#no copyright infringement requested

[doctornolonger]

The story of Tegorak

In one mysterious passage of Lance Parkin’s The Infinity Doctors, two members of the Chancellory Guard visit a long-forgotten room called Archive Chamber 403:

The room, like many in this part of the Capitol, was filled with dusty display cases and ancient lacquered cabinets. Raimor knew that this was part of the Citadel that dated back to the time of Rassilon. It was still possible to see that from the angle of the roof, the quality of the masonry, the shape of the room. The brickwork and panelling along one wall was recent, a partition perhaps only ten millennia old, but it couldn’t hide the room’s heritage: in former times this had been an open balcony which had overlooked the old starharbour. Since then this room must have been a hundred things, from the office of a high‐ranking Ordinal to student lodgings. Nowadays no one ever came here, except the patrol. […] One comer was dominated by a vast suit of armour. A rusty plaque informed anyone who read it that it had once belonged to Tegorak, although the name meant nothing to Captain Raimor.

The name “Tegorak” means nothing to the book’s readers, either – unless those readers are lucky enough to be familiar with an obscure fanzine called Apocrypha. We’ve joked about the idea of Doctor Who apocrypha, but this is the real deal: Adrian Middleton never wrote an official story, but his work in Apocrypha from 1993 to 1995 impacted some of the Wilderness era’s most influential authors, leaving his subtle mark on everything from Big Finish’s Gallifrey to – of course – Faction Paradox.

Copies of Apocrypha were shared with me by a generous friend who was researching some of these references, and as I make my way through the issues, I’ll be posting about all of the various ways they influenced later stories at my #Doctor Who Apocrypha tag. But for today, our topic is Tegorak.

Below the cut you can discover Tegorak’s full story, posted online for the first time. Travel with me to millions of years back in time, just 50,000 years after Morbius’ rebellion, 160,000 years before the birth of the Doctor…

Relevant entries from Apocrypha

THE INVASIONS     -12,188,000/-12,150,250 (112,000/149,750 Q)

After thousands of years separated from the rest of the galaxy, the Time Lords found that, for each culture that died, more new ones would arise. With the expansion of so many civilisations, Time Lord secrecy could not be enforced. A string of increasingly dangerous attacks upon Gallifrey were launched by successive cultures, all of whom knew of the legend of the Time Lords.

BLACK MOUNTAIN     -12,150,250 (149,750 Q)

As invasions against Gallifrey became more frequent and, potentially, more dangerous, a young Arcalian Cardinal named Tegorak rose to prominence.

Tegorak (whose name meant “Black Mountain”) called for a positive means of defending Gallifrey. In the midst of a particularly nasty invasion by a race known as the Sybarils, the old President was killed, naming Tegorak as his successor. Thus, at 330, Tegorak became the youngest President ever. Taking up a sword and donning the battle armour of an ancient Gallifreyan Warlord, he was forced to carry the battle to the steps of the Citadel itself. The last of the Sybaril invaders [pictured below – ed.] fell as an emergency meeting of the High Council was called.

THE GREAT CRUSADE     -12,150,204 (149,796 Q)

President Tegorak decreed that the preservation of Gallifreyan society could only be achieved by setting up a line of defence surrounding Kasterborus. To do this, all planets within the constellation would need to be controlled by the Time Lords. Recruiting a small army from the normal Gallifreyan populace, he took his fleet to the worlds neighbouring Gallifrey. There he recruited a vast mercenary army, establishing a number of defensive outposts.

Resentful of the new President’s policies, some worlds in Kasterborus moved against the Time Lords, having to be dealt with in what was described as a ‘necessarily bloody manner’.

THE BETRAYAL     -12,150,200 (149,800 Q)

While Tegorak was away the Matrix Lords made contact with Chancellor Garlan, ruler of Gallifrey in the President’s absence. Projecting images of a bloody future in which Time Lord society would be supplanted by the mercenary followers of Tegorak (who would go on to form a vast cosmic empire), the Matrix Lords convinced him that Tegorak would have to die.

Garlan dispatched an assassin to kill the President. The attempt failed, and Tegorak returned to discuss the attempt on his life with his fellow Time Lords. In the mean time, Garlan had convinced the remainder of the High Council of the threat that Tegorak now posed. So, when the President arrived to address the Panopticon, he was shot down by his fellow Time Lords.

THE ESCAPE     -12,150,200 (149,800 Q)

Avoiding death by use of the Presidential Time Ring, Tegorak returned to his TARDIS where he was forced to regenerate. Fearing his bloody revenge (he was easily capable of destroying Gallifrey), Garlan turned to the Matrix Lords for guidance. Rassilon himself intervened, and laid a trap for Tegorak, preventing him from taking any action against Gallifrey.

WHERE DO ‘BLACK MOUNTAIN’ AND ‘THE GREAT CRUSADE’ COME FROM?

Essentially, these are creations of my own, taken from a storyline that I have. Basically, Rassilon cannot, in Gallifrey’s 12 Million year history, be the only hero of Time Lord society. Black Mountain is the Gallifreyan equivalent of Alexander the Great, carving out a space empire to guarantee the safety of his own people. He is Julius Caesar, Charlemagne and King Arthur, an allegorical character who did nothing but good for his people, and who was repaid with betrayal by his closest friends.

Commentary

With the exception of my editorial comment (marked in brackets with “– ed.”), the quotes above come from Apocrypha issue 2 pages 4, 5, and 29. Regarding the dates next to each event, I’ll share Middleton’s original explanation in a future post, but the short version is that “-12,150,200” means 12,150,200 BC, and “Q” refers to years after Rassilon’s founding of Time Lord society.

Besides the namedrop of Tegorak in The Infinity Doctors, I don’t think the “Black Mountain” has been mentioned in any other official Doctor Who sources – although please tell me if I’m missing something!

But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t had any impact. Just one page before Apocrypha introduces Tegorak, it summarizes the story of another outsider Lord President who was exiled and then gathered a mercenary army to attack Gallifrey: Morbius, from the Classic serial The Brain of Morbius. It’s hard not to notice the parallels – and I think there are clear signs that the Tegorak story influenced later depictions of the Morbius Presidency.

