#fair dealing

[eirenical]

Here is the rest of both threads, because Twitter is what it is right now:

The rest of the thread is here.

tl;dr: Don’t monetize AO3, kids.  You won’t like what happens next.

[mgeist]

The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 206: James Plotkin and David Fewer on Canada's Landmark Copyright Ruling on Fair Dealing and Digital Locks

The debate over copyright and digital locks – technically referred to as anti-circumvention legislation – dates back more than 25 years with creation of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Internet Treaties and later in Canada with the enactment of the Copyright Modernization Act. The full scope and application of those digital lock rules has been the subject of considerable��

[cyber-skeletons]

The differences between TFP and Earthspark Optimuses are sooooooo fucking funny. TFP OP is burdened with "I've never seen Prime laugh, cry, or lose his cool," he responds to "Hey Optimus you wanna see something funny?!" with the numbest dead-eyed Eeyore "No," he's just generally Haunted and Stoic every waking moment

Then we have Chuckles McGee with his looney toons ass face winking and making finger guns and giggling nervously and spamming the group chat with emojis and cracking jokes and making "graphic design is my passion" self-help pamphlets

[breezeowci]

[intothestacks]

I want to double down on what's been said already based on what I know of copyright law:

In Canada, the protected areas for copying are said to fall under Fair Dealing. In the US it’s Fair Use, but the idea is the same - you can copy whatever you want depending on the purpose, whether the amount that you're copying is reasonable for that purpose*, and, critically, whether you are profiting off of someone else's work (which kind of purpose will determine whether you can profit from it. and will vary from country to country).

The list of what exactly is protected under law for copying will look slightly different from country to country, but the following is a pretty typical list of protected areas for copying:

The Canadian Copyright Act Sections 29, 29.1, and 29.2 explicitly state that copying a work is 100% legal for the purpose of 

Research

Private study

Education

Parody

Satire

Criticism or review

News reporting

While it could well be argued that fanfic could qualify to be protected as parody, satire, and criticism or review depending on the fic, fanfiction is typically viewed to fall under the realm of education and private study** (which yes, is technically a subset of education, but by "education" they mean formal education like taking a course, going to school, etc).

And those two categories?

Unless the material is registered under a Creative Commons license that allows you to profit, you CANNOT profit off of other people's work in order for your fic to legally be considered fanfic.

So I cannot stress this enough: @just-tea-thanks is 1,010% right: you absolutely could be sued by the owner of the rights to the franchise if you sign up with that site. Why? Because you signed a document saying that you knew about your work being used for profit and aided and abetted the site in profiting off of work it had no rights to.

* You can legally copy insofar as the use and amount of copying are fair, but what that means depends on the situation (there’s a prevailing myth that you can only copy 30%, but no such stipulation exists neither in law nor in Supreme Court decisions). In the case of CCH Canadian Ltd. v. Law Society of Upper Canada in 2004, for example, it  was determined that it’s fair for a lawyer to copy an entire court decision to use for preparing their defence.

** The Supreme Court’s decision on Alberta (Education) v. Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright) very deliberately and explicitly states that private study need not be a single person viewing the material.

I got this comment on a story from my Other AO3 Account this morning.

(Info redacted because I prefer keeping these accounts separate but no one follows me on the side blog I have for that account.)

The story was posted almost a year ago and is relatively “popular” by my average statistics even though it has tropes and themes that are big turnoffs for a lot of people (hence separate accounts). This popularity is undoubtedly because it’s a Marvel Loki story and that fandom is massive.

So there is obviously an algorithm or a bot scrubbing ao3 statistics and leaving this comment on fics that meet a certain metric with the main character of the fic inserted into the comment.

I had a little time to kill this morning so I decided to investigate further. And y’all this is so predatory. Come on this journey with me. It made me mad. It may make you mad.

First, if you go to Webnovel’s website, you HAVE to choose between male lead or female lead stories before you can go any further. WTF?

And that’s weird, but this gets so much worse. This is basically a pay-to-read site that has different subscription models. Which… okay BUT! The authors don’t get paid! Look at that comment again. They’re promising a supportive and nurturing community, but zero monetary compensation. It’s basically, “post your stuff here so we can get paid and you can get… nice vibes?” I mean look at this Orwellian writing:

Using the phrase “pay-to-read model” in the same sentence as “qualitative changes in lifestyles for authors” deliberately makes you think that you can get paid and maybe even make a living on this website. But that’s not actually what it says and authors will not receive one red cent.

Oh but wait, the worst is still to come. In case this breaks containment (which I kind of hope it does) this is where I mention that I’m a lawyer in the US.

