#not like other countries IP laws do

[thetrekkiehasthephonebox]

seeing some pretty bad faith takes about genAI and fair use again. there's more options than just abolishing copyright forever or letting disney snort up every piece of art ever made.

[tuckerwooley]

today, @thepeoplesjoker finally sees a theatrical release, starting in NYC and spreading like wildfire to theaters across the country and almost certainly beyond. here are some non-spoilery screenshots of my scene!

i’m honored to have been asked to be a small part of this film; i animated a scene right in the middle of the movie in 2021 while i was finishing my senior year of college, as well as matte paintings used as backgrounds throughout - and recently i got to animate the logo, designed by @michaeldeforgecomics!

all movies take a herculean collaborative effort to get made, but the people’s joker has been supported by the good will of so many people just to get seen. @veradrew22 and @brilerose have made THE true trans comic book movie, equal parts funny, thrilling, emotional, and reflective of modernity. it’s been one of the most artistically rewarding experiences of my life, and i’m beyond excited for y’all to finally see it. i’m obviously biased, but this is my favorite movie, and it would be even if i didn’t work on it. she’s finally free and getting her due, and i couldn’t be happier!

if you somehow want more of me waxing poetic about TPJ, check out the review i did on my letterboxd. and to see other people do it instead, peruse one of the fuckmillion articles that have been out in major publications throughout the production; it’s been in indiewire, variety, the hollywood reporter, polygon, @brokenpencilmag, even the goddamn new york times! that’s wild. the whole thing is wild.

do yourself a favor and see this movie; it represents the possibilities of embracing outsider art, and of a world where IP law is less “for narcs, by narcs.”

[erika-xero]

Beware, the long post incoming. Pro tips for artists who work on commissions!

DISCLAIMER: I do not have, like, a HUGE online following and can’t be called a popular or viral artist, but I do have some experience and I’ve been working as a freelance artist for more that five years, so I could share a few tips on how to work with clients with my fellow artists. Scroll down for the short summary!

First of all, you always need to have your Terms of Service written down in a document that is accessible for your potential clients. And by terms of service I don’t mean a set of rules like “I don’t draw mecha, anthro and N/S/F/W”. There is much more into it, than you may think when you first start drawing commissions.

You’ll need to understand how copyright law/author’s rights in your country works (for example, US copyright or Russian author’s rights, be sure to check your local resources). There are a bunch of sites where you can actually read some legal documents (. I know it might be boring, but TRUST me, you WILL need this knowledge if you choose this career path.

Russia, for example, is plagued with shops selling anime merchandise. The merchandise is usually printed somewhere in the basement of the shop and the shop owners literally rip off other people’s intellectual property. If the artist ask them to remove their IP from the shop the owners usually try to fool them with lies about how the IP works. They will tell you, that you have to register copyright on every single drawing and if you don’t do it anyone can reproduce and sell your artwork. In reality, copyright law in most countries simply doesn’t work this way. Once you create an original work and fix it, take a photograph, write a song or blog entry, paint an artwork, you already are the author and the owner. Yes, there are certain procedures of copyright registration, which is only a step to enhance the protection, but you become an author the very moment you create a piece of art, and no one have a right to take your creation from you. Knowing your rights is essential.

Some of your commissioners may try to scam you too, but most of them might simply not be aware of how copyright law works. I literally had people asking me questions whether or not the character I am commissioned to draw becomes MY intellectual property. I literally had to convince the person (who was legit scared, since the commissioned piece was going to be a first image of his character ever created) otherwise. If you have an idea of the character written down or fixed in any other form such as a collage, a sketch, or a concept art -- the character is yours. Artist may have rights to the image they create, but not the character itself. Your potential commissioner must acknowledge that their characters, settings and etc. is still theirs, while your artwork is yours, if your contract doesn’t state otherwise. You can sell the property rights on your artwork to your commissioner if you want, but it is unnecessary for non-commercial commissions. And I strongly advice you to distinguish the non-commercial commissions from commercial ones and set the different pricing for them. Even if you sell ownership of your artwork to your commissioner, you can not sell the authorship. You will always remain an author of your artwork, thus you still have all the author’s rights stated in the legal documents.

Another thing that is absolutely necessary to be stated in your terms of service is information whether (and when) it is possible to get a refund from you. You absolutely have to write it down: no. refunds. for finished. artworks.

You have already invested time and effort to finish an artwork. The job is done and the money is yours. I’ve heard stories of commissioners demanding refund a few months later after the commission was finished and approved by the commissioners, because, quote “I do not want it anymore”. Commissioning an artist doesn’t work this way, artwork is not an item purchased on shein or aliexpress that can be sent back to the seller. It is not a mass production. It is a unique piece of art. Example: My friend once drew a non-commercial commission for a client who tried to use it commercially later on. She contacted him and reminded of the Terms of Service he agreed with, offering him to pay a fee for commercializing the piece instead of taking him to the court or starting a drama. He declined and suddenly demanded a full refund for that commission via Paypal services. My friend contacted the supports and showed them the entire correspondence with that client. She also stated that the invoice he paid included a link to the Terms and Service he had to agree with if he pays that invoid. The money were returned to her.

However, partial refund can be possible at the certain stage of work. For example, the sketch is done, but something goes horribly wrong. Either the client appeared to be a toxic person, or an artist does not have a required skill to finish the job. I suggest you keep the money for the sketch, but refund the rest of the sum. It might be 50/50 like I suggested to my clients before (when I still could work with Paypal), but it really depends on your choise. I suggest not doing a full refund though for many reasons: not only you make yourself vulnerable, but you also might normalize a practice harmful to other artists this way.

The main reason why full refund when the sketch/line-art are done must not be an option is that some clients may commission other artists with lower prices to finish the job. This brings us to the next important point: you absolutely need to forbid your clients from altering, coloring or overpainting your creation or commission other artists to do so. This also protects your artwork from being cropped, changed with Instagram filters or even being edited into a N/S/F/W image. Speaking of which. If you create adult content, you absolutely need to state that to request such a commission, your commissioner must at least be 18/21 years old (depending on your country). And as for the SFW commissions you also have to state that if someone underage commissions an artwork from you it is automatically supposed that they have a parental concern.

There is also a popular way to scam artist via some payment systems, called I-did-not-receive-a-package. Most of the payment systems automatically suppose that you sell goods which have to be physically delivered via postal services. This is why it is important to state (both in the Terms of Service and the payment invoice itself) that what commissioner is about to receive is a digital good.