The full discussion of that will have to wait for a future installment, though. There are more Apocrypha puzzle pieces to collect first!

[jonberry555]

PSA: Don't Steal Content

Unbelievable, I just found a channel that had reuploaded 18 of my videos. What is even worse, some of their unauthorized reuploads had more views than my original videos did. Using my Thumbnails as well, couldn't even hide them with different thumbnails. So I submitted a takedown request. For their privacy (or should I say piracy) I won't reveal the channel, but I never expected someone to be so bold in how they copied my content.

[the-pen-pot]

*SIGHS*

Another AO3 app that's pretending to be official when it's not (or at least isn't making it clear its unofficial.) They're using AO3's name and logo, and embedding ads.

There is no official AO3 app

Someone else is gathering your data, potentially your log in information etc and making use of it how they please. (They say they're not but their privacy policy says otherwise)

They are making money from the ads without the fic writer's consent.

They've also rated it Pegi 3 (which is ludicrous)

Please, even if you care about nothing else, for the safety of your data, please don't use this app. Certainly don't give it your AO3 log in details.

I've told AO3 that it's infringing on its copyright. I will be requesting they remove access of my work as I do not consent to my creative content being used to generate ad revenue for them.

I will be reporting it as incorrectly rated.

The only email address I can find is Narusta@gmail.com which is included in their privacy policy, and boboxway13@gmail.com as their developer.

[crowcfr]

oh dude this being written about flight rising is hilarious; you've clearly never played a game designed around economy with no true economic system whatsoever implemented before. discord economy game bots make flight rising look like fucking wall street

[johnnymartyr]

Taking Down a Scraper Site for 35mmc and How You Can Fight Image Theft

by Johnny Martyr After many years of readership, I finally made my inaugural post on the internet’s largest film photography blog site, 35mmc. While in communication with owner Hamish Gill, he lamented about having found a what is known as a scraper site that was carbon-copying nearly 100% of the content from 35mmmc. All author links were being stripped from articles with their words and photos…

[aiolegalservices]

Streamlining Business Compliance: AIO Legal Services for AML, GDPR, and Intellectual Property Rights

  In today’s fast-paced and ever-changing business landscape, regulatory compliance has become an indispensable aspect for companies operating in the UK. Failure to adhere to Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements, and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) laws can lead to severe consequences, including financial penalties, reputational…

[neil-gaiman]

Hello Mr. Gaiman,

I know you are not a copyright lawyer, but you are an author who has been producing and interacting with copyrighted works for longer than I've been alive, so I thought I'd just ask: Where is the line between making a pop culture reference in a work and infringing on copyright?

I sincerely struggle to believe that every mention of characters like Yoda, Wonder Woman, or the Doctor in books, movies, songs, etc. gets approved by Lucasfilm, DC Comics, or the BBC before going out in the world, but am I wrong? Does having a character in a novel or comic book dress up as, say, Coraline for Halloween require coordination with you (and possibly Laika as well)?

While it's a long shot, I thought I'd ask you, in case you see this and have an answer.

Thank you for your time,

Brian

I can give you the same answer that a copyright lawyer would. At least at the beginning. "It's complicated, and it all depends," is how it would begin.

After that it moves into specifics. In the last season of Good Omens, for example, I got permission from Iain Banks's widow to have The Crow Road front and centre and to see the first sentence on screen. On the other hand I didn't get specific permission to talk about Doctor Who (or invent the 1964 Doctor Who Annual). (On the other other hand I knew nobody was going to complain about that because the BBC were the production studio making Good Omens and if they had wanted to grumble they would have let me know early.) We got permission from the Buddy Holly estate/music publishers to use Buddy Holly's song Everyday, but we didn't seek or get permission to use the song in the plot.

Fair use exists, transformational use of copyrighted material exists, and parody exists, and all of these things mean that if you're watching a Halloween episode of something where the kids are dressed as Coraline, Freddy Krueger, the Scream killer, and Pinhead, permission might have been granted or it might not have been requested.

[feminist-space]

"Artists have finally had enough with Meta’s predatory AI policies, but Meta’s loss is Cara’s gain. An artist-run, anti-AI social platform, Cara has grown from 40,000 to 650,000 users within the last week, catapulting it to the top of the App Store charts.

Instagram is a necessity for many artists, who use the platform to promote their work and solicit paying clients. But Meta is using public posts to train its generative AI systems, and only European users can opt out, since they’re protected by GDPR laws. Generative AI has become so front-and-center on Meta’s apps that artists reached their breaking point.

“When you put [AI] so much in their face, and then give them the option to opt out, but then increase the friction to opt out… I think that increases their anger level — like, okay now I’ve really had enough,” Jingna Zhang, a renowned photographer and founder of Cara, told TechCrunch.

Cara, which has both a web and mobile app, is like a combination of Instagram and X, but built specifically for artists. On your profile, you can host a portfolio of work, but you can also post updates to your feed like any other microblogging site.

Zhang is perfectly positioned to helm an artist-centric social network, where they can post without the risk of becoming part of a training dataset for AI. Zhang has fought on behalf of artists, recently winning an appeal in a Luxembourg court over a painter who copied one of her photographs, which she shot for Harper’s Bazaar Vietnam.

“Using a different medium was irrelevant. My work being ‘available online’ was irrelevant. Consent was necessary,” Zhang wrote on X.

Zhang and three other artists are also suing Google for allegedly using their copyrighted work to train Imagen, an AI image generator. She’s also a plaintiff in a similar lawsuit against Stability AI, Midjourney, DeviantArt and Runway AI.

“Words can’t describe how dehumanizing it is to see my name used 20,000+ times in MidJourney,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “My life’s work and who I am—reduced to meaningless fodder for a commercial image slot machine.”

Artists are so resistant to AI because the training data behind many of these image generators includes their work without their consent. These models amass such a large swath of artwork by scraping the internet for images, without regard for whether or not those images are copyrighted. It’s a slap in the face for artists – not only are their jobs endangered by AI, but that same AI is often powered by their work.