I don’t do intellectual property or copyright law but I do read and write contracts for a living. So I went to look at their terms of service. It was fun!

Highlights the first, in which Webnovel gets a license to do basically whatever they want with content you post on their site. This is how they get to be paid for people reading authors’ writing without paying them anything.

Highlights the second, in which Webnovel takes no responsibility for illegally profiting off of fan fic. This all says that the writer is 100% responsible for everything the writer posts (even though only Webnovel is making money from it).

Highlights the third which say that by posting, the author is representing that they have the legal right to use and to let Webnovel use the content according to these terms. So if a writer posts fan fiction and Webnovel makes money from people reading the fan fiction, and the House of the Mouse catches wise, these sections say that that’s ALL on the writer.

So that’s a little skeevy to start off with but the thing that is seriously shitty and made me make this post was that these assholes are coming to ao3. They are actively recruiting people in comments on their fan fiction. And they are saying they are big fans of the character you’re writing about and that they share your interests.

They are recruiting fan fiction writers and giving every impression that you can make money from posting fan fiction on their site and hiding the fact that you absolutely cannot but they can make money off of you while you try, deep in their terms of service which no one but a lawyer who writes fan fic and has some time to kill will read.

I see posts on here regularly from people who don’t understand how this stuff works, don’t understand that they (and others) can not legally make a financial profit from fan fiction. And there are tons of people who will not take the time to dig into the details.

Don’t deal with these bastards. Fuck Webnovel.

[jojo-the-dogg0]

[sandflakedraws]

re : how each brother reacts learning that they can't go back

you'll have to pry the "all the Brozone Bros knew what happened at the tree" headcanon outta my cold, dead dead dead hands.

[enderspawn]

unfortunately dnd podcasts have already peaked, specifically in 2015 when griffin mcelroy named an npc “garfield the deals warlock” but forgot to describe how he looked in the slightest so the entire collective fandom decided it was just straight up garfield the orange cat

[lookforanewangle]

NEW POSTER WITH RIPTIDE HEY HI HELLO

[autisticaradiamegido]

day 317

yeah dont be ABSURD dave they would NEVER secretly make out in a spooky abandoned house in the woods you literally sound so crazy right now. unless-

[the-witchhunter]

DP x DC Camp

The Batfam force Damian to go to summer camp to socialize with kids his own age and have some normal childhood experiences

That’s all well and good, but normal does not describe his cabin’s councilor, one Daniel “for the love of Ancients call me Danny” Fenton

Between the son of the bat and a Fenton, camp is going to be weird

[solarmorrigan]

The boundaries of Steve and Robin's friendship quickly become all but nonexistent. They can talk to each other about anything, ask each other about anything

And Robin has questions

She's never seen a dick before, has no real intention of seeing one in the future, and finds the concept of them both mysterious and weird. But she can admit to a certain amount of academic curiosity about how they work. And then she remembers that her best friend, Steve, is A Guy™ and could surely answer at least some of her questions

Meanwhile, Steve, due to the aforementioned lack of boundaries, has all but forgotten that he never actually came out to Robin as trans. He's been merrily carrying on just assuming she already knows

These two facts collide one day at Family Video when they're both idly watching some mindless teen movie they've put on for the day while waiting for customers to show up. They reach what seems to be a very contrived skinny dipping scene, which makes Robin think, and she turns to ask Steve, "Hey, do dicks float in water?"

And Steve, without even looking away from the screen, shrugs and asks her, "How the fuck should I know?"

It takes half a minute of silence for him to realize that Robin is staring at him with no small amount of bewilderment and concern

(They later come to the agreement that they'll just have to wait and see if Steve ever gets a boyfriend, and then ask him all their dick-related queries)

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

yall like to pretend that "don't split up" is the most obvious rule in any horror scenario, but what's the alternative? stick together and cooperate ? to find a solution? in a life-or-death situation??? babe surely you have been in enough group projects to guess how that shit ends

[mgeist]

Huge Win for Copyright User Rights in Canada: Federal Court Rules Digital Lock Rules Do Not Trump Fair Dealing

The Federal Court has issued a landmark decision (Blacklock’s Reports v. Attorney General of Canada) on copyright’s anti-circumvention rules which concludes that digital locks should not trump fair dealing. Rather, the two must co-exist in harmony, leading to an interpretation that users can still rely on fair dealing even in cases involving those digital locks. The decision could have enormous…

[tetheredbysin]

would it kill him to show up to one (1!!!) GP like this

like shut the fuck up

[catmask]

my sister texted me smthing going on at home thats making me sad but im trying not to think about it and stay whimsical. its fursona friday..... its fursona feidayyyy...