#fanfiction and copyright

[tacky-tramp]

An open letter to the Organization for Transformative Works' legal team:

Dear @transformativeworks Legal,

I am requesting that you take action on Speechify/WordStream's wholesale theft of non-commercial fanworks for commercial purposes.

As you are probably aware, Speechify, an app that uses AI voices to turn user-supplied text into audiobooks, has created a spinoff app called WordStream. WordStream has scraped many, many works of fanfiction from AO3, and has published AI-generated audiobooks of these fics. They charge users for access to these audiobooks, under a subscription model. Not only has this company, run by Cliff Weitzman, violated AO3 users' copyrights, it has done so for profit.

I understand that only authors themselves can file DMCA takedown notices when their fics are stolen. However, there are steps the OTW can take on this matter:

1. Notify all AO3 users via email that their work may have been stolen, and give them next steps. This is what companies are required to do in the event of a data breach, and that's effectively what this is.

2. Publish a blog post about WordStream's theft, and promote it on social media.

3. Send a letter to Speechify, educating them about fanfiction and copyright. Explain that fanfiction is *not* in the public domain, and therefore the users whose work they've stolen have legal recourse against them. Demand they take down all fanfiction they have stolen.

4. Reach out through your networks in tech and publishing to raise awareness of this and marshall support for a campaign to pressure Speechify to remove all fanfiction they posted without author permission.

I am a former OTW volunteer, and I would be happy to assist with any of this!

Thanks,

tacky_tramp

[fansplaining]

But actually? Fan creators might be the “real” artists here. Because fan creators know that all art is built on building blocks. It’s not hidden; it’s explicit. Fan creators know that creativity isn’t a finite resource that needs to be kept behind lock and key. With those same basic building blocks, from trope to trope and fandom to fandom, an infinite amount of vitally important creativity can be built. We know; we’ve done it. The law just needs to catch up. 

— @earlgreytea68 in her article "How U.S. Copyright Law Fails Fan Creators." Read it, then listen (or read a transcript) of our conversation with her in our most recent episode, "The Copyright Conundrum."

[shepherds-of-haven]

Hello! You’ve talked before about having experience with professional writing/publishing, so you seem like a good person to ask. I’ve seen authors say that they avoid reading/interacting with fanfiction of their work due to “possible legal issues,” but I’m not actually sure what law they’re referring to. Is this something that you’re familiar with, or advice you’ve come across before? Why would fanfiction be an issue if something like fanart isn’t? Thank you in advance if you have the time to answer!

Hi there, thanks for your question! This is actually something I've had a lot of interest in over the years, partly because I (at one point) was planning on going to law school to potentially become a copyright/intellectual property lawyer, and partially because I have some personal connections to things that happened in this arena (my agent was the agent of an affected author at some point in the past, my publisher or senior editors knew so-and-so), and also, I grew up reading fanfiction, so I've heard concerns on both sides of this issue.

To boil it down succinctly, there is no outright law that prevents authors from reading fanfiction of their own work. However, doing so can become messy in ways that many authors would rather avoid, and there is one famous example of where this went awry and scared authors off of reading fanworks of their own work.

In the US, all authors automatically gain copyright and intellectual ownership over their writing/original content, from the moment they put it into physical form (writing it or typing it). They don't have to do anything to register this right: it just automatically exists, and with it comes a few special rights.

Authors have the right to:

Reproduce or make copies of their work

Distribute copies of their work to the public, in whichever manner they choose (sell, rent, etc.)

Publicly display or perform the work (post, print, act, etc.)

Create derivative works from that work (sequels, adaptations, spin-offs)

License or sell any of these rights to others.

(It should be noted that copyright applies to specific expressions, not ideas. The specific details of your work, including the plot, characters, worldbuilding, text, and other unique aspects are protected. General ideas, tropes, themes, or concepts are not. A story about a magical school, a "chosen one" protagonist who discovers hidden powers as he gets older, or a bearded mentor who's killed at some point in the story are tropes that can't be copyrighted. However, a magical school with a specific personality-based house system, or a bespectacled dark-haired boy with a lightning-shaped scar, can. This isn't just a name thing, either, but covers features like personalities, unique characteristics, and character arcs. Hence "expression" versus "idea." Universal Studios even has a trademark on their specific expression of Frankenstein's monster (flat-top head, bolts in his neck, lumbering walk) - but that's only because the original copyright on Frankenstein itself has lapsed.)