“When it comes to art, unfortunately, we just come from a fundamentally different perspective and point of view, because on the tech side, you have this strong history of open source, and people are just thinking like, well, you put it out there, so it’s for people to use,” Zhang said. “For artists, it’s a part of our selves and our identity. I would not want my best friend to make a manipulation of my work without asking me. There’s a nuance to how we see things, but I don’t think people understand that the art we do is not a product.”

This commitment to protecting artists from copyright infringement extends to Cara, which partners with the University of Chicago’s Glaze project. By using Glaze, artists who manually apply Glaze to their work on Cara have an added layer of protection against being scraped for AI.

Other projects have also stepped up to defend artists. Spawning AI, an artist-led company, has created an API that allows artists to remove their work from popular datasets. But that opt-out only works if the companies that use those datasets honor artists’ requests. So far, HuggingFace and Stability have agreed to respect Spawning’s Do Not Train registry, but artists’ work cannot be retroactively removed from models that have already been trained.

“I think there is this clash between backgrounds and expectations on what we put on the internet,” Zhang said. “For artists, we want to share our work with the world. We put it online, and we don’t charge people to view this piece of work, but it doesn’t mean that we give up our copyright, or any ownership of our work.”"

Read the rest of the article here:

https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/06/a-social-app-for-creatives-cara-grew-from-40k-to-650k-users-in-a-week-because-artists-are-fed-up-with-metas-ai-policies/

[mariacallous]

In a product demo last week, OpenAI showcased a synthetic but expressive voice for ChatGPT called “Sky” that reminded many viewers of the flirty AI girlfriend Samantha played by Scarlett Johansson in the 2013 film Her. One of those viewers was Johansson herself, who promptly hired legal counsel and sent letters to OpenAI demanding an explanation, according to a statement released later. In response, the company on Sunday halted use of Sky and published a blog post insisting that it “is not an imitation of Scarlett Johansson but belongs to a different professional actress using her own natural speaking voice.”

Johansson’s statement, released Monday, said she was “shocked, angered, and in disbelief” by OpenAI’s demo using a voice she called “so eerily similar to mine that my closest friends and news outlets could not tell the difference.” Johansson revealed that she had turned down a request last year from the company’s CEO, Sam Altman, to voice ChatGPT and that he had reached out again two days before last week’s demo in an attempt to change her mind.

It’s unclear if Johansson plans to take additional legal action against OpenAI. Her counsel on the dispute with OpenAI is John Berlinski, a partner at Los Angeles law firm Bird Marella, who represented her in a lawsuit against Disney claiming breach of contract, settled in 2021. (OpenAI’s outside counsel working on this matter is Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati partner David Kramer, who is based in Silicon Valley and has defended Google and YouTube on copyright infringement cases.) If Johansson does pursue a claim against OpenAI, some intellectual property experts suspect it could focus on “right of publicity” laws, which protect people from having their name or likeness used without authorization.

James Grimmelmann, a professor of digital and internet law at Cornell University, believes Johansson could have a good case. “You can't imitate someone else's distinctive voice to sell stuff,” he says. OpenAI declined to comment for this story, but yesterday released a statement from Altman claiming Sky “was never intended to resemble” the star, adding, “We are sorry to Ms. Johansson that we didn’t communicate better.”

Johansson’s dispute with OpenAI drew notice in part because the company is embroiled in a number of lawsuits brought by artists and writers. They allege that the company breached copyright by using creative work to train AI models without first obtaining permission. But copyright law would be unlikely to play a role for Johansson, as one cannot copyright a voice. “It would be right of publicity,” says Brian L. Frye, a professor at the University of Kentucky’s College of Law focusing on intellectual property. “She’d have no other claims.”

Several lawyers WIRED spoke with said a case Bette Midler brought against Ford Motor Company and its advertising agency Young & Rubicam in the late 1980s provides a legal precedent. After turning down the ad agency’s offers to perform one of her songs in a car commercial, Midler sued when the company hired one of her backup singers to impersonate her sound. “Ford was basically trying to profit from using her voice,” says Jennifer E. Rothman, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, who wrote a 2018 book called The Right of Publicity: Privacy Reimagined for a Public World. “Even though they didn't literally use her voice, they were instructing someone to sing in a confusingly similar manner to Midler.”

It doesn’t matter whether a person’s actual voice is used in an imitation or not, Rothman says, only whether that audio confuses listeners. In the legal system, there is a big difference between imitation and simply recording something “in the style” of someone else. “No one owns a style,” she says.

Other legal experts don’t see what OpenAI did as a clear-cut impersonation. “I think that any potential ‘right of publicity’ claim from Scarlett Johansson against OpenAI would be fairly weak given the only superficial similarity between the ‘Sky’ actress' voice and Johansson, under the relevant case law,” Colorado law professor Harry Surden wrote on X on Tuesday. Frye, too, has doubts. “OpenAI didn’t say or even imply it was offering the real Scarlett Johansson, only a simulation. If it used her name or image to advertise its product, that would be a right-of-publicity problem. But merely cloning the sound of her voice probably isn’t,” he says.

But that doesn’t mean OpenAI is necessarily in the clear. “Juries are unpredictable,” Surden added.

Frye is also uncertain how any case might play out, because he says right of publicity is a fairly “esoteric” area of law. There are no federal right-of-publicity laws in the United States, only a patchwork of state statutes. “It’s a mess,” he says, although Johansson could bring a suit in California, which has fairly robust right-of-publicity laws.

OpenAI’s chances of defending a right-of-publicity suit could be weakened by a one-word post on X—“her”—from Sam Altman on the day of last week’s demo. It was widely interpreted as a reference to Her and Johansson’s performance. “It feels like AI from the movies,” Altman wrote in a blog post that day.