And the last, but not the least: don’t forget about alterations and changes the commissioner might want to make on the way. Some people do not understand how difficult it may be to make a major change in the artwork when it is almost finished. Always let your commissioners know that all the major changes are only acceptable at early stages: sketch, line-art, basic coloring. Later on, it is only possible to make the minor ones. I prefer to give my commissioner’s this info in private emails along with the WIPs I send, but you can totally state it in your Terms of Service. I do not limit the changes to five or three per commission, but I really do appreciate it when I get all the necessary feedback in time.

To sum this post up, the info essential for your Terms of Service doc is:

- The information on whether or not your commissions are commercial or non-commercial. If they are non-commercial, is there a way to commercialize them? At what cost?

- The information on author’s and commissioner’s rights;

- The information on whether (and when) refunds are possible;

- The prohibition of coloring, cropping, overpainting and other alterations;

- The information on whether or not you provide the commissioner with some physical goods or with digital goods only;

- Don’t forget about your commissioner’s age! If you work with client who is a minor, a parental consern is required. And no n/s/f/w for underage people!

- You may also want to include that you can refuse to work on the commission without explanation in case you encounter a toxic client or feel like it might be some sort of scam.

- I also strongly suggest you work with prepay, either full or 50% of total sum, it usually scares off the scammers. I take my prepay after me and my client agree on a rough doodle of an overall composition.

- I also include the black list of the themes: everyting offensive imaginable (sexism, homophobia, transfobia, racism, for N/S/F/W artists it also might be some certain fetishes and etc). Keep your reputation clean!

- Ban N/F/T and blacklist the commissioners who turn your artworks into them anywayss, don’t be shy <3

These are the things that are absolutely necessary but are so rarely seen in artists’ Terms of Service that it makes me sad. Some of these tips really helped me to avoid scams and misunderstandings. I really hope it helps you all!

[absolutebl]

Best 23 of BL 2023 - Quirky Awards

SHOCK & AWE AWARDS

1. Biggest BL surprise of 2023:

The last 3 months of 2023 in general got my biggest WTF award.

GMMTV fielding OffGun AND TayNew in the same quarter while also airing Last Twilight (arguably one of their best BLs ever)

That they ALSO optioned 3 JBLs

That there's a high heat omegaverse BL staring Pavel

That there were 20 BLs airing and none of them Korean.

With 5 VAMPIRE BLs announced for next year

But my prize in this category goes to My Dear Gangster Oppa.

It's just crazy:

Thai talent, Korean money + IP (this is adapted from a manwha) airing on a Chinese channel (iQIYI). Plus it was GOOD and made smart reuse of a pair who richly deserved it. I'm delighted by the eclectic insanity of this production. And wonder if any other film genre could even do anything like this.

2. The “that country did WHAT?” award:

The 8th Sense from Korea?!

I mean, seriously?! Dealing with metal health, suicide, darkness, therapy, age gap, & first time love BUT FROM KOREA? And then openness and casual boyfriend physical affection? What's next? An actual hard fought coming out narrative with an HEA? Gay domesticity and families?

Careful Korea, you'll strain something. Possibly your own culture and film industry.

I should stop having expectations of Korea, they keep surprising me.

Runners up: Korea letting OnlyOneOf do Bump Up Business not to mention that OmegaX thing. AND Korea adapting Why R U? What are you up to, Korea? Qua? Is this a coded message? Should we send help? Do you need snacks?

3. Biggest casting whoa! where did you come from? award:

GeminiFourth in My School President.

Seriously? Babies what? How did GMMTV find you? How do you exist? How is BL this lucky?

4. That studio did WHAT now? award:

GMMTV putting EarthMix into Moonlight Chicken.

And then doubling down with G4 as the damn sides.

Fucking genius.

5. I’m sad you were ignored award:

Destiny Seeker.

It's just a really fun little Thai pulp, the pairs were good, silly dialogue, plus consent and other good rep. I enjoyed it. No one talked about it AT ALL.

6. 2023 BL That Actually Made Me Lose My Mind Award?

Laws of Attraction. -The casting, the crazy story, the soapy drama! But specifically: Film playing Charn - the range of his smiles alone. GLORIOUS

I mean I Feel You Linger in the Air also sparked something in me, but LoA drove me actually nuts.

NARRATIVE AWARDS

7. Best story 2023:

La Pluie

I know, you're surprised, right? At the time I didn't chat much about it but I really enjoyed the discourse others were having. I love anything that really examines the fated mates (soulmates) trope and the idea of "the one". What a clever way to do that. (This is one reason UWMA is my favorite Thai BL.)

This one reminded me of the way Color Rush approached allegory and that's no bad thing. Such an impressive little piece.

8. Best narrative structure 2023 award:

Unintentional Love Story.

I know this may seem a simplistic pick. But I love the tidiness of this no frills contemporary romance, how the culture of work and personal ethics and corruption fight against the main character's affection and integrity. Poor baby boy is driven into a corner and then punished for it. But it is punishment he feels he deserves, and so it is up to his (now) ex to figure out what went wrong and why.

It's just great. I love it when no one is stupid or wrong, it's just impossible circumstances and unintentional love deeply felt.

9. Best 2023 dialogue (script) award:

Jun & Jun

Never before has Korea laced a BL with that much perfectly executed innuendo. It was a master class. I didn't know you could be that lascivious in Korean, quite frankly. Plus the way the 2 Juns constantly seamlessly transition between formal register (work, public - where they are boss/employee) to informal register (when they are alone and age mates + childhood sweethearts).

Beautiful to hear and watch.

10. Favorite scene 2023:

The dub con scene in I Cannot Reach You because I AM TRASH for an out of control seme. I'm sorry I just AM.

I have said it before, I will say it again, NO ONE DOES THIRST like Japan. And when that thirst bubbles over, it is heart-clenching and very hot.

11. The most rewatchable BL of 2023 award:

Our Dating Sim

That scene where they lie on the floor + the stolen kiss + giggle? Come on, it should be on comfort repeat in war rooms. It could bring world peace.

ACTORS & CHARACTERS AWARDS

12. Best performance of a queer actor in a leading role, 2023:

Fluke in Make a Wish.

It was fun to see him as an irreverent immortal and while I love OhmFluke I also really enjoyed this new pairing. It was a genuine pleasure to watch.

13. Best pining 2023:

The moot pining in Tokyo in April is...

Boys, seriously? Japan must you destroy us like this? Hurts so good.