Anyway, so authors have rights over their intellectual property. Pretty simple, right? Except, under this field of law, that means other people--including people who make fanworks--don't have the technical rights to this intellectual property. (They definitely don't have the right to make money off of it, unless they receive permission.) Because fanworks like fanfiction use protected elements like characters, worlds, and terms, they're derivative works, which technically only the author of the work has the right to create.

(Since I'm trying to keep my answer brief, you can read more about derivative works below the cut.) [1]

Many authors explicitly allow fan-made derivative works (aka fanfiction and fanart) of their fiction to be made anyway, with some obvious disclaimers (don't make money off of it, don't claim the original author wrote it, etc.). However, others are under the impression (or have been advised legally) that granting this permission could hurt them in the long run. They've been led to believe that if they don't "vigorously defend their own copyright," they will lose that copyright and all the rights that go with it (including say over how their work is used, where the profit goes, etc.). They believe they could lose in court if someone else plagiarizes them or steals their work and profits from it or uses their work in a way that they don't agree with (like depicting their popular character as homophobic); they will have no legal recourse, because they gave others permission to make derivative works of their story. I don't know how well-founded this fear is in a historical precedent sense, but I know it's rampant especially among older authors in the industry (for reasons I'll get into below), and I also know that legal battles do get really messy if it's not just "I said no, unequivocally, but you did it anyway." Granting permission in some cases (fanfiction) but not others (fanfiction that upsets you, or conflicts with your moral convictions, or hurts your product or its sales, or unfairly makes money off of your property) creates a really gray area in court, so some authors prefer just not to take chances and will blanket-ban derivative works of their stuff unequivocally.

(For a useful page on which authors explicitly encourage fanworks and which ones outright ban it, click here.)

Now, even for the authors who allow fan-made derivative works of their writing (which includes me!), there are many who are leery of actually reading it. Why? Long story short, this is referred to in the industry as the MZB incident.

I've heard different accounts of this story, but I'll boil it down to the bullet points that I know of:

In the 1980s, an author named Marion Zimmer Bradley (who is coincidentally (?) a horrid, awful criminal for other reasons) was a popular fantasy author who was extremely involved in her own fanfiction community. She actively encouraged fanfiction of her world and stories, and even edited a fanzine based off of this world, and was an overall enthusiastic and friendly collaborator and mentor to burgeoning fic writers, whom she invited to play in her setting as a sandbox. She was considered to be one of the biggest public champions of fanfiction at the time.

In one version of the story, a fan, Jean Lamb, sent one of her fanfics (published in a fanzine) to MZB. Some time later, the fan noticed that MZB was writing a new novel that had thematic and plot similarities to her own fanfic. The fan alleged that MZB had plagiarized her ideas, and fearing a potential legal battle, MZB stopped writing that book, developed writer's block, and never did work on that series ever again. This was a horrifying cautionary tale to all authors who witnessed it and essentially spelled the end of that fictional world (Darkover) for good.

In another version of the story, MZB received a copy of the fanzine from Jean Lamb, saw that Jean's story coincidentally focused on a character and time period that MZB herself was focusing on for her upcoming sequel, and she was stopped from continuing on the book by her publisher, who feared legal troubles. (This one is the one that makes the least sense to me, and I've personally heard it from others that this was not how things went down.)

In the last version of the story, MZB received a copy of the fanzine from Jean Lamb, really liked the ideas or interpretations she saw in it, and wanted to incorporate elements into the series' official canon, writing back to ask for permission to do this, like, "Hey, I really liked your take on so-and-so, can I put that in the new book with credit to you in the dedication and 500$?" She had apparently done this with other willing fans before. However, rather than the honored response she was expecting, Jean Lamb wrote back asking for more money and co-authorship on the cover, and MZB apparently got leery that if any similarities to the idea cropped up in her writing in the future, the whole thing would tailspin legally and she'd be accused of plagiarism. In short, the well had been tainted, and you can't just "forget" you saw a cool idea, and the fan knows you saw it, so if they get a whiff that the cool idea influenced you even in subconscious ways, they could be entitled to compensation. Or maybe just being "banned" from writing something in her own world because someone else claimed ownership to it soured MZB on the whole thing. Either way, she quit writing the series and banned all fanfiction of her work soon after.

