can you protect your fanfiction from piracy?

General IP protection

Plush Books (the fanfic thieves) are also on Goodreads

Plush Books Amazon book count reduced (now out of date; at last check the count was down to 11)

Yes, the pirated book was removed (just linking one of the many near-identical Asks I've gotten)

And just for fun...

The full pirated CotFA cover in all its lazy, copy-pasted glory

Why you should hope that one of your posts never goes viral, lol

[princeescaluswords]

Public vs. Private

There's an interesting discussion going on over on @elandrialore's blog that I think everyone should read, but I didn't want to derail the conversation any more than I already have, so I'm starting another post.

I think that a lot of the trouble we're having about fanfiction and other creative works and the criticism of said works comes from overreaching capitalism and the way it has contaminated all social interaction with the controlling concept of ownership. People believe that if they put the effort towards the creation of something it becomes theirs in perpetuity, which gives them the right to control how it is perceived, how it is reacted to, and how it is discussed. It is as if copyright -- which solely governs profit from intellectual work -- has metastasized into some universal and (hilariously) moral right to constrain how an audience experiences art.

As an old fogey, I partially blame the internet and technology. There used to be a pretty bright line between the Private -- actions which exist for which an individual is answerable only to themselves and the people they choose to involve -- and the Public -- actions which exist for anyone in the general mass of humanity who makes an effort to involve themselves. The rights of an audience member depend on the nature of the actions. To give a concrete example, if I am walking by a house where a person is playing the piano in the living room, and they are not doing it well, I should recognize it as a private action and keep my reaction to myself. If I walked up to the house, knocked on the door, and told the performer they sucked, it would be rude and crass. But if I am attending a concert, I am supposed to react, and I am free to react in a certain number of ways. I am able to clap or not clap, even boo if it is extreme, or write a report or comment evaluating the skill of the performer.

But on the internet now, we have people taking pictures of what they ate for dinner and sharing it with millions of people. We have parents sharing fights with their children on Facebook. In other words, we have people walking about the house, hearing the bad piano playing, recording it and sharing it with their ten thousand followers. The line between Public and Private has become blurred into near nonexistence.

Many of the arguments we're having about fanfiction today seem to me to arise out of people trying to apply mores about Private behavior to Public actions. (Make no mistake, by any definition, publishing a story on AO3 is a public act.) This is the basis of "don't like; don't read" or "I do this for free." Through the application of ownership to something it has never been before, they're trying to exert control.

It just doesn't work, and, more importantly, it's vital that it doesn't work. Public art serves a definite purpose in civilization beyond immediate pleasure, and for that service to be healthy, the audience has to be able to engage with it freely. You know how I know this? Minstrel shows.

In my profession, I work with a lot of music from the first half of the twentieth century, and minstrel music was very popular. Al Jolson is only the most well-known example. But it wasn't just done for profit. There were public performances of minstrel shows across the United States done by churches, by fraternal organizations, by schools. They propagated racists stereotypes absolutely, and they peddled a nostalgia for a United States that never existed so hard that it affected political elections. Yet, you won't see them today because eventually criticism of both the racism and the pseudo-nostalgia. Would it matter if the creators and performers of these shows -- not Al Jolson, but the ubiquitous local, said "don't like, don't read" or "we're doing this for free." No, and it shouldn't.

The idea that the creator has the expectation that they can perform a public act and control the reaction to that act is unbelievable and damaging in many ways. It leads not as they argue to the freedom of creators to create but to disconnection of the audience and the tyranny of the mob. No one, no one, posts a story on AO3 and doesn't want other people to read it, and so they will follow the trends that are popular, and without counterbalancing criticism, art becomes a tool of conformity rather than something that opens up experiences for an entire community. Again, because this ridiculous disclaimer remains necessary, no one is saying that an author can't create what they want and distribute it, but the audience, to be fully included, has to have the freedom to react to it, which the people who run AO3 recognize by having a comments section. How much effort the author put into it is irrelevant.

[burntsecrets]

I'm doing a panel on how to write fanfiction 😆

So my town is having a comic con and entertainment expo, like a small version of Chicago's C2E2.

I signed up to do a panel titled "Beyond Canon: Mastering the Art of Fanfiction Writing." My reason behind doing this panel is to get people excited about writing, as I lead our local writing group.

In the panel, I want to touch on the following:

Introduction to Fanfiction: Define what fanfiction is and its significance in popular culture. Discuss its history and evolution.

Understanding Canon: Emphasize the importance of knowing the source material (canon) thoroughly before writing fanfiction. Discuss ways to research and interpret canon material.

Types of Fanfiction: Explore different genres and styles of fanfiction, such as alternate universe (AU), crossover, fluff, angst, and smut. Discuss the unique challenges and opportunities each genre presents.

Respecting Canon vs. Taking Creative Liberties: Discuss the balance between staying true to canon and taking creative liberties in fanfiction. Explore the ethics of altering or expanding upon established elements of the source material.

Feedback and Community Engagement: Discuss the role of feedback and community engagement in the fanfiction writing process. Explore platforms and communities where writers can share their work, receive feedback, and connect with fellow fans.

Legal and Ethical Considerations: Touch upon legal and ethical considerations surrounding fanfiction, such as copyright issues and respecting the rights of original creators.

The Impact of Fanfiction: Reflect on the broader cultural impact of fanfiction, including its role in fostering community, creativity, and literary analysis.