14. Best wingman 2023 (The Namgoong Award)

Tiw from My School President

I mean, come on, of course it's him!

(Also can you believe Mark went on from this to do fricking Only Friends!? To Last Twilight! Come on GMMTV GIVE HIM A LEAD!)

15. Biggest OMG I LOVE you boys together, YAY!

Dimpled McMafia & Feral Bunny Foo Foo from Kiseki Dear to Me.

They were feral for each other.

We were feral for them

It was a whole delightful THING.

16. Most unexpected return of a BL pair? award:

The Private Lessons pair showing up in Love Class 2.

I know it was only a cameo, but SERIOUSLY? Thank you SO MUCH Korea! A big studio picking up a Strongberry pairing? I love you.

Seriously tho between them, Taiwan & Korea tried for ALL THE CAMEOS this year.

17. Well aren't you two just the prettiest? award:

NetJames in Bed Friend.

Need I say more?

18. LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Bah Vinh in Vian & Mr Cinderella 2. I did like either show but I loved him in them. Especially the make outs.

Yes you have chemistry with all the boys in Vietnam and you kiss beautifully. But it's okay now honey, you have the crown. Relax, you're stressing us out.

RANDOM PICKS

19. Favorite Linguistic Moment of 2023:

Our Dating Sim

Caught in the act by the elevator scene. OMG it's so funny. They're being such boyfriend shits to each other, and to be caught in the act by THAT character, and try to manifest formal language whole cloth? Hilarious.

Honorable mention to War Peanuts in Destiny Seeker.

20. Biggest disappointment of 2023:

You Are Mine

Seriously Taiwan, AGAIN you disappoint me with an Office BL? You're Taiwan, land of offices and suits. This should be YOUR SETTING TO WIN. And yet... argh. I mean it wasn't bad. But it wasn't good either. Stop it Taiwan, do better.

Runners up? Between Us, Chains of Heart, Dangerous Romance - this was a HOTLY contested category.

+ 2 Winners in the sub-category of FUCK YOU FOR THAT ENDING award:

The Director who Buys Me Dinner - I mean this nicely but: you have your lane now Korea, stop hurting us, that's Japan's responsibility and they do it better.

I Feel You Linger In the Air - I'm just hugely disappointed. Thailand ALMOST got its second 10/10 from me, but that damn ending.

Argh.

21. Best Wardrobe/Prop Use 2023

The shower of packaged bedsheets in My Personal Weatherman

Amazing. Brilliant. No notes.

22. Best Queer Rep 2023

Chot in Step By Step

In fact, all the queer characters in this show were treated with great integrity.

AND props to this cast for refusing to do fan service. GOOD FOR YOU! Fuck those sasang wankers.

Runners up? The found family cast of Love in Translation and the Rainbow Rice Cakes in The New Employee.

23. Best Meta Trope call out

Tin Tem Jai

Come on, what a zinger, but at themselves (and Taiwan)

Final question: which of the 23 was the hardest for me to pick?

Honestly? Question #1 this year. But also question #20.

(Last year: 2022's Version) 

Remember I only pull from shows that were completely finished by the end of 2023. Or The Sign probably would have taken multiple categories. But it will fall into 2024 offerings.

(source)

[ms-demeanor]

What would anarchist Tumblr look like? Could any of the words in the ToS make sense without a top-down authority dictating how to "properly" define things like spam?

Go look at any open source project.

You could get together a group of people who could agree on a number of things, like what spam is and what is or isn't allowed on the platform, and you could have users vote on that kind of thing as they join, and eventually what's going to happen is that people will join the platform in bad faith, take advantage of the gaps in the rules, and be really difficult to remove in a fair and democratic way. You are also going to end up with a small number of people doing the majority of the work and feeling hard done by when people who don't understand the work that goes into making changes demand changes and outvote the engineers (though you can mitigate that by saying "you can demand any change that you personally can implement" but then you'll get people complaining that there's a hierarchy of programmers running the site, or worse, you'll have bad actors who are also programmers who will implement shitty changes).

(also this is highly theoretical because a lot of the words in the ToS are mandated by the laws of the country that the platform is registered in or the laws of the countries it is operating in - if your definition of spam is fucky it'll just mess with who wants to use your platform; if your definition of IP law is fucky assholes in cheap suits are going to start knocking on your door and handing you notices of service)

If you want an anarchist website you don't want a platform, you just want to go and make your own website.

That is, unfortunately, difficult, it can be expensive, and it doesn't scale.

IDK. Much love and respect for anarchists (i consider myself one) and other flavors of leftist but I feel like before any anarchist decides to get started on a big project they should go interface with people in the real world in some setting that requires parliamentary procedure and then watch the ways in which people will fuck with those systems. You only need to see one group fall apart because there is no means of removing bad actors before you realize that you need to build that into all your projects in the future or you're dooming them to schisms.

Basically your question made me think about how I would go about trying to start a social media platform for anarchists and I immediately went "NOPE, I WOULD NOT DO THAT." (Also it's just not a priority; if I was going to start a website that was doomed to failure it would be about, like, abortion access or a map of free resources or I would simply not start a website and would just use that time for some kind of mutual support network)

But also. Like.

Signal groupchat.

[xenosagaepisodeone]

As much as copyright law sucks, its unfortunately one of the only legal venues with any sort of real power for artists working in creative industries to protect their livelihoods and colleagues. Unionization alone isn't going to stop companies from scraping people's work, especially not people who are non-union or freelancers, and unions like SAG-AFTRA keep throwing people who aren't making top-dollar under the bus for "ethical" AI startups they partner with anyway, even when said members call them out for siding with corporate over their own due-paying members. When corporations who normally try to shut down creators with DMCA takedowns are now violating the IP of countless creators themselves, why shouldn't we at least hold them accountable to the same laws they already use against us?

because it will not work. I truly cannot stress this enough, whatever meager personal gains that some industry artists are able to acquire in isolated cases against startups and other boutique tech ventures will set the precedent for which the corporations that actually control your country (who have infinite resources to expend on legal ventures) will use to push the law further in their favor. disney already does so much to prevent their IPs from entering the public domain! if you give them an avenue to exploit, they will do it! and it won't matter who was actually right because they have they have so much more money. artists and indie animation studios that could pose any threat to corporate monopolies on art will get C&D'd out of existence for superficial similarities. karla ortiz' lawsuit was so vaguely worded that you could hypothetically pursue someone legally if they had artwork of yours saved in a pinterest inspo board since CLIP models were framed as "trade dress databases". this entire movement is more concerned with potentially obstructed opportunities to rent-seek than it actually is about workers rights- or even simply art that was not created with the intent of being 'content'. and the same industry artists who spearheaded this frenzy will side the the corporations when it comes to it because they've already got theirs.

copyright is never made with the interests of individuals in mind. like, i can't even begin to explain how historically, the little guy is the one getting fucked over by copyright law! how so much of what shapes our culture exists in spite of copyright law as opposed to because of it. what drives me insane is how ai is the thing that artists end up rallying around in unity; not anything to actually improve the quality of life working within the arts, but instead a fad technology. i've seen people describe working in animation as being like a form of debasement and act like nothing can be done while i'm witnessing an entire movement unfold to protect that because a lot of artists seem to think of themselves as temporarily embarrassed small business owners over workers.