The MZB was a big hullabaloo in both the professional author world and the fanfiction community at the time, and it's principally cited as the main reason why authors shouldn't read fanfiction of their own work. (You can read George R.R. Martin's summation of the story and why he doesn't allow fanfiction because of it below the cut.) There's a fear that if you accidentally get exposed to something--an interpretation, an idea, a take on your character or world--it becomes really unclear whose idea is whose, and the copyrights could overlap, and then you'll lose ownership over your own world, story, and characters. Even if you don't officially "incorporate" a fan's idea into the work like MZB allegedly wanted to, but instead come up with something on your own or were planning it all along, but it's known you also read fanfiction of your own work, there is no way of proving that you were already planning on doing the thing or were inspired by something totally different; a bad actor could claim you read their fanfic at some point and plagiarized it, so many authors choose to avoid the whole headache and protect themselves by just not reading fanfiction of their work at all, so as to not muddy the waters. [3]

I hope that all makes sense! This is already getting long, but I'll just wrap up by adding that I wrote all of this to answer your question--why some authors prefer not to read fanfiction of their own work--but I will add that I'm personally on the side of authors who support fanfiction and fanart (so long as no one's out to harm the original creator), and that I hope never to be proven wrong! :D

[1] Derivative works can in turn be protected under something called "fair use law." "Fair use" is generally broken down into four considerations:

Purpose and character of the derivative work. Things like parody, scholarship, commentary, and critique are protected are under fair use law. Also, things like whether the derivative work is non-commercial or transformative are also taken into consideration. A transformative work that significantly alters the characters and world of the original work (so how 50 Shades of Grey was ultimately totally different from Twilight, even though it started off as Twilight fanfiction) could be considered fair use. Likewise, if someone posts a free fanfic on, like, their Livejournal somewhere, it clearly isn't intending to hurt anyone or make a profit off of someone else's work, so it might be protected. This first consideration is generally the largest "protection" fanfiction has in the area of fair use, though it's hugely subjective and a matter of great debate: fanworks are by no means something that's unilaterally protected. But in short, if the purpose of a derivative work is not to profit from something, but to add new insight or transform it in some way instead of just ripping it off word-for-word for profit, it may be allowed under fair use.

Nature of the original work. A highly creative original work (like a novel or a film) is due more copyright protection than something like a newspaper article.

Amount and substantiality. If fanfiction uses substantial portions of the original work, especially the "heart" of it (such as key characters or plotlines), it is less likely to be considered fair use. If 30% of your work is just original text from the copyrighted work, your derivative fanwork may not be considered fair use.

Effect upon market's value. If a fanwork or fanfiction becomes competitive or harmful with the original work in any way, especially in a commercial sense (for example, fans are less likely to buy official sequels or licensed works because the niche is being filled by a fanfic), it probably won't be protected under fair use.

Even with all of this, there has been no case law that squarely addresses fanfiction in relation to fair use: it's all been judged by a case-by-case basis only. From this article: "works of fanfiction are more likely to constitute fair use if they are "transformative" with respect to the original work, if they are non-commercial, if they appropriate relatively little of the original work, and/or if they do not tend to detract from the potential market for or value of the original work."

Want some more interesting ways about the whacky ways fiction and fanfiction have intersected with the gray areas of fair use? Check out:

The My Immortal Memoir

The Larry Niven incident (and other legal issues with fanfiction)

Ship It, a fictional novel based on a real-life incident in the Supernatural fandom where a fanfic writer/shipper got shut down by one of the Supernatural actors when she asked him about homoerotic subtext in Supernatural... it's Ficception!

[2] GRRM's summary of the MZB incident in 2010:

Myself, I think the writers who allow fan fiction are making a mistake. I am not saying here that the people who write fan fiction are evil or immoral or untrustworthy. The vast majority of them are honest and sincere and passionate about whatever work they chose to base their fictions on, and have only the best of intentions for the original author. But (1) there are always a few, in any group, who are perhaps less wonderful, and (2) this door, once opened, can be very difficult to close again.

