#if it wasn't illegal to commission fanfic

[earlgrayfog]

my true calling in life is too be rich enough to fund my crippling fanfic addiction

[writingquestionsanswered]

In Possession of Departed Author's Last Works

Anonymous asked: My favorite fanfic author removed her work because she was being published. Unfortunately, she passed away after Volume 1, and the company went under. I've collected her deleted work for personal enjoyment and considered sharing it but now I'm not sure what to do. Ao3 says I need to ask her next of kin (complicated... I'm not comfortable hunting for/reaching out to family) or 'fannish' next of kin (there are none). So, how would you like to see your works handled if you passed away?

[Ask edited for length/clarity]

There seems to be two different questions here... you're struggling with what to do with this departed fanfic author's remaining work, which you have collected, but then your question is how "you" (I) would want my works handled if I passed away, and I'm not sure how these two questions are related. How I would want my own work to be handled in that event has nothing to do with this other author. I can't give you permission to do anything with this author's work by way of what I want done with my own.

Quick clarification here that I am not a lawyer or a copyright expert, so this is just all according to the best of my knowledge and experience...

In reference to the departed fanfic author: copyright belongs to the author or next of kin (the estate), and the extent of these rights can sometimes depend on the contract. The bottom line is that you do not have a legal right to publish, post, or otherwise publicly share these works without permission from the copyright holder, whether that's the publisher or the estate. And if these works are protected under trademark, from the trademark holder. And that's it, unfortunately. There's nowhere to go beyond that.

Without talking to the estate and/or publisher, you can't know what posthumous wishes were established by the author, if any. You also can't know where the remaining works were left off... maybe volume two was already written and the publisher has it, but is waiting for legal arrangements to come through with the estate. Maybe the manuscript wasn't finished, but the publisher has secured rights to the copyright so that they can hire a ghost writer to finish it... which doesn't mean they actually will. Again, without reaching out to these entities, you can't know, and posting or sharing these stories without permission is both fraudulent and illegal.

My strong recommendation to you would be to either hire a lawyer to help you reach out to the estate for permission, or let it go. ♥

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[disabledvash]

If it wasn't like illegal to commission fanfics I'd want one about cash with eds whump type shit but nooooo

[tyrantchimera]

Aww man I just woke up! But very well, I shall explain succinctly. This is a vital subject after all.

TL;DR: AI companies ignore the rights of others and steal (sometimes required to be free) content to train their programs and then profit off these programs, without giving any credit or royalties to those they steal from. These programs produce content that is likely illegal, and are damaging to the environment too. IMHO supporting AI in any way is sheer disrespect and entitlement. The more people use AI and steal from creators, the less incentive there is for creators to bother making things anymore. And that sucks for EVERYONE. Now for the full explanation: Primarily, AI programs steals the art, writing, and general creations of innumerable creators. Various art is fed into these Algorithmic Imitation programs to train them, and almost without exception, it is used without consent. Apart from various legal issues such as copyright infringement, it's just downright unethical. For art, some programs are even specifically designed to imitate certain artists (and therefore heavily jeopardize the ability for those artists to sell commissions, or is sheer disrespect to the ones who are deceased). This isn't even starting on how Voice AIs could hurt the prospects of the actors they're imitating. I don't care how much you want to hear that character talk, quit literally stealing real people's voices to fuel your fantasies. That's just so uncool. For writing AIs, it's been shown that the work of fanficton writers has been used to train them. There are plenty of more in-depth explanations out there for why this is so bad and downright RUDE but to sum it up: Fanficton MUST be written for free. Especially on AO3. FANFICTION IS FOR COMMUNITY, NOT PROFIT. (Technically this should be true for fanart as well, but that's a different issue.) Writers cannot profit off of it, lest they risk legal attacks that would otherwise destroy sites like AO3. So having these companies steal all the efforts of these writers, train their programs with fanfics, and then profit off selling the products? That the original writers/artists/etc themselves cannot profit off of? That's just downright despicable.