[mesetacadre]

(not the former torrent anon) do you use a vpn for torrenting? if yes, which one? im a bit afraid to torrenting without one, am i just being too paranoid? all the reddit threads etc say that a vpn is highly recommended

Hi, if you should use a vpn or not very much depends on your country. In Spain the consumption of pirated content and seeding of torrents with pirated content is not really punished for individual people, at most your ISP might temporarily block some sites but you can use mirrors and they aren't that thorough. Also, spanish law seems to and is mostly interpreted to only punish the distribution and consumption of pirated content if you gain economic benefit from it or if you're the person directly pirating the content, like removing DRMs from videogames or ripping a movie off Netflix.

The reason people on reddit insist so much on VPNs is because they are hegemonically USA, where the mere downloading of pirated content can make the ISP shut off your internet, and you can be fined. In this cases VPNs are useful because the ISP can't (or not as easily) see what you're downloading exactly, and you also protect your IP adress from trackers or honeypots, but if you're downloading from 1336x or yts or one of those sorts of sites there is no real danger as long as you're not extremely stupid.

If you're in the USA, you should get a VPN. If you're in a country that's not part of the US imperial hegemony, like Russia or Argentina, you can probably get away with not using a VPN without worrying about legal action. If you are in a country that would respect US IP law (which let's be honest is where most copyrighted content that can land you a fine comes from) it really depends on your situation. I'm lucky Spain isn't heavy handed, but Germany I've heard can be quite aggressive.

Regardless of all of this you should always without exception get an adblocker, I can't recommend uBlock Origin enough. It is very complete out of the box and does not fails where others do. For example, Adblock Plus (ABP) does not by default block those links that redirect you to an ad website but if you click again then it sometimes takes you to the actual place. If you use uBlock, I would also add an additional blocklist, I personally use oisd big. To add it, go to ublock settings, and the My Filters tab, then just paste the raw text into it, and save

[thehydromancer]

Fables Press Release

Subject: Fables Enters the Public Domain

15 September 2023

By Bill Willingham

For Immediate Release

The Lede

As of now, 15 September 2023, the comic book property called Fables, including all related Fables spin-offs and characters, is now in the public domain. What was once wholly owned by Bill Willingham is now owned by everyone, for all time. It’s done, and as most experts will tell you, once done it cannot be undone. Take-backs are neither contemplated nor possible.

Q: Why Did You Do This?

A number of reasons. I’ve thought this over for some time. In no particular order they are:

1) Practicality: When I first signed my creator-owned publishing contract with DC Comics, the company was run by honest men and women of integrity, who (for the most part) interpreted the details of that agreement fairly and above-board. When problems inevitably came up we worked it out, like reasonable men and women. Since then, over the span of twenty years or so, those people have left or been fired, to be replaced by a revolving door of strangers, of no measurable integrity, who now choose to interpret every facet of our contract in ways that only benefit DC Comics and its owner companies. At one time the Fables properties were in good hands, and now, by virtue of attrition and employee replacement, the Fables properties have fallen into bad hands.

            Since I can’t afford to sue DC, to force them to live up to the letter and the spirit of our long-time agreements; since even winning such a suit would take ridiculous amounts of money out of my pocket and years out of my life (I’m 67 years old, and don’t have the years to spare), I’ve decided to take a different approach, and fight them in a different arena, inspired by the principles of asymmetric warfare. The one thing in our contract the DC lawyers can’t contest, or reinterpret to their own benefit, is that I am the sole owner of the intellectual property. I can sell it or give it away to whomever I want.

            I chose to give it away to everyone. If I couldn’t prevent Fables from falling into bad hands, at least this is a way I can arrange that it also falls into many good hands. Since I truly believe there are still more good people in the world than bad ones, I count it as a form of victory.

2) Philosophy: In the past decade or so, my thoughts on how to reform the trademark and copyright laws in this country (and others, I suppose) have undergone something of a radical transformation. The current laws are a mishmash of unethical backroom deals to keep trademarks and copyrights in the hands of large corporations, who can largely afford to buy the outcomes they want.

In my template for radical reform of those laws I would like it if any IP is owned by its original creator for up to twenty years from the point of first publication, and then goes into the public domain for any and all to use. However, at any time before that twenty year span bleeds out, you the IP owner can sell it to another person or corporate entity, who can have exclusive use of it for up to a maximum of ten years. That’s it. Then it cannot be resold. It goes into the public domain. So then, at the most, any intellectual property can be kept for exclusive use for up to about thirty years, and no longer, without exception.

Of course, if I’m going to believe such radical ideas, what kind of hypocrite would I be if I didn’t practice them? Fables has been my baby for about twenty years now. It’s time to let it go. This is my first test of this process. If it works, and I see no legal reason why it won’t, look for other properties to follow in the future. Since DC, or any other corporate entity, doesn’t actually own the property, they don’t get a say in this decision.

Q: What Exactly Has DC Comics Done to Provoke This?

Too many things to list exhaustively, but here are some highlights: Throughout the years of my business relationship with DC, with Fables and with other intellectual properties, DC has always been in violation of their agreements with me. Usually it’s in smaller matters, like forgetting to seek my opinion on artists for new stories, or for covers, or formats of new collections and such. In those times, when called on it, they automatically said, “Sorry, we overlooked you again. It just fell through the cracks.” They use the “fell through the cracks” line so often, and so reflexively, that I eventually had to bar them from using it ever again. They are often late reporting royalties, and often under-report said royalties, forcing me to go after them to pay the rest of what’s owed.