Most of us laboring in the genres of science fiction and fantasy (but perhaps not Diana Gabaldon, who comes from outside SF and thus may not be familiar with the case I am about to cite) had a lesson in the dangers of permitting fan fiction a couple of decades back, courtesy of Marion Zimmer Bradley. MZB had been an author who not only allowed fan fiction based on her Darkover series, but actively encouraged it... even read and critiqued the stories of her fans. All was happiness and joy, until one day she encountered in one such fan story an idea similar to one she was using in her current Darkover novel-in-progress. MZB wrote to the fan, explained the situation, even offered a token payment and an acknowledgement in the book. The fan replied that she wanted full co-authorship of said book, and half the money, or she would sue. MZB scrapped the novel instead, rather than risk a lawsuit. She also stopped encouraging and reading fan fiction, and wrote an account of this incident for the SFWA FORUM to warn other writers of the potential pitfalls of same.

That was twenty years ago or thereabouts, but that episode had a profound effect on me and, I suspect, on many other SF and fantasy writers of my generation.

[3] It would be like if a fan sent the Hunger Games author a fanfic that involved Katniss and Peeta's kids, Suzanne Collins was already in the midst of writing or was planning to write a sequel with Katniss and Peeta's kids, the two stories had significant overlap, and now Suzanne Collins feels like she can't publish the sequel as-is without either significantly redoing things just for the sake of being different from the fanfiction, or being accused of plagiarism by the fan. Better, in Suzanne Collins' mind, to never come into contact with fanfiction at all, and have both plausible deniability and an untainted well.

[tippenfunkaport]

FYI, I have also locked all my fanfics down to registered users only because of the AI scraping on AO3. I'm one of many fan creators doing this right now and I know it stinks for users without an AO3 account, but it's the only option writers have available to us at the moment to stop our work from being scraped and stolen.

If this makes you mad, the Federal Register is currently open to comments on AI accountability until June 12th, 2023.

It only takes a second to leave a comment to ask for legislation that works used in AI creations or training MUST secure the express consent of the original creator before they can be used. If we can get protections for artists, writers, musicians and everyone who creates that their work cannot be used in AI without their permission, we can go back to making fanworks freely available without fear of them being misused. Until then, we're stuck playing defense until the courts catch up.

(If you're a fan creator looking to do this as well, AO3 has a tool to let you do all your fics at the same time in seconds. On your dashboard, go to Edit Works and you'll be able to change the status on everything at once.)

If you missed the context, AO3 recently found that the archive was scraped for use in AI services like ChatGPT and Sudowrite. While they put in protections in December 2022 to try to stop it from happening in the future, it's not foolproof and there is nothing they can do about works already swiped prior to that date. The archive is recommending fan creators restrict their works to registered users only to prevent against additional large scale scraping in the future.

[thedevilsfamiliar]

I can’t believe that we have to say “hey, don’t publish and sell other people’s work” in the year 2024

From my understanding, fanfics are currently being sold in Amazon and Etsy.

[whatlovelybones-if]

Hi, what happened to the Percy Jackson IF? I can't find it in your itch.io profile

i decided to do a complete rewrite since some people have informed me that it’ll infringe on copyright laws. even with proper credits and disclaimers, it will be liable for legal repercussions since it technically counts as me distributing the source material out for free (with or without monetisation). and because i have no wish to tussle with disney’s lawyers, i’m going to do a rewrite more along the lines of differing from what rick riordan has already wrote.

the storyline will be the same, but the overall wordings will be different. i don’t think the updates will take too long and i’m open to any suggestions you guys might have (discord: @fall3ngod) as this is largely a fan-made project.

[c0smopolitan]

The Bug Collector

A/n: I’m late but it’s here😍, this was gonna be a completely different fic but I had a crisis half way through and deleted it because I hated it. Learned “The Bug Collector” on guitar today so I decided to fuel this fic on that song. This is all fluff and based off the house in cmbyn since I love it sm in the movie. Only proofread once and povs change in this but I might fix that later. That’s all, Thanks!

Description: A morning in your life with James after you graduated Hogwarts.

Warnings: none this is pure fluff, James Potter x f!Reader, if you don’t like bugs or would never touch one willingly maybe you won’t like this lmao, James is a doting bf and gets jealous of a millipede, James knows how to work muggle items, that’s about it.

“Come here James.” You call out softly. James mutters a “yes love” as he finishes up watering the flowers in your garden. You continue to pick oranges from the tree in your yard with the help of your wand. He finishes watering the last flower and puts down the watering can, jogging over to you.