To Grimmelmann at Cornell, those references weaken any potential defense OpenAI might mount claiming the situation is all a big coincidence. “They intentionally invited the public to make the identification between Sky and Samantha. That's not a good look,” Grimmelmann says. “I wonder whether a lawyer reviewed Altman's ‘her’ tweet.” Combined with Johansson’s revelations that the company had indeed attempted to get her to provide a voice for its chatbots—twice over—OpenAI’s insistence that Sky is not meant to resemble Samantha is difficult for some to believe.

“It was a boneheaded move,” says David Herlihy, a copyright lawyer and music industry professor at Northeastern University. “A miscalculation.”

Other lawyers see OpenAI’s behavior as so manifestly goofy they suspect the whole scandal might be a deliberate stunt—that OpenAI judged that it could trigger controversy by going forward with a sound-alike after Johansson declined to participate but that the attention it would receive from seemed to outweigh any consequences. “What’s the point? I say it’s publicity,” says Purvi Patel Albers, a partner at the law firm Haynes Boone who often takes intellectual property cases. “The only compelling reason—maybe I’m giving them too much credit—is that everyone’s talking about them now, aren’t they?”

[ninja-knox-ur-sox-off]

THAT'S RIGHT FOLKS after goodness knows how long, Knox Commissions are finally Open!

There are 5 Slots Available for this run. [August 17th 2024.] If things go well I hope to open more in the future!

If you'd like to see more examples of my art feel free to scroll through my art tag #KNOX ART (me)

Update [oct 11 2024]: All slots have been filled! Commissions closed. We’ll be back in a bit folks!

[T.O.S below cut]

Terms of service

01 - General Terms

• Prices are subject to change based on demand.

• I have the right to reject any order for any reason.

• I may not respond to e-mails/messages or do commission work on Sundays.

• Do not share my personal/legal information (my legal name etc.) with any third parties. If you do you forfeit your right to the commission and you will be blacklisted from ever commissioning me again.

02 - Payment

• The currency accepted is CAD or USD and can be paid through PayPal, or Kofi.

• Commissions can be paid either 100% upfront or split 50% upfront and 50% after sketch approval.

• Don’t send me any payment before I have agreed to give you a slot and requested you to send me the payment.

03 - Process & Delivery

• ​The time it takes to finish your commission varies 1 week - 3 months depending on factors such as health, the complexity of the commissioned piece, other work, and personal matters.

• Once the piece is finished you will receive the full-resolution image. Note that there is no physical product.

04 - Revisions

• You get 3 rounds of changes on the commissioned piece included in the price.

• A fee will be added if you want something changed on the final drawing - unless a misunderstanding from my side has been made.

• If you wish for me to change something in the drawing you have previously approved, I will charge you a fee to change it. The amount of the extra charge depends on the change you want me to make and is usually based on an hourly wage.

• If your reference is unclear to start with, changes will come at an extra charge.

05 - Copyright & Usage

• I, "Knox" (the artist):

• I reserve the right to cancel and refund the order at any time for any reason.

• I retain all copyrights over the commissioned artwork.

• I will NOT claim the intellectual property (IP) of the commissioned artwork (your characters are still yours, etc.)

• I will NOT profit further from the commissioned artwork unless you (the customer) break any of the terms.

• I reserve the right to post the commissioned artwork online, in my portfolio as well as in publications such as art books.

• You (the customer/commissioner):

• You may upload the commissioned artwork on any website and social channels.

• You may NOT make profits from the commissioned piece (reselling, redistributing, uploading to POD-services, making prints for selling, using in a monetized youtube channel thumbnail etc.)

• You may NOT alter the commissioned artwork without my (the artist's) consent.

• You MAY be allowed to sell the artwork if it is a part of an Adoptable. Please discuss this with me (the artist) prior to paying for the artwork though.

• You retain the rights to the intellectual property (IP).

• You may NOT use the commissioned artwork for commercial purposes.

• The following is considered copyright infringement:​

• Reproducing/using the copyrighted artwork commercially - means making money off it in any way not excluded from these terms.

• Claiming the artwork as your own

• Altering the artwork without my consent (making changes by hand or through AI generation etc.)

• In some cases, the commercial rights to the image may be purchased.

06 - Cancellation & Refund policy

• The buyer is not allowed a refund once I have started working on the commission.

• If for any reason I am unable to start your commission you will receive a full refund.

• If you cancel your order before I started it, you can get a full refund.

• The kill fee for cancelling the commission after work has begun is 50% of the commission's price. The client then receives the work as is.

• If the buyer wishes to cancel the commission after the work has started, the buyer can be issued a refund but agrees to pay the kill fee.

Paypal specific:

• If you are getting a refund, do not request a Paypal chargeback. I will transfer the money back to you myself.

• If you request a Paypal chargeback at any point when you were not allowed to ask for a refund you will lose all aforementioned rights to the commissioned piece and I will have the full right to profit further from it in any way. I will decline the chargeback and supply Paypal with our conversations in which we talk about the commission as evidence that I have completed work for you. Furthermore, you will be blacklisted for commissioning me again.

By commissioning me you acknowledge that you have read through the Terms of Service and agree to abide by the terms stated as well as accept the outcomes stated if the aforementioned terms are violated at any time.

[damnfandomproblems]

Fandom Problem #6083:

Apparently setting boundaries is censorship now /s

If someone politely requests that you don't make 18+ art of their characters because it makes them uncomfortable, then you need to respect that. Acting like your artistic rights are being taken away because you can't draw ONE set of characters is fucking immature.

"But if they didn't want porn to be made of their characters, then why post them at all?"

"Well I'm sorry sir, I know that man tried to mug you. But really it's all your fault, you really shouldn't have been wearing that fancy watch while you were walking alone at night! If you didn't want to get mugged, then why wear anything nice at all?" Do you see how stupid that argument sounds now? You can't go around being all #ARTISTSDESERVERESPECT, only to then turn around and act like you're being oppressed when an artist asks the most basic, non-consequential form of respect from you.

"But what about Anne Rice?"