            Lately though their practices have grown beyond these mere annoyances, prompting some sort of showdown. First they tried to strong arm the ownership of Fables from me. When Mark Doyle and Dan Didio first approached me with the idea of bringing Fables back for its 20th anniversary (both gentlemen since fired from DC), during the contract negotiations for the new issues, their legal negotiators tried to make it a condition of the deal that the work be done as work for hire, effectively throwing the property irrevocably into the hands of DC. When that didn’t work their excuse was, “Sorry, we didn’t read your contract going into these negotiations. We thought we owned it.”

            More recently, during talks to try to work out our many differences, DC officers admitted that their interpretation of our publishing agreement, and the following media rights agreement, is that they could do whatever they wanted with the property. They could change stories or characters in any way they wanted. They had no obligation whatsoever to protect the integrity and value of the IP, either from themselves, or from third parties (Telltale Games, for instance) who want to radically alter the characters, settings, history and premises of the story (I’ve seen the script they tried to hide from me for a couple of years). Nor did they owe me any money for licensing the Fables rights to third parties, since such a license wasn’t anticipated in our original publishing agreement.

            When they capitulated on some of the points in a later conference call, promising on the phone to pay me back monies owed for licensing Fables to Telltale Games, for example, in the execution of the new agreement, they reneged on their word and offered the promised amount instead as a “consulting fee,” which avoided the precedent of admitting this was money owed, and included a non-disclosure agreement that would prevent me from saying anything but nice things about Telltale or the license.

            And so on. There’s so much more, but these, as I said, are some of the highlights. At that point, since I disagreed on all of their new interpretations of our longstanding agreements, we were in conflict. They practically dared me to sue them to enforce my rights, knowing it would be a long and debilitating process. Instead I began to consider other ways to go.

Q: Are You Concerned at What DC Will Do Now?

No. I gave them years to do the right thing. I tried to reason with them, but you can’t reason with the unreasonable. They used these years to make soothing promises, tell lies about how dedicated they were towards working this out, and keep dragging things out as long as possible. I gave them an opportunity to renegotiate the contracts from the ground up, putting everything in unambiguous language, and they ignored that offer. I gave them the opportunity, twice, to simply tear up our contracts, and we each go our separate ways, and they ignored those offers. I tried to go over their heads, to deal directly with their new corporate masters, and maybe find someone willing to deal in good faith, and they blocked all attempts to do so. (Try getting any officer of DC Comics to identify who they report to up the company ladder. I dare you.) In any case, without giving them details, I warned them months in advance that this moment was coming. I told them what I was about to do would be “both legal and ethical.” Now it’s happened.

            Note that my contracts with DC Comics are still in force. I did nothing to break them, and cannot unilaterally end them. I still can’t publish Fables comics through anyone but them. I still can’t authorize a Fables movie through anyone but them. Nor can I license Fables toys nor lunchboxes, nor anything else. And they still have to pay me for the books they publish. And I’m not giving up on the other money they owe. One way or another, I intend to get my 50% of the money they’ve owed me for years for the Telltale Game and other things.

However, you, the new 100% owner of Fables never signed such agreements. For better or worse, DC and I are still locked together in this unhappy marriage, perhaps for all time.

But you aren’t.

If I understand the law correctly (and be advised that copyright law is a mess; purposely vague and murky, and no two lawyers – not even those specializing in copyright and trademark law – agree on anything), you have the rights to make your Fables movies, and cartoons, and publish your Fables books, and manufacture your Fables toys, and do anything you want with your property, because it’s your property.

Mark Buckingham is free to do his version of Fables (and I dearly hope he does). Steve Leialoha is free to do his version of Fables (which I’d love to see). And so on. You don’t have to get my permission (but you might get my blessing, depending on your plans). You don’t have to get DC’s permission, or the permission of anyone else. You never signed the same agreements I did with DC Comics.

It was my absolute joy and pleasure to bring you Fables stories for the past twenty years. I look forward to seeing what you do with it.

For questions and further information you can contact Bill Willingham at:

william.thomas.willingham@gmail.com  Please include “Fables Public Domain” in the subject line, so I don’t assume you’re another Netflix promotion.

[monsterqueers]

HOW TO SPOT DONATION SCAM POSTS

Tumblr has had a longstanding scam bot donation post problem. From sick dog posts using blatantly AI generated images to Gaza refugee aid blogs accidentally sending the pornbot script instead, it happens.

So how do you spot them?

Here is a quick guide to spot the most obvious scammers;

Step one: Actually read the post. Does the information all agree with itself? If they post a picture of their medical readouts are those readouts things that make sense for a conscious living person? Does that dog x-ray have 7 toes and too few ribs to be real? Are there obvious photoshop signs? Do the pictures ACTUALLY prove anything? Do they reference a law that does not exist in the country they claim to be from? Is the amount asked for around what it would cost for what they are claiming to do with it? Is what they are asking for money for a feasible thing? Are they using emotionally manipulative language that gets you to panic or feel upset and make rush decisions? Do they imply that if you do not post the post you are responsible for suffering or death? Did they send an ask instead of putting it on their actual blog as a post? Does the gofundme match the post?

Step two: Reverse image search the images given. Do they come up elsewhere in posts by other people? Do they come up in other donation posts with different names and monetary amounts?

Step three: Quote search the script minus URLs and names. Is the script used in many other donation posts with different names and values?

Step four: Examine the blog that it is from. Is it a 'blank' blog? Is the donation post their ONLY post? Have they made multiple donation posts with different names and amounts? Does google searching their name cause you to come up with many different asks sent to people that have different names and money values and images in them? Is this a reskinned porn bot? Are the posts on the blog consistent with the information given in the donation post? Do they not talk about themselves at all, just have 5 random posts reblogged in the last week and then a donation beg? Does the account link to other accounts on other platforms that look like real people? Is this obviously a person outside of the donation post?

Step five: Examine their IP address through means such as Statcounter. If you don't already have it on your blog, you may want to get it if you get a lot of donation asks. Is the IP address within the location they claim they are in or are close to it? If they are using an eSim some eSims have a fixed IP address (Hong Kong is a common one). A Hong Kong or USA address is not a strike against them in this case. An IP address in Belgium should be instantly suspect as there is a KNOWN scam ring from there doing Gaza aid scams.

If everything checks out, you've done a decent cursory check on the donation post. That does NOT mean it is for sure legitimate, but it is not OBVIOUSLY a scam at this point.

Q: I can't do all this work!