Even on an individual level, AI works of any kind are unethical to use for various moral and legal reasons. Legally, the use of AI is plagiarism. Various universities define plagiarism as "the process or practice of using another person's ideas or work and pretending that it is your own" and are already embroiled in battles against AI. After all, these programs learn to produce content using the works of other creators, do not credit those creators when they produce a prompt, and then people take those prompts and use them as if they are their own work. That is textbook plagiarism. And plagiarism is illegal, especially if it involves things like copyright infringement, breach of contract, etc.

And additional moral strike against AI (if all the theft and illegalities and disrespect towards the very creators it relies on wasn't already enough for you), then you'll be unhappy to know that AI is also environmentally very costly and damaging. There's plenty of discussion about the massive water and energy requirements for the servers used for AI. I don't have specific data to give you here. But suffice to say, it's not good.

In my personal opinion... if you see people using AI, you should tell them why it's bad, and block them if they refuse to stop using it. Or just block them right off the bat. And please, NEVER use AI yourself. Not even for idea prompts. DO NOT ENGAGE IN AI IN ANY WAY. Seriously there are so many other resources available for free on the internet, resources that have been OFFERED WILLINGLY. There's no reason to support AI in any way except for pure laziness and entitlement.

As a creator myself, who has had my work stolen even before this bullshit with AI erupted, I am seriously exhausted at how many times I have to tell people why they shouldn't be entitled to the hard work and efforts of others. It's not cool to repost instead of reblog (fuck Pinterest in particular for this). Exposure never paid many bills, especially if said 'exposure' doesn't actually credit the individual who made the 'content'. (any of you know the name of artists who made the pictures on your dollar bills? No? My point exactly.) Many artists rely on commissions! By taking their works and using them as if they're your own, you're often removing them from the equation. Financially, it's problematic. Plus, it's just personally VERY HURTFUL when people just take something you've put so many hours, days, weeks, maybe even months into creating! And then completely disrespects all that effort by using YOUR art however they want. (I once had a piece of art that got less than 1000 interactions on it, on all the sites I posted it on COMBINED, and then some asshole used it for their youtube intro, without crediting me for it, and they got 53k views. FFS). AI makes things so much worse, as it is art theft on a massive scale. Speaking from my own personal experience, it's incredibly disheartening to see people so unaware and/or disrespectful towards the effort needed to make things, to see people see your hard-made creations as nothing more than a product, rather than the labour (and passion) it is. Plenty of creators are restricting who can access their creations, putting on watermarks, or altering their works with programs like Nightshade and Glaze just to protect themselves. This does affect the quality of the art they submit... and that's if they haven't given up on creating all together. Why bother making anything if no one appreciates it? If someone is just going to steal it anyways? No, screw that. Art theft, and AI in general, is stymieing the very creators you all so love.

have you ever used character a.i?

i tried it today, i got yelled at by al for having a musli bar for breakfast, he then burned the hotel down because he put a can of beans in the microwave. its a fun time.

No i don't and i don't recommend using it at all

@tyrantchimera explain why please

[lay-z]

On your post thanking writers who write for free, I couldnt help but wonder if you were talking about someone specific who takes commissions? I only know one maybe 2 in the fandom who take commissions?

Hello, dear anon! Uh, no I wasn't talking about anyone specific, I wasn't even talking about one fandom only; I'm thanking all writers and artist who work for free and spend their time creating content, because they love doing it 💜 I was just putting that small note in the hashtags, because I was talking about it with a friend some days ago, and writing fanfiction for money (if it's not your own original content, like characters, etc.) it is not legal, I just wanted to point that out. I'm sure there are some loopholes or whatever, but from what I know and read/researched it is, in fact, illegal.

I hope I could answer your question 💜

P.S.: I remember on the German fanfic website (fanfiktion.de) we kinda had to put a disclaimer at every beginning of a fanfic, to make sure we don't get in trouble for writing it.