He gives you a quick kiss on the side of your cheek before pulling out his wand to help you with the oranges.

This domestic life was everything you dreamed of and more.

After James had picked the last orange, he put it in your basket and made his way to the kitchen where he turned the juicer on to make fresh orange juice.

You prepped the table outside for your breakfast and grabbed the plates from the kitchen and placed them out where you and James usually sat.

James called your name from kitchen and you promptly made your way inside. “Yes love?” You respond at the doorway. James looked over his shoulder at your figure and smiled. “Come make the eggs with me love, the juice is all done.”

You smiled and nodded, making your way over to where James stood above the stove with the pan in his hand, as you grabbed the eggs from the fridge.

🌱Time skip🌱

James ate next to you quietly after you were done eating while you sat with your sketchbook, drawing the green lacewings that sat on the flowers in a vase that was on your table.

He quietly got up and took his plate to the kitchen, coming back with two small jars in hand. “Here love, for the bugs.” You smiled up at James and he leaned down to peck you on the lips.

🌱later on🌱

James went inside the house to go get something while you made your way over to the peach tree in your garden where bugs prominently hung around.

You looked down to the base of the tree where you saw a millipede latched to it. You smiled softly and picked it up from where it was stood still, placing it in one of the small jars James gave you.

You sit yourself down, back against the tree, placing the jar down onto the ground in front of you where the sun shone the brightest and grabbed the sketchbook from its place between your arm and chest, placing it onto your lap. You grab a pencil from your pocket and begin to sketch the millipede who stayed still in the jar.

🌱10 mins later🌱

As you were finishing up your sketch you heard footsteps coming towards you. You look up to see no other than James coming towards you, book in hand.

“Thought I’d stay out here a while longer with you.” He says with a grin, you smile up at him with a nod.

“Ok,” you mumble. “Almost done with this, then I’ll let him go.” He nods and sits next to you on the tree. “Thought you were gonna collect it?” You shake your head while drawing the last of its legs.

“Don’t need to,” you say absentmindedly. “I already have a millipede at home, but this one’s bigger than Sunny so I wanted to sketch it.” You conclude, finished with your sketch.

He snorts and you look at him confused, getting up and dusting your pants off before picking the jar up. “What’s so funny Potter.” You banter as you walk a few feet towards the small forest next to your home and place the jar horizontally for the bug to crawl out of.

He comes up behind you, and wrapping his arms around your waist while you wait for the big to crawl out. “You named a millipede Sunny.” He says with a laugh. “S’cute.” He says, kissing your cheek.

You roll your eyes playfully and lean into his hold, tilting your head up to look at him just for him to already be looking at you. “Love you so much you know that?” He says looking at you with so much love.

Your cheeks turn a light shade of pink and you turn your body around to have your arms around his neck. “So sappy.” You say with grimace, but the grin on your face gave you away. “Only for you love.” He says, returning the grin and placing a soft kiss on your temple.

You stand there with each other for a few moments before you feel a crawling sensation on your leg. You look down confused, just to see the millipede crawling up your leg. You begin to laugh at it stopping its midway up your leg.

James looked down, confused as to what you were laughing at and sees the millipede on your leg. You laugh harder when it starts crawling faster while you’re trying to grab it.

You grabbed the millipede and held it in your hand, cooing at it while you began to walk away, trying to find somewhere to put it.

James didn’t share the same sentiment as you towards the millipede. “Cheeky bastard.” James mumbled while you placed it down on the ground, a few feet away from where you two were previously standing. You laughed at the jealousness James held towards an insect.

You walk back over to James, to see him eyeing the millipede as it crawled away. You look at him and shake your head, grabbing his arm and taking him back to where you two were sat before.

“You can’t be serious James.” You snort. He shrugs and sits down on the tree, moving your sketchbook and his book to the side next to him, leaving room for you to sit on his lap.

“He knew what he was doing.” He grumbled. You shook your head with a smile and sat on his lap, laying your back against his chest while he wrapped his left arm around you.

“Let’s continue reading ‘Great Gatsby’ like we were yesterday.” James said with enthusiasm, and you nodded with a soft smile, placing your head in the crook of his neck as he grabbed the book and turned to the page you left off on.