Q&A Session: Open the floor to questions from the audience, allowing attendees to seek clarification, share their own experiences, and engage in discussion.

Throughout the panel, I want to highlight some incredible fanfictions that have transcended their origins and made their mark in mainstream media as books, TV shows, or movies.

If you know of any fanfictions that have been turned into books, TV Shows, or movies please leave them below! If you have any thoughts or insights on what I should cover in specific areas, I'd appreciate your thoughts below! 😊

[beauty-grace-outer-space]

Brief rant but...

I *know* that people outside of fandom don't tend to understand fanfiction or fanworks. I completely understand that if you aren't in that world, it sounds a bit odd.

But today my friend asked what I was working on and I told her honestly: a fanfiction project. And then she said she didn't understand so I let her ask whatever she wanted.

No, I won't tell you my author handle. No, you won't find them searching my name and you likely won't find them searching by fandom, either; there are simply too many to parse down to such specificity. And no, you won't be able to identify my "writing voice" because you don't know my fiction voice nor is it constant.

Yes, people read what I write. Yes, more than a few. Yes, I've written novel length works. Yes, for different fandoms over time; after all, I've been writing fanfiction for coming up on twenty years.

And then we got more specific. Yes, the host site I use handles the backend legalese of copyright and sandbox works. No, I don't profit from it. Yes, I have an editor.

I explained filler fics vs au, and the draw and appeal of different types of fanfiction. Ultimately, I think we reached an understanding that it's just like writing fiction... I just didn't create the characters, necessarily. I'm playing in someone else's world and saying "what if". That doesn't mean it's not challenging, rewarding creative work.

And yes, I'm much more legitimate of a writer than people assume me to be. It fascinates me that, because of the subject material I usually lean into, people don't understand that.

[lchufflepuffcorn]

I’m sorry…

Are people really buying fanfiction of copyrighted works because the covers are aesthetic?

Let’s take a look on the definition of copyright, since so many people seems to not be fucking aware of it :

“A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives the creator of an original work, or another right holder, the exclusive and legally secured right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educational, or musical form. Copyright is intended to protect the original expression of an idea in the form of a creative work, but not the idea itself. A copyright is subject to limitations based on public interest considerations, such as the fair use doctrine in the United States.

Some jurisdictions require "fixing" copyrighted works in a tangible form. It is often shared among multiple authors, each of whom holds a set of rights to use or license the work, and who are commonly referred to as rights holders. These rights normally include reproduction, control over derivative works, distribution, public performance, and moral rights such as attribution.

Copyrights can be granted by public law and are in that case considered "territorial rights". This means that copyrights granted by the law of a certain state do not extend beyond the territory of that specific jurisdiction. Copyrights of this type vary by country; many countries, and sometimes a large group of countries, have made agreements with other countries on procedures applicable when works "cross" national borders or national rights are inconsistent.

Typically, the public law duration of a copyright expires 50 to 100 years after the creator dies, depending on the jurisdiction. Some countries require certain copyright formalities to establishing copyright, others recognize copyright in any completed work, without a formal registration. When the copyright of a work expires, it enters the public domain.”

-Wikipedia (29/02/2024).

(Link here)

So, again. Do NOT sell fanfiction anyFUCKINGwhere. And yes. The swearing is important, it doesn’t even BEGIN to express the pure bafflement I had when I started to have videos on my TikTok about this exact thing.

What are people thinking ?? There aren’t enough videos about bookbinding 101 to your taste? You HAVE money for an ILLEGAL copy of an “ILLEGAL” piece of writing, mostly socially accepted because people don’t charge for it? So, I’m guessing you have money to buy the products you need to book-fucking-bind YOURSELF!!

What. The. Fuck.

People are becoming way too comfortable with fanfiction, this is crazy. Have we learned nothing since the Anne Rice vs. Fanfiction ? Or, and despite her flaws, the J.K. Rowling vs. Dimitri Yemets lawsuit?

And I know, I know, that laws change depending on the country, the state, provinces, etc, but still, people. Have some restraint.

“In addition, fanfiction may be legal in the UK following passage into law of an exception to copyright for the purpose of caricature, parody, or pastiche.”

-Wikipedia 29/02/2024

(Link here)

‘But the author of the fanfic and/or the creator of the art gave me permission…’ I don’t fucking care! Hell, I don’t want to hear it. They should NOT by the ones giving you the rights to SELL materials that are not copyrighted TO THEM.

Maybe you have lawsuit money, doesn’t mean that the actual authors of the fanfiction that you are selling do! And it’s not actually you who you’re getting in trouble by selling things. Hell. It’s one of the laziest scam I’ve ever seen. Yes. Some of the covers might be really beautiful, but ultimately, they are making profit out of something that are not theirs to make profit about.

“But I really want to have one and don’t have the talent…” then either learn or make really good friends with someone who is talented for it enough for them to GIFT you a bookbinded copy.

This is not only making the lives of those fanfiction writers whose work you stole difficult, plus having the chance (negative connotation) of maybe being sued for the selling they most probably didn’t do themselves. But you’re also ruining the experience of thousands of reader all around the globe as writers are pulling their work out of the sites because of that.

Seriously, learn to think about the big picture and stop only thinking of only yourself. Self-care should stops when you’re starting to hurt others while doing it.

I’m leaving here various post to educate yourself further on the matter, or just to feed your curiosity, plus videos of Tiktoker that graced my FYpage all this week.