Not everyone is fucking Anne Rice, Copernicus. Asking someone not to draw NSFW art of a character is not the same thing as threatening legal action against them for copyright infringement. And if your first response to someone saying "respect the artist's choices/boundaries" is to cite the actions of a completely different person, that happened for completely different reasons, that happened well over a decade ago, and that person is not even alive anymore, mind you... I think that says way more about your entitled ass than anybody else.

tl;dr it's not that hard to respect people, stop acting like it is, you spoiled brat.

[doctornolonger]

The Killer Cats of Gin-Seng

In Survival, the last regular serial of Classic Doctor Who, the Doctor and Ace visit a planet of humanoid cats called “Cheetah People”. The Cheetah People are highly telepathic: they can mentally control and inhabit their pet cats, and they can even teleport between planets. Most notably, one of them is played by Lisa Barrowman, better known as Bernice Summerfield.

But this wasn’t actually the first time that humanoid cats had been set to appear in Doctor Who. In 1977, script editor Anthony Read commissioned his former collaborator David Weir to write the Season 15 finale, a four-part serial set on Gallifrey. The request was to explore society outside the Capitol with an emphasis on morality, a theme which Weir had written well in the past. So he pitched a story about Gallifreyan civilization of humanoid cats.

The Gallifreyan cat-people would have mirrored real-world cats’ dual penchant for both sophistication and savagery: they would appear advanced and civilized until the Doctor wound up in one of their elaborate gladiatorial displays! Weir delivered his scripts on time, and production proceeded to the point that Dee Robson designed costumes for the cat actors.

Ultimately the story was cancelled: Weir, by all accounts an excellent screenwriter, dramatically overestimated the show’s VFX capabilities and budget. But executive producer Graham Williams later mentioned the idea at a fan convention, so it became well-known in fandom (albeit under the false name The Killer Cats of Geng Singh). As a result, when Survival finally brought cat people to screens, fans naturally canonwelded the two.

One of these fans was Adrian Middleton, editor of the Apocrypha fanzine. Here’s how Apocrypha issue 1 covered the cats:

Apocrypha on the Killer Cats

THE GIANT CATS     -16,000,000

The first intelligent mammalians on Gallifrey evolved from its version of the sabre-toothed Tiger. These giant cats developed a rudimentary form of empathic communication, which allowed them to influence the actions of their prey.

Over an extended period of time, the cats developed a finer telepathic ability, allowing them to actually control other species. This became a necessity as feline culture grew, as their physiological form prevented the use of tools to build or write with. Thus, in spite of their intelligence, the cats could not establish a true civilisation without anthropoid assistance.

FELINOID CIVILISATION     -14,000,000

Early Gallifreyan hominids soon became the tools of feline culture. The first buildings on the planet were built by hominids but designed by cats, taking the form of vast stone arenas, in which the cats would use lesser species for sport - hunting and killing for pleasure rather than survival.

HOMINIDS     -14,000,000/-13,980,000

Forced to live alongside saurian and feline predators, Gallifrey's first hominid tribes evolved as creatures of guile and stealth. Communities were established using primitive communications. These hominids were the cave-people, the tree-people, and the river-people.

THE FALL OF THE GIANT CATS     -13,980,000

The hominid tribes had at first been easy prey for the cats, easily manipulated as a supply of muscle and food. Ultimately, however, the development of feline culture accelerated the development of hominid culture. Being made to use their hands and having the telepathic parts of their minds manipulated awakened a new sense of purpose within them. Seeing the cats as their slavers, they rebelled, exposing the cats to a coup so bloody that the species was all but wiped from the face of the planet.

THE LEGEND OF THE VANISHING CATS     -13,800,000

It is rumoured that, after their defeat by the hominids, the giant cats fled to the mountains, where they hoped to restore their numbers (perhaps in an effort to restore their power over the hominids). Often hunting parties would venture into these mountains, bringing back the occasional cat. It seemed that the mental strength of the hominids had come to match their feline contemporaries.

Other psychic powers were attributed to the cats, including the power of teleportation. In Gallifrey's southern hemisphere, atop one of its highest mountains, there stands a crudely erected stone circle. Gallifreyan archaeologists determined that this was built by the cats themselves. Legend states that the giant cats emigrated by mass teleportation to another worlds. Few giant cats were seen from this time on, and those that did appear bore no telepathic powers. However, smaller domestic cats, or Kitlings, retained this ability.

WHY LINK THE KITLINGS FROM 'SURVIVAL' WITH THE KILLER CATS OF GALLIFREY?

The 'cat' theme is one that has been expanded on greatly in recent years. Colin Baker's cat motif and 'I am the cat that walks alone' slogan, followed by Eric Saward's novelisation of 'Slipback', set a pace followed by 'Survival' and the 'Cat's Cradle' trilogy.

Upon learning about 'The Killer Cats of Ginseng' by David Weir, everything seemed to fit into place. Cats can't exist everywhere in the universe, they have to come from somewhere - we have Earth cats, and Gallifrey has telepathic or empathic cats, just like the Kitlings.

Commentary

Since the 90s, a few stories have referenced the killer cats idea. Gary Russell’s VMA Invasion of the Cat-People mentions “mercenaries of Gin-Seng” alongside the Cheetah People in a list of felinoid species (hence the “canonical” spelling); there’s a similar offhand mention in Big Finish’s Erasure. But there’s only been one actual appearance of one of the cats: Daniel O’Mahony’s Faction Paradox short story “The Return of the King” (pdf).

“The Return of the King” is a prelude to the author’s 2008 novel Newtons Sleep. In that book there’s a glimpse of “the nocturnal delegations of the wild things, whose sharp bright teeth and claws gleamed in the dark of their robes.” The prelude elaborates,

[Time Lord Thessalia’s] oracle stays at the window, seething playfully below his hood. He has fiercely intelligent eyes, neither as sharp nor as bright as his scar. His mouth is a succulent white smile in a lightless face. His people have nothing but contempt for the rituals of the Great Houses. She’s little better than prey to him, a bloodless snack for his long teeth and hungry mind. He breathes, honeyed air purring out of the cavities of his body.