[anghraine]

Okay, breaking my principles hiatus again for another fanfic rant despite my profound frustration w/ Tumblr currently:

I have another post and conversation on DW about this, but while pretty much my entire dash has zero patience with the overtly contemptuous Hot Fanfic Takes, I do pretty often see takes on Fanfiction's Limitations As A Form that are phrased more gently and/or academically but which rely on the same assumptions and make the same mistakes.

IMO even the gentlest, and/or most earnest, and/or most eruditely theorized takes on fanfiction as a form still suffer from one basic problem: the formal argument does not work.

I have never once seen a take on fanfiction as a form that could provide a coherent formal definition of what fanfiction is and what it is not (formal as in "related to its form" not as in "proper" or "stuffy"). Every argument I have ever seen on the strengths/weaknesses of fanfiction as a form vs original fiction relies to some extent on this lack of clarity.

Hence the inevitable "what about Shakespeare/Ovid/Wide Sargasso Sea/modern takes on ancient religious narratives/retold fairy tales/adaptation/expanded universes/etc" responses. The assumptions and assertions about fanfiction as a form in these arguments pretty much always should apply to other things based on the defining formal qualities of fanfic in these arguments ("fanfiction is fundamentally X because it re-purposes pre-existing characters and stories rather than inventing new ones" "fanfiction is fundamentally Y because it's often serialized" etc).

Yet the framing of the argument virtually always makes it clear that the generalizations about fanfic are not being applied to Real Literature. Nor can this argument account for original fics produced within a fandom context such as AO3 that are basically indistinguishable from fanfic in every way apart from lacking a canon source.

At the end of the day, I do not think fanfic is "the way it is" because of any fundamental formal qualities—after all, it shares these qualities with vast swaths of other human literature and art over thousands of years that most people would never consider fanfic. My view is that an argument about fanfic based purely on form must also apply to "non-fanfic" works that share the formal qualities brought up in the argument (these arguments never actually apply their theories to anything other than fanfic, though).

Alternately, the formal argument could provide a definition of fanfic (a formal one, not one based on judgment of merit or morality) that excludes these other kinds of works and genres. In that case, the argument would actually apply only to fanfic (as defined). But I have never seen this happen, either.

So ultimately, I think the whole formal argument about fanfic is unsalvageably flawed in practice.

Realistically, fanfiction is not the way it is because of something fundamentally derived from writing characters/settings etc you didn't originate (or serialization as some new-fangled form, lmao). Fanfiction as a category is an intrinsically modern concept resulting largely from similarly modern concepts of intellectual property and auteurship (legally and culturally) that have been so extremely normalized in many English-language media spaces (at the least) that many people do not realize these concepts are context-dependent and not universal truths.

Fanfic does not look like it does (or exist as a discrete category at all) without specifically modern legal practices (and assumptions about law that may or may not be true, like with many authorial & corporate attempts to use the possibility of legal threats to dictate terms of engagement w/ media to fandom, the Marion Zimmer Bradley myth, etc).

Fanfic does not look like it does without the broader fandom cultures and trends around it. It does not look like it does without the massive popularity of various romance genres and some very popular SF/F. It does not look like it does without any number of other social and cultural forces that are also extremely modern in the grand scheme of things.

The formal argument is just so completely ahistorical and obliviously presentist in its assumptions about art and generally incoherent that, sure, it's nicer when people present it politely, but it's still wrong.

[elizabethminkel]

@hellotailor & I have done an interview...ON CAMERA!! Very excited to be the first installment of the EFF's new "Gate Crashing" series. If you've ever been curious to see the faces behind The Rec Center....

[classicslesbianopinions]

i don't believe that dante's inferno is fanfiction but i do believe that saying dante's inferno is fanfiction is a great way to find out whether or not the person you're talking to is completely insufferable

[espinosaurusrexex]

Hello! Someone reposted your work(s) over wattpat, their username is @smileybannana

Just wanted to let you know, have a nice day!

(Btw yours is in the ‘Avengers tumblr fluff’ book)

Thank you so much for telling me!

I checked the account and it is not showing up anywhere so I guess the reports have worked.

I know this person probably just enjoyed these fics and wanted to share them but posting content that is not your own without the owner knowing is not OK.

There is a reason why some works are not on some platforms and it is in the hand of the creator to decide which way they want to share their hard worked-on content.