A: Then have someone you trust on a PERSONAL LEVEL (not a random tumblr blog who says they verify things) verify with these steps, just ignore all donation posts like this from people you do not know personally and only donate to specific charity organizations that are reputable, or accept you may be posting and donating to scams.

[alertarchitect]

I genuinely do not understand The Discourse around Palworld. Now, for full transparency, I don't really particularly care about the game, I've not played it, nor do I plan to. I'd rather stick with my FPS games and metroidvanias. I'm probably the closest to being a neutral party on the issue you can find in the gaming community. That being said...

Stop with all of the "[Megacompany X] needs to call their lawyers!!" nonsense. Yes, they have designs that look like Pokémon. Yes, they have designs that look like Monster Hunter monsters. However, I have one important question here...

Why the hell do you care?

First off, we're talking ripoff designs of IPs owned by companies that make profits in the billions. These companies, especially Nintendo, have - or at least have access to - very good lawyers. Do you really think Palworld - a game made by a company based in Japan, the SAME COUNTRY as the companies I see people saying are having their designs stolen, meaning this theoretical lawsuit would be 100% domestic instead of bringing the headaches associated with an international suit - would have made it to release if Nintendo, Capcom, or any other company had standing for a plagiarism lawsuit? Especially when Japan doesn't have fair use laws? That, to me, already tells me these designs are clearly in the "legally distinct ripoff" category, and that's okay. Obviously plagiarism isn't a good thing, but if this was close enough to be considered such under laws that don't include fair use provisions, it's FINE. Even if it's not the most ethical, ripoffs and bootlegs are gonna happen. This one is just has more publicity than most.

Second, these are - again - billion-dollar companies that make more money than most people can even truly comprehend. Why are you defending them so much? No matter how much I may like the older Pokémon games, such as Platinum, we are talking about one of, if not the single most profitable franchise on the fucking PLANET. Not only does it not need Random Schmuck #582183 to defend it online, the people behind it likely don't fucking CARE. The Pikémon Company is like 50% or more owned by Nintendo, which is a company that - as we've seen time and again with their takedowns of passionate fan projects with 0 profit incentive such as AM2R as well as their draconian YouTube content policies for creators - doesn't care about their fans at the best of times, and is actively hostile towards them more often than not. Why do so many people defend these large corporations like doing so is going to get you a "thank you" letter from Miyamoto? Why are you supporting massive billionaires like your life depends on it over some 3D models that, as previously established, are more in the "legally distinct ripoff" category than anything else? Are you so invested in their corporate wellbeing that you feel the need to try and do their PR & legal teams' jobs for them?

At the end of the day, Palworld is a game made by a team that seems genuinely passionate about their craft, that has been a fun experience for many people across the world. Let those people have their fun. And if the designs being ripoffs is such a problem for you, just don't buy the game. Simple as that. If you're that worried, let the notoriously litigious companies like Nintendo handle it. Don't try to be an ass to people just having fun in a video game. Hell, if you're so convinced this is a case of direct plagiarism, just stop supporting the people making stuff about it like we did with the people who played the Shitty Wizard Game. Obviously this issue is nowhere near as bad, as it's just a case of ripoff designs instead of people financially supporting an anti-semitic, racist TERF who sees financial support of her franchise as support for her ideals and uses the platform that gives to call for things like trans genocide, but the principle is the same in practice - just don't support it or anything to do with it, and chill the hell out.

[lunarsilkscreen]

The Domain-Name problem

China gets a lot of hate for sectioning off the rest of the internet from their people. But that's probably one of the things they got right .

When the internet hit a global scale, China reasonably thought "we should have our local stuff more readibly accessible to our local people" after-all, what use is driving directions to an individually owned diner in Vermont to somebody in Xinagsheng?

China created their own internet, which to the internet is just a very large intranet.

The reason for this is because the base internet design really only benefited the U.S., and didn't take into account fiberoptic wires under the ocean to communicate with other countries.

We can see it in effect today with IP4 vs IP6. Where the use still uses the IP4 standard and the rest of the world is forced onto IP6. (Internet address Protocol)

Domain Names (www.address.com) only turn an IP-Address into something human readable. And again we see the same paradigms; U.S. first, and then a country designator at the end (co.jp, co.de...

The (www) part is the sub-domain, or part of the same network as the domain, just a different machine (usually, not always).

Now, the .com, .net, org was originally supposed to mean (commercial), (network), and (organization). But as we've seen: didn't mean much to actual usage... Now they're just random extensions we don't care what they mean anymore.

And there's a problem; parsing out a domain name could be as complex as

Sub.sub2.domain.co.jp vs sub.domain.com vs domain.org: which part indicates what is local on the server? And which part indicates what the infrastructure(internet routers) should use to direct traffic? There isn't a set standard here.

What this means to me is that we should rethink how we split up the internet. In order to allow users to visit hosts from other countries*and* allow foreigners to see (but not necessarily interact with) local social media.

And how can we tell which websites are operating effectively doing operations for multiple countries? Like Amazon. Country tax laws can't tell.

I get the feeling Elon Musk would be very sad about the development after his very large purchase.

For the interest of National Security and World-Wide-Economic prosperity.

There are even large amounts of data used in search engines and AI to infer local area around the user, that could be clarified via a change in systems.

Think about our area codes for phone numbers and zip codes for mail. We don't have them online. I think we need them.

If not simply to increase the speed of the internet.

[my-misericordia]

sigh Japan is really out here just Japaning ISTG this country just loves to get in it's own way!!

For those who are blaming GMMTV, let me tell you, as a fan of Jmedia I'm pretty confident that this is definitely Japans fault lol The country is run by old people who prop up equally as antiquated copyright/distribution laws. Seriously some are either too scared to try and modernize while others feel like they make enough profit and are therefore not interested in spreading their media further. Like for as popular as anime is it is in spite of its country because not until very recently has it actually finally become easy to access. This is why I was supperrr excited about Cherry Magic! I partly saw this as a sign that Japan was finally moving forward but also partly just happy that JBL really was just in this special space where it could get away with more than other media. Unfortunately I ended up being wrong on both fronts lol it's so sad too because there are many creators, like Yuu Toyota, that also want their work to be distributed internationally! So while one could be mad at GMMTV for not getting everything right on their end….Like how do you as the Owner of this "property" not know that this is who you're selling to? How did you not know this is how they distribute their media? How do you not find out until after 2 weeks after the show airs?!!! Are you so out of touch you couldn't google this company and see that most everything they have is on Youtube? Specifically BL?? The thing you are selling them?!!!