A killer cat kept as a Time Lord’s personal oracle … as @rassilon-imprimatur​ once noted, a funny recontextualization of The Mark of the Rani’s reference to the Lord President’s “pet cat”!

This was my first exposure to the killer cats, so I always took it for granted that they’d always had psychic or oracular abilities. But in fact, as best as I can tell, there was zero hint of this in the original serial. I tracked down every published description of the story, and they all amount to the same few repeated bits of information: Gallifrey, humanoid cats, and a gladiatorial arena. Richard Bignell ultimately told me, “No summary of Killers of the Dark exists. Even David Weir couldn’t recall anything about it when I spoke to him.”

So when “The Return of the King” features an oracular cat-man, it’s not just a reference to the unmade Classic serial. It’s a reference to fan interpretations like Middleton’s which canonweld that serial with the psychic Cheetah People.

And in some ways, it seems to be referencing Middleton’s version specifically! In “The Return of the King”, the above quoted memory is interrupted by commentary:

Your first oracle? ‘My last.’ You think? But his kind were vanishing from the world. ‘They were escaping the War. They could see it coming.’

Compare:

Legend states that the giant cats emigrated by mass teleportation to another worlds. Few giant cats were seen from this time on, and those that did appear bore no telepathic powers.

And so Middleton explains how the cats vanished in O’Mahony’s telling, and O’Mahony explains why they vanished.

Afterword

While we’re on the topic of why, why did O’Mahony choose to revive this specific idea in “The Return of the King”?

One of the places I checked for Killers of the Dark details was issue 336 of Doctor Who Magazine. Imagine how thrilled I was to find that the relevant “Accidental Tourist” piece, located one page after a Faction Paradox ad, was written by none other than O’Mahony himself!

Part of his reflection was particularly striking. He recaps the wild undefinedness of the Doctor’s backstory, a topic I’ve discussed before on this blog. But in his telling, the uncertainty extends past The War Games all the way to The Deadly Assassin.

After all, The War Games declared that “the Doctor’s people are the Time Lords”, but “who are the Time Lords?” was still left undefined. In the Time Lords’ many subsequent appearances, they were simply walking plot devices, and lore details were left to the wayside. Contradictions were rife. Who was Rassilon to Omega? Is their planet called “Gallifrey” or “Jewel”? Who or what on earth are the “First”, “Second”, and “Third Time Lord” who exiled the Doctor?

It was The Deadly Assassin which first dove into the details by featuring the Time Lords like they were any other of the show’s alien cultures. And for this, it was widely panned: “the fans had voted it the worst story of Season Fourteen and published reviews vociferously attacking its ‘betrayal’ of the Time Lords. The BBC practically disowned it, physically vandalising the master tape to placate Mary Whitehouse.” In other words, the stage was all set for a discarding of Holmes’ Time Lords.

O’Mahony writes in his conclusion,

The Deadly Assassin could have remained a one-off, its vision of the Doctor’s homeworld set at odds not just with the Gallifrey stories of the past but also those of the future. The Killer Cats of Geng Singh was the last chance to slip the leash. Williams loved the Time Lords but he had a raft of other ideas he could have put into play, not least the frustratingly deferred Guardians who were clearly intended as a new rung of the series cosmology above and beyond the Time Lords. The premise of Killer Cats was also to counterpoint the Time Lords with another Gallifreyan species – a race of humanoid cats that delighted in bloodthirsty gladiatorial contests alongside a highly refined culture. This wasn’t cribbing from The Deadly Assassin, this was building something new that would expand the newly-forged mythology of the series. In fact, with the cat-people on board and the Guardians waiting in the wings, the possibilities for Time Lord mythology were fluid. It might be possible to return to Gallifrey and find something new and exciting each time, different Gallifreys, with a mutable and ever-expanding history.

However, thanks to Killers of the Dark’s cancellation, Williams and Read were left with a slot to fill on short notice, and for The Invasion of Time they ultimately turned back to Holmes’ ideas. The Deadly Assassin wasn’t discarded or undermined, it was reentrenched.

This was the real moment that the Time Lords as we know them were crystallized: a real-world anchoring of the thread. This was when the whimsically-named planet “Gallifrey” definitively transformed into the rationalistic, stagnant, bureaucratic Homeworld that would feature in the Faction Paradox series.

Because in FP, by the time Grandfather Paradox enters the scene, the Great Houses are total strangers to whismy. It’s only through the course of the War that their understanding of the cosmos is broadened and stranger things begin to return to the Homeworld (with great vengeance).

By showing us a cat in the flesh, O’Mahony is finishing the housekeeping: just as the Intuitive Revelation banished the Pythia, the Eremites, and the Carnival Queen; just as the Grey Eminence unwrote Gallifrey’s first childbirth; and just as the Eternals “despaired of this reality, and fled their hallowed halls” at first hint of conflict – the Killer Cats have to leave to set the scene for the War to come.

P.S.

In Baker’s End, Tom Baker wound up “the King of Cats”. What does this imply about the Other?!?

[reasonsforhope]

got anything good, boss?

Sure do!

-

"Weeks after The New York Times updated its terms of service (TOS) to prohibit AI companies from scraping its articles and images to train AI models, it appears that the Times may be preparing to sue OpenAI. The result, experts speculate, could be devastating to OpenAI, including the destruction of ChatGPT's dataset and fines up to $150,000 per infringing piece of content.

NPR spoke to two people "with direct knowledge" who confirmed that the Times' lawyers were mulling whether a lawsuit might be necessary "to protect the intellectual property rights" of the Times' reporting.

Neither OpenAI nor the Times immediately responded to Ars' request to comment.

If the Times were to follow through and sue ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, NPR suggested that the lawsuit could become "the most high-profile" legal battle yet over copyright protection since ChatGPT's explosively popular launch. This speculation comes a month after Sarah Silverman joined other popular authors suing OpenAI over similar concerns, seeking to protect the copyright of their books.

Of course, ChatGPT isn't the only generative AI tool drawing legal challenges over copyright claims. In April, experts told Ars that image-generator Stable Diffusion could be a "legal earthquake" due to copyright concerns.