So, please. Even if you want to “help”, just enjoy the work as it is and where it is. Comment, like, reblog or (if you may) share the link to the original but do not just copy paste the actual thing into your own accounts. If the owner wants help spreading their talent they’ll let you know. I, for one, explicitly write not to share on any other site than the ones I post on. People have reasons and those should be respected.

Here are some examples:

Posting things that are not your own may lead to confusion about authorship. Even if you do credit the original creator, the recognition for them can be deminished - we don’t want that.

Copying and pasting things into another platform may alter the original. This could (in the worst case) lead to a misinterpretation of the original author’s intent. Altering someone’s creative vision is not what anyone involved in the process wants - don’t do it.

Reposting without consent is simply violating property and copywriting law. Creators earn their right to control what they put out as much as they are responsible for how it gets out and who gets to see it. Don’t take that control away from them. Having your own shit ripped away from you is not nice - just stop it.

And lastly, coming from a place of constant evolvement and self improvement, creators want to be able to see the feedback their work gets. If it is puplished on an account that they do not have access to, it strips away the opportunity to interact with recipients and possibly grow with their responses. You’re keeping kindness and improvement away from the creator you adore and interfere with their way of making more and better content that you could enjoy - please don’t.

I hope this opened some eyes or helped in any way. Please respect creators and keep to their guidelines on how to share their work. Copyright is important, so please spread awareness.

@holylulusworld @heytheredelulu @sergeantbarnessdoll @lives-in-midgard @imtryingbuck @whitexwolfxx310 @myfictionaldreams @espinosaurusrexex @buckyalpine @hansensgirl @dungeonpuppykai @evansbby @witchywithwhiskey @violentdelightsandviolentends @mrsbarnesblog @multiversefanfics @bucks-babe @amathslutsguidetofandom @buck-buck-buckaroo @brnesblogposts @highonmarvel @justabarnesgirlie @julvrs @jiyascepter @lanabuckybarnes @little-miss-dilf-lover @noellez-best-life23 @navybrat817 @romanoffshouse @ronearoundblindly @rogersbarber @sebastianstanisahotmf @whatever-lmaoo @nickfowlerrr

[cfiesler]

Happy “Sherlock Holmes is finally in the public domain” day!

Because the character of Sherlock Holmes did not originate in a single work, but rather a series of short stories that were published over time (between 1887 and 1927), though the character has been in the public domain due to expired copyright for some time, only as he appeared in the early stories. 

So though e.g. BBC paid licensing fees to the Conan Doyle estate to be on the safe side, there have also been lawsuits splitting hairs about whether a particular portrayal of the character contained elements that were still under copyright. A 2014 U.S. Court of Appeals case established that yes, Sherlock Holmes the character was in the public domain, copyright protection would still apply to elements that only appeared in later stories--for example, Holmes’ love of dogs and Watson’s marriages.

So what about this guy?

Conan Doyle’s estate actually sued Netflix over the film Enola Holmes because they claimed that Sherlock’s character was too “warm” and had “more respect for women” than he did in the earlier, public domain stories. The lawsuit went away - rightfully, because I cannot imagine any world in which Netflix lost that case - but as of today, we no longer have to worry about such silly lawsuits. Because as of today every one of Conan Doyle’s portrayals of Sherlock Holmes is officially in the public domain!

Of course, keep in mind that this applies to Conan Doyle’s work and not other portrayals of Sherlock Holmes that might have their own copyrighted elements. So if you’re writing Johnlock fanfic that is very clearly based on the BBC version, maybe keep it noncommercial. :)

Also here’s a video if you want to hear me talk about this for 3 minutes instead!

[fansplaining]

Today we're thrilled to publish our latest article—a piece on U.S copyright law and fandom by @earlgreytea68!

Fan creators don’t speak with one voice any more than any creative community speaks with one voice. I am well aware that I am one of you, but I am definitely not all of you. But most fan creators don’t consider themselves to be lazy or thieves—including me. In fact, all the fan creators that I know work very hard on our creations. We don’t consider ourselves to be stealing anything, because what we “steal”—some characters, some settings—is part of our cultural heritage, part of the world around us, part of the raw material we’ve been given to examine and make sense of our world, the way creators have for millennia.