Whatever people's feelings about the company you could tell it was really really trying with this show. While Korea is definitely having a moment right now, Japan is still seen in high regard by many Asian countries and here they are acknowledging a Thai media company enough to share so many IPs. I admit I'm a fangirl, but I knew they did not want to fuck it up when they gave it to TayNew and not younger actors. While I'm sure to a lot of people see the way it was filmed to be like a sort of "homage" of the show, and it might have been, I saw it as like a show of respect to Jdramas in general. I mean I love Cherry Magic jp but the way it was directed wasn't really revolutionary as far as Jmedia goes. The company in the show has such good relations with it's Japanese branch, a good amount of people know some Japanese, the boss is presented very favorably etc etc…. Hopefully things work out because it's clear they had a lot riding on this shows success

[aquagirl1978]

Whaddaya think?

Jin: divorce lawyer

Chev: Government lawyer

Clavis: entertainment lawyer

Leon: family lawyer/ Public interest lawyer

Yves: IP lawyer

Nokto: "hi I'm Nokto klein, did you know that you have rights? Constitution says you do and so do I. I believe that until proven guilty every man women and child in this country is innocent" civil rights lawyer

Licht: personal injury lawyer

Luke: environmental lawyer

Silvio: business lawyer

Gilbert: military lawyer

Alter!Keith: prosecutor

Keith: defense

I was liking some of this with some changes - Leon would be more public interest, Yves entertainment attorney to the stars, I'm sorry your blurb for Nokto made me think of Better Call Saul (great, great legal show, watch it if you haven't), Gilbert would make a sexy JAG (ever see A Few Good Men?).

But then I got this reply on a post:

@wordycheeseblob I'm going to take your idea (Chevalier would be the prosecuters, Chevalier DA, the others ADA, Luke the intern), and Leon's faction is a rag tag team of defense attorneys (have you seen The Practice? Go watch it, another great legal drama). And then I thought the three new princes are being questioned by both sides to find out what happened the night of a crime.

Sariel is the judge - he is particularly tired of Clavis' dramatics in court. Sariel's right hand man, his Law Secretary, is Rio. And you work under Rio - maybe as a fresh law school grad and both the prosecuter and defense teams have been wanting to hire you for their firms.

[starberry-cupcake]

I shouldn’t be opening this can of worms but the whole Vampire Chronicles revival has made me notice how, because of how fandom has become intrinsically linked with shipping, people immediately link fanfiction with slash in their minds and wrongfully believe that Anne Rice’s deal with fic was the shipping. 

The biggest problem with this isn’t that people think Loustat wasn’t canon but that they minimize the real issue, when we’re getting in troubling times with fanwork through how easy it is to monetize work online nowadays and how people are learning to do it before they even learn what intellectual property is.

Anne Rice thought initially (like many authors did, but she was particularly hellbent on it) that fanfiction was a direct threat to her copyright and intellectual property. And, legally speaking, she had the grounds to pursue that idea into shutting people down, because fanfiction isn’t actually legal. 

One of the particular reasons that has been circulating in fandom at large through the years (though I don’t think it was ever cleared and I don’t think the publisher will ever do so) is that Knopf thought fanfiction was a direct threat commercially to her material if they were to swap to ebook publishing alone (the entire 2000s decade, and even a bit more into the 2010s, was a huge baby fight between editors on whether or not ebooks were going to entirely replace paper, you have no idea the lectures I've attended, some actually about fanfiction held by clueless boomer editors outside of anything fandom related). She thought they had a point and they started their legal actions. Some people still keep the receipts of the cease and desist Knopf sent FF net and they mention clearly that, even if they weren’t making a profit, it was copyright infringement. And they were, technically, not wrong. 

This is not to remove blame from Anne Rice, Knopf and their behavior, but to remind people of the fragile nature of fanfic as a whole. The reason why fanfiction survived was because of the work fandom put into making fanfiction more visible outside the niche corners of fandom, establish its nature as a non profit activity and defend its intent while helping writers cover their backs when needed. 

It is still not a legal genre in general, especially fanfiction of copyrighted work that isn’t on public domain (and some countries also pay for use under public domain), but it’s allowed to exist somewhat under the common acceptance of it not being for profit and not being meant as a direct competitor to the original work or a replacement of it, but a fandom appreciation of it. That’s why AO3 has an army of lawyers ready, that’s why they don’t allow people to link their monetization platforms in their fics. 

The thing is, the monetization of online content has made it easy for people to forget that. This is not just a fic writer situation, but a content creator situation, people learn to monetize before knowing what they can monetize, in every platform. Those girls who went and did a Bridgerton musical without permission were allowed to even be eligible for a Grammy but the moment they started profiting for themselves, Netflix, producer and author came knocking, because what they did is illegal. 

Added to this, the US copyright law is now more prominent internationally because of them owning the vast majority of mainstream sharing platforms and their servers being located in US territory, as well as them having the studios that end up owning the rights of adaptation eventually. So, companies rather than people are now more accepted to be holders and representatives of IP. 

This practice isn’t as commonplace in other places of the world, where the material author always has the last say, but the US law being present in every major platform online and the evolution of the entertainment industry (in which adaptations or distribution create the possibility of major companies like Netflix, Disney, Universal, etc. to become representatives of IP that used to be owned by an author and a publisher alone) have created a scenario in which insanely huge companies can and will act as representatives of an IP and pursue legal action, with or without the original author deciding on it. 

So, the fact that the whole Anne Rice vs fanfiction situation has been reduced to some idea that her very gay books weren’t gay and she didn’t like slash is derailing the conversation from the original issue, which is a problem that is still relevant today, maybe more than ever. Anne Rice might be gone and, even before that, her stance on fanfiction might have changed, but we’re losing what we learned with that experience if we’re not willing to remember it properly. 

[psychologeek]

@notaconservative asked:

@psychologeek also why does there need to be a Jewish ethnostate? There's no Christian ethnostate or Islamic ethnostate.. Isn't not allowing ppl to live in your country based on race a nazi thing?

(I apologise for any English mistakes. I'm sick, but it's important so I want to answer quickly).

First of all - Judaism is both ethnicity and a religion, but Islam and Christianity aren't, so I changed your question slightly.

There aren't other religionstates

Actually, there are many Muslim states (57, 56 of them mention Islamic law in their constitution/similar) and christian states (100+). You're just used to consider it as the "default", so you don't really see it.

Some questions to see it more clearly:

What day the work week starts?(Sunday? Monday? Saturday?)