But OpenAI seems to be a prime target for early lawsuits, and NPR reported that OpenAI risks a federal judge ordering ChatGPT's entire data set to be completely rebuilt—if the Times successfully proves the company copied its content illegally and the court restricts OpenAI training models to only include explicitly authorized data. OpenAI could face huge fines for each piece of infringing content, dealing OpenAI a massive financial blow just months after The Washington Post reported that ChatGPT has begun shedding users, "shaking faith in AI revolution." Beyond that, a legal victory could trigger an avalanche of similar claims from other rights holders.

Unlike authors who appear most concerned about retaining the option to remove their books from OpenAI's training models, the Times has other concerns about AI tools like ChatGPT. NPR reported that a "top concern" is that ChatGPT could use The Times' content to become a "competitor" by "creating text that answers questions based on the original reporting and writing of the paper's staff."

As of this month, the Times' TOS prohibits any use of its content for "the development of any software program, including, but not limited to, training a machine learning or artificial intelligence (AI) system.""

-via Ars Technica, August 17, 2023

[therealvinelle]

I want to get into old movies (say 1930s to maybe 1980s) because I watched Casablanca and it was really good, so I followed it up with Sunset Boulevard (1950) which was also really good. Then a friend recommended Night of the Comet (1984) which was very different but really good too. I think the old movies which survived this long were better written then most of the stuff that comes out now.

Sooo... do you have any favorite old movies? Or just general recommendations (would also be interested in Muffin's recs if she's got any)

This is my third time typing this out for you... browser keeps reloading.

I do love older movies, you have come to the right place, @theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin loves older movies too (I'm saying "older", not "old", since 1980's movies aren't old and I refuse to believe they are).

I'll give you my recs by genre, not decade.

And this list is really a list of the movies that came to mind as I sat down to type this, so please, please come back with a more specific request as 1930's-1980's really covers... most of the movies that have been made.

Action

Jaws Very famous movie, this is Henrik Ibsen's Enemy of the People but with sharks.

Terminator What do you do if you lose the war, but you have a time machine? Travel back in time to kill your enemy's mother before she can birth him. Meanwhile in the 1980's Sarah Connor is having a very bad day.

Epics, romance, biographical and historical (yes, I'm lumping these together)

Amadeus About a man who is not Mozart, and upset about the fact.

Bridge on the River Kwai One of my all-time favorite movies: man is torn between loyalty to his country, and building a great bridge (this is a misleading summary: he's not torn at all, bridge wins hands down). The ending is parodied in Tropic Thunder, if you've seen that movie.

Dangerous Liaisons (1988) Sexy French aristocrats conspire to ruin each other's lives with sex.

Doctor Zhivago By my favorite director, this is a love story that really feels like Lawrence of Arabia if Lawrence was a woman and they were in Russia.

Godfather I and II Not overrated.

Lawrence of Arabia Man keeps trying to quit his job because sometimes all desert and no break from desert makes Lawrence a homicidal boy. Allenby says "Nonsenese, chap, you're doing wonderfully!" Cinematic history is made.

Horror and thrillers

The Exorcist I sometimes wonder if this movie should not have been made, because lesser movies have tried to recreate what Exorcist managed so well for decades, and all they've done is make bad movies that make me wish I was watching the Exorcist.

Nosferatu The year was 1922, no real precedent for copyright infringement had been had, and the producers of this movie which is definitely not Dracula by Bram Stocker were shocked and appalled they were... sued?? For theft of intellectual property? No!!! Coincidentally the most faithful adaptation of Dracula by Bram Stoker in existence. And free literally everywhere since it's 102 years old, you can watch this movie on its wikipedia page.

Sunset Boulevard While it's a well-known fact that a lot of silent movie actors and actresses were unable to adjust to the change when "talkies" were introduced, and they subsequently lost their careers, the window for casting one such washed up actress has long since closed. Sunset Boulevard, released in 1950, was able to do this however which makes it all the more meta and delightful.

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? The only two people who hate each other more than the sisters this movie is about, were the actresses who played them. To the point of Joan Crawford sabotaging the movie's chances with the Oscars, because she hated Betty Davies that much (Betty Davies called her a stupid idiot for doing this).

Musicals

Fiddler on the Roof Just watch it.

My Fair Lady "The rain in Spain falls mainly on Henry Higgins because he's stupid."

Westerns

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kidd Fun romp about two charming criminals, and how good things don't always last.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly I frankly forget what the plot was for this one, I just remember having a great time watching it.

Foreign section

Det syvende innseglet (The Seventh Seal) A knight plays a game of chess with Death.

Jean de Florette + Manon des Sources French accountant moves to the countryside to farm rabbits, this does not go well for him. In the sequel, his daughter has gotten interesting.

La vita è bella (Life is Beautiful) When we watched this in Italian class I had to leave during the first half to go the school nurse, came back during the second half. Greatest whiplash of my life.

Ladri di bicicletta (Bicycle Thieves) Some poor fool looked at Italy after WWII and thought "I bet people want a depressing movie about poverty". The movie bombed, but it's very good and I recommend it.

Ran King Lear, but in Japan.

Veiviseren (Pathfinder) First ever Saami movie, based on an old legend. Strongly recommend.

Bonus: TV shows

Columbo (first two seasons only) Sometimes you're the cleverest little criminal in the world :) but there's a stupid man in a stupid coat who won't stop asking you stupid questions about things he shouldn't be so obsessed about because it's making you look guilty (which you are but he's being rude!)

I, Claudius Fantastic about the imperial Roman family in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. And available for free on youtube!

The Prisoner Unnamed man tries unsuccessfully to leave a beautiful village. You can watch the episodes in any order you like, doesn't matter, he's not getting out of that village.

Bonus: 90's movies

Goodfellas Hilarious, horrible, and so entertaining. A mafia movie about horrible people who like money.

Se7en One of the only noir movies I've liked, this is something of a comfort movie for me. This and Silence of the Lambs are mandatory yearly watches for me. Watch this and you'll finally get all those "WHAT'S IN THE BOX??" jokes.