She'll also discuss the topic on this week's episode, out today for Patrons and tomorrow for everyone else!

[vikingmagic33]

Do you enjoy reading free fanfics on Ao3? Here are a few things to do to keep that content available:

1. Keep it legal by NOT trying to make money off of it and reporting any you see online trying to SELL fanfics.

I’ve devoted a lot of thought and research to my fic binding policy and I will continue to grant my permission for individuals to bind my work themselves or to pay a reasonable fee to a reputable custom binder for personal use, assuming the binding does not use AI artwork and credits artist’s work used in the binding. I will not accept a gift copy myself, but would appreciate being able to post a copy to my socials to promote the fic and the binder.

2. Don’t review fanfics on Goodreads or leave scathing comments on Ao3. Fics are free work created in people’s spare time and gifted to the fandom for free. Don’t be a dick and rate it on the same standards as published works and don’t debate character motives or canon in the comments. This makes posting stressful and icky. Debate shit on tumblr with people who enjoy that shit.

3. Don’t upload fics to AI. That’s just gross. Send a respectful ask if you want a new scene or a different ending and only if you think the writer is interested in hearing that sort of request. A quick check of their socials can tell you.

4. Follow @ao3org and don’t stress the archive during maintenance. Be gentle with our girl.

@mystical-blaise @daevastanner @hlizr50 @foreverinelysian @aldbooks @captain-of-the-gwynriel-ship

[sees-writes]

Hey friendly reminder that binding and selling other people’s fanfiction is in fact illegal, can get the writer in a butt load of trouble, and it’s just rude :)

[moonchild-in-blue]

*ahem*

I'm

baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack

💙🌙🌷🍊🦋💫🥺🍓🌧️🐸💖🌈🍷🌝☔🌊

Hello hello hello hi hello I'm here I'm back no longer on timeout helloooooooo 🥹💃🤸‍♀️

I've missed you all sooooo much muwah muwah how is everyone doing babes??

I'm gonna be going through my tags and stuff today so bear with me. Let me know if I've missed anything important or funny or silly or whatever. Or idk, say hi if you wanna 🥺👉👈

IN THE MEANTIME, I have at last gone through my ask box! There was a lot! Wow, am I bad at this!! At least you'll get plenty of doodles from me (most of them are sky/moon pictures because of course they are).

I don't want to spam you all babes, so I have scheduled them to be posted* throughout this week starting tomorrow 💙 queue will also be back on tomorrow

* (there are about 2 or 3 or so that I will be hoarding for a little longer, but with all of this done, I can at last spend a little extra focus on them 🥹 if there's anything I missed I apologise 🩷)

NOW, I have quite a few drafts I made during these past 2 weeks. They are weird and cringe and highly specific. I'm gonna post them all today / tomorrow because I don't want to deal with them any longer. Sorry but also not sorry 😌✌️

I'm giving them a "Timeout Drafts" tag so you know these don't necessarily reflect my mood for today (most likely they do - i stand by my opinions lmaoo).

Uhhhhhhhh and that's that I guess? Happy Halloween and all! 🎃🍂🍁 Today is hot as balls (damn heatwave), and I'm not having a wonderful time (also on my mensies 🥺) but hey. At least it's for a short time, I'm very looking forward to hoa hoa hoa weather.

Hmmmm what else, what else. I changed my blog a little, it looks cute! My ukulele arrived and SONGS are being LEARNT (learned? meh).

Hmmm, I catched up on a lot of shows. I've already posted my reviews on TUA S4 (🤢🥴💔💀🥲) and KAOS (🥹💖😚🥰❤️‍🔥) (i am indeed re-watching it), but I also finished Emily In Paris (LOVE the Italian guy, second part was much better than the 1st), and FINALLY watched S2 of Fleabag (oh my GOD YOU GUYS!!! I AM IN SHAMBLES!!! WOAH!!! PAIN AND AGONY!!! 🥺💔).

Uhhhhhhhhhh I think that's it. I need to cut my hair and bangs. Hope everyone has been eating good and drinking water and missing me a lot 😤🫵

====☁️=====☁️=====🌞======☁️==

🌲🌳🌲_🍄_🐇🦫_🧃🥪🧁🍇_🐿️🦔🐁_🍄_🌲🌳🌲

🌱 forest friends having a delicious picnic 🌱