What are the "default" holiday/vacation days in the country? (Eg. Christmas and Easter? Passover and Sukkot? Eed (id?) AlFiter and Mawlid Un Nabi? Lunar new year?)

What is the calendar used in the country? Just the Georgian calendar, or any relation to the the jewish calander, the Hijra, or other calanders?

I can continue, but I guess you understand.

(If you don't, try compare the calanders from same year of America, China, India, Morocco and Israel.)

Example of September 2018, not full though (I used it as I wrote a multicultural fic, and didn't want to miss dates)

(Ignore the cubes, it's a reminder for things mentioned in the fic)

Race and Religion (ft. Nazis).

Like I said at the start, it looks like a confusion between race, ethnicity, and religion.

Race - fake thing, based on skin colour and og continent?. (Ok, not completely, I guess? But as 90% of the people I know are any version of mix, so...)

What the Nazis wanted was world with only clean-best-people, looking for the übermantch, the "super-man". This is same reason they killed gays and disabled people - they "filth" the pureblood Aris.

I won't get deeper into it. As jew, queer and disabled, I'm very tired of hearing why my death is a good thing.

Religion - what one believes, or follow. Usually has a mixture of ritual (things to do), beliefs (things to feel/think), and many ways affects daily life, like having rules about what to do, how to behave, etc.

(I tried to use the most common things, so it would apply to not only monotheism.)

Ethnicity:

Ethnicity - culture and history and narrative. where did you come from.

Im other people's words:

Ethnicity has been defined as: "the social group a person belongs to, and either identifies with or is identified with by others, as a result of a mix of cultural and other factors including language, diet, religion, ancestry and physical features traditionally associated with race".

As you can see, Judaism is a religion, but also ethnicity - we have our language, Hebrew (the oldest artifact with Hebrew writing is about 3,300 years old), religion (Judaism), diet (Kosher), ancestry (all descendants of Yaakov, also known as Israel, that was the son of Itzhak, the son of Avraham, etc.) physical features - even the most Ashkenazi Met, blond, blue eyes, lobster-in-the-son Jew (that was born to Jewish family, not converted) has more in common, DNA speaking, with middle Easterns then with their neighbours.

("But Psy," I imagine you asking, "how do you get blond jews?"

Well.

The same way you get a redhead, green eyed Yemeni

(in Aden, a British colony)

We are used to pogroms. We are the descendants of those who didn't die. I'll leave it that way.)

Not allowing ppl to live in your country based on race.

Again, I think you meant either ethnicity or religion?

Anyway, pure facts:

20% (2m) of the citizens of Israel are Arabs (from arab-speaking communities.)

84% of those, or 18.1% of Israel population (~1.6m) are Muslims, 8%, or 1.3% of IP (~160k) are Christians, another 8% (1.5% of ip) are Druze, that sometimes prefer to be considered as their own separate group.

Also other minorities such as Circassians (Adigas), Bahá'í, etc.

~5.5% are "other"/no religion registered.

(data from the central bureau of statistics. On the top left you can change the language to any of Israel official languages: Hebrew, Arabic or English: https://www.cbs.gov.il/he/pages/default.aspx

(some of the data might be available in Russian, Amharic, Francis, Spanish or other languages (about 30 languages are common in Israel).

As always - feel free to rb and reply.

If I made a mistake, plz let me know and I'll get it fixed

[susansontag]

It's really not that hard to understand that their whole thing with hp and jk is the fact that the game is a turning point in letting jk get away with her views and funding of anti trans laws in the uk. She has her hands IN what gets passed there and the lgbt community sought to use her game as a lesson that you can't get away with being a racist antisemitic transphobe anymore. Unfortunately no one wants to listen to the community, because no one wants to stop and think "Hey how is this impacting my friends or youth today? What would it mean to them if we did this for them?"

And if you stopped to think you'd realize that if this had been a successful boycott, it would've been a very good opening for the lgbt community to direct our attention to important matters like the anti trans and anti abortion laws being passed in the u.s and the anti trans laws being passed in the uk.

People think they aren't fighting for other things or that they're hypocrites for only caring about hp when in reality you are treating the lgbt community like a hive mind. HP is big therefore people think it's the only thing the community cares about but it's not. You don't care about them from how dismissive you immediately are so you don't see that there are trans people fleeing states or countries because there has never been a safe place for them to exist.

All these laws have brought out the worst in people towards the lgbt community and boycotting a simple badly made video game is the easiest thing they could've asked us to do instead of telling us literally anything else that is a worry atm. It could've been a lesson to transphobes and antisemitic people that you can't be a visibly shit person anymore and get away with it but unfortunately no one cares enough to use some critical thinking skills and realize that one of the biggest ip's in the world being used as an example would've been the fastest but also the biggest way to push back on the sudden vocal hatred going on towards poc, jewish communities, and lgbt people.

I don't expect you to answer this in fact I'm sure you'll make fun of this ask but have a little empathy in your life instead of calling lgbt people (who again aren't the only ones condemning jk) hypocrites for not boycotting everything in their lives when you know it's not realistic and they know it's not realistic to ask you of this. It's why they chose hp. Because it was the easiest ask of the century and even that was too much to ask of everyone.

indeed, the lgbt community are not a hive mind (I have never claimed this), hence my disagreeing with you. boycotting the harry potter game would not get a message out about anything and isn't effective activism anyway. you just don't know what you're talking about so it is genuinely hard to get through to you and people who speak like you do... I know that's harsh, but you blatantly conflate uk debates about trans healthcare and women's spaces with us debates surrounding it, despite their being two different countries with different political balances of power having in some cases significantly different discussions. do you even know the details of these 'anti trans laws' you discuss? have you even skimmed any of the reports regarding trans healthcare, for example the cass review submitted to the nhs in the uk? do you even know the content of these debates?

trans people likely are fleeing certain countries, but they certainly have no reason to flee the united kingdom. this is an incredibly safe country for trans people; so safe, in fact, that any trans refugees should probably consider fleeing to here. there absolutely are safe places for trans people to exist and it's exceptionally irresponsible and alarmist to go around claiming otherwise

you seem very convinced that boycotting a video game will actually alter structural racism in some way, and well. I'm not even going to engage with that one, sorry. I do not need more empathy. people like you need to 'educate yourself' on issues you claim to be authorities on, because the careful consideration, the mindful debate, the baseline knowledge? it all seems incredibly lacking in people writing these strongly worded posts on social media websites