Silence of the Lambs Possibly my favorite feminist movie, to the point where I sincerely believed this was appropriately described as a chick flic. It's the film where Clarice Starling discovers the only person who'll treat her like an equal is the serial killer cannibal.

The Usual Suspects Your parents have seen this movie, and it was huge for them.

Total Recall Just a great adaptation of one of my favorite short stories.

Unforgiven THE Western movie, what you should do is watch a bunch of Clint Eastwood Westerns and then wrap it up with this one because it's a sequel to all of them.

Bonus: directors to look for

Ingmar Bergman (watch his movies and discover a lot of the films you like are just remakes of his things)

Clint Eastwood (a lot of his movies are newer, but he's so good. You should watch his things, I promise you will find one you like.)

Blake Edwards (fantastic comedic director, same sense of humor as Muffin and myself if that tells you anything)

Alfred Hitchock (he's not in fact overrated)

David Lean (god of directors)

Pier Paolo Pasolini (huge name in Italian cinema)

Steven Spielberg (also not overrated)

Billy Wilder (Sunset Boulevard, among others. Hilarious director)

Please. Give me a more specific genre.

[stellar-solar-flare]

If I’m not too late… Bucky Barnes + vacation?

Sorry about the delay. It has been A Week (TM). This is part of Stella's Halloween Shenanigans, for which I'm no longer taking new prompts. Thank you everyone who sent a prompt, all requests will be fulfilled!

Reboot - Bucky Barnes x f!Reader

“Oh, what does the gossip magazine say?” Bucky said as he stalked closer and lifted his sunglasses, revealing his dark eyes.

Fluff, romance, established relationship, heavily implied sexual content. | Mature | CW: Maybe very very light dom/sub dynamics if you squint? | 500 words.

Reader is female, no description of appearance. She has a PhD from an unspecified area of study.

Alternate Universe: The Avengers Initiative (AI) continued SHIELD's work after its collapse to corruption, with Steve as the Head Strategist and Tony as the Director. The Avengers are living together in the Tower - Bucky has healed, and Civil War never happened because Tony and Steve worked through their differences like adults.

I do not own anything Marvel related. This is an unofficial fan work. No copyright infringement intended. This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.

As soon as he stepped out onto the terrace where you lounged in a pool chair, Bucky’s eyes locked onto the StarkPad you held in your hands. The giant parasol offered just enough shade for you to comfortably read, as well as protecting you from the sun that poured from the sky. All around you, a beautiful Mediterranean landscape bathed in the light. The private villa that Tony had lent to you was close enough to the sea that you could only not see but hear it – and yet enjoy perfect privacy at your own pool.

“What are you reading, honey?” Bucky asked with a dangerously innocent voice.

Oh, shit.

“A gossip magazine,” you smiled.

“Oh, what does the gossip magazine say?” Bucky said as he stalked closer and lifted his sunglasses, revealing his dark eyes.

“Outrageous things,” you still tried as he stopped right next to you, and you took a moment to appreciate his form in khaki shorts and a loose white shirt that was partially opened. “You wouldn’t be interested.”

“I bet,” he said, and without further warning, he snatched the StarkPad from your hands.

“HEY,” you tried, grabbing for the device in vain as he scrutinized the contents of the screen. “Ever heard of privacy, jerk?”

Not dignifying your complaint with a response, he turned his gaze to you, raising his brow.

“It seems that the gossip rags have gotten quite a lot more highbrow lately, to contain scientific articles about quantum matter,” he said dryly before lowering the pad to your table. “I recall something about a mutually agreed ‘no work during the vacation’ policy, no, doll?”

You bit your lip; he obviously wasn’t truly mad at you, simply teasing, and you rolled your eyes in response.

“You were taking forever at the gym. I thought there was no harm done if I looked at a little something,” you grumbled. “But leave it to the man from the early 1900s to call out his fiancée for using her brain.”

He chuckled, but you didn’t miss the glow of pride on him as your new title had reminded him of the purpose of this vacation. He leaned over you, his hands coming to rest on both sides of you at the edges of the chair. His arms were effectively caging you in, and you swallowed as you saw the muscles grow taunt.

“Quite the contrary, doll,” he smiled. “I love your brain. Which is why I’m trying to get you to take a break every now and then.”

He leaned down, and you could feel the slightest hint of stubble on his jaw brushing against your cheek as he whispered directly into your ear.

“There is only one occasion when I want your brain empty, my love,” he rasped as his vibranium hand slid down your body, which was covered only by your bikini and a gauzy beach wrap. “And I do think that it’s high time we give that beautiful mind of yours a break.”

[ddarker-dreams]

for your birthday, yan chrollo offers to fulfill a single request from you ‘within reason.’

he's in a better mood than you are, humming all over the place and whatnot. it isn't often he experiences a heart full of gratitude, but he considers this a special exception — without this day, there'd be no you, and without you, his life would be incomplete. he spins this corny line that although it's your birthday, he feels like by having you, he's the one who has received a present. hence his current bout of altruism.

you think on the offer for any unique advantages it may present. initially, you try asking that he 'performs a magic trick where his heart stops beating', but after he turns down this great idea, you try for something else.

you ask to punch him. not metaphorically, or playfully, just you, your fist, and a burning desire to inflict harm.

he raises his eyebrow but doesn't outright say no. after a few seconds, he capitulates. rightfully suspicious, you try learning if there's a catch, but he insists that there isn't. you're free to punch away. after ensuring he isn't going to back out, you just go for it, righteous fury fueling your fist on its path.

you come into contact with his abdomen, and then—

ouch.

the next hour or so is spent with an icepack on your throbbing hand. he's back to humming (the tune that you've been humming, the little copyright infringer), asking if his sweetheart might need anything since you're recovering from such a debilitating injury. the condescension, you can handle. what truly haunts you is that he didn't so much as wince when you hit him with every ounce of strength in your body.

your hand may not be broken, but for the time being, your pride is.