#she doesn't KNOW about the anne rice court case

[friendofozma]

Lady at my writing meetup: yeah, fanfiction tropes are becoming common even in mainstream media. Like I like this one little-known niche trope that's been in a lot of published kindle books.

Me, an Ao3 user: oh, cool? Which trope?

Lady at writing meetup: oh, you wouldn't know it. It's really niche. It has to do with werewolves...

Me:

[thekatebridgerton]

Thank you for that thoughtful response to the ask about the Bridgerton musical lawsuit.

I worry so much when fans take advantage of a situation to make money off of fanworks because of what it might mean for the rest of us who don’t abuse the freedom we have right now to create transformative works.

I don’t view Netflix as the aggressor here at all, it’s almost like B&B forced their hand. And actually, I feel…betrayed by B&B for breaking the rules that we all know and potentially creating a more litigious environment for other fans.

Oh we all remember what happened the last time an Author took issue with the use of their copyright.

And if Bear and Barlow did not take caution from the legend of Anne Rice and the fanfiction dark ages then that's pretty awful of them. But every fanfiction writer born before the year 2000 knows why the famous

'I do not own this, I make no profit of this and the characters and story rightfully belong to the original author ' type of disclaimers still exist

Our community still bears the scars of Anne Rice lawsuit and there's nothing more dangerous for fanworks than when a WRITER takes issue with their intellectual property being used without their permission for profit.

Because writers are at the heart of all fanworks they can bring down entire worlds of content with one lawsuit. Mess with a writer, you mess with the foundation of fandom. You mess with fanfiction and fanart and music covers.

You think fanfiction writers aren't scared of a major fanfiction purge happening again just because someone got greedy? I was a kid and I remember the whispers in the fanworks community. Anne Rice is dead and she's still the fanfiction boogie man.

How do you think AO3 was born? It's literally held together by prayers and super glue just because it doesn't make profit and depends on donations. We do not profit off fanworks! That's rule #1 nobody wants to be the jerk who caused a lawsuit that made copyright law enforcement more intense

I honestly hope that Barlow and Bear settle this out of court. Because I don't want any of Netflix lawyers to get their hands on writer copyright law for Julia Quinn to win the case.

And while I do think Julia Quinn is nicer than Anne Rice and she's unlikely to go after all fanworks who may be marginally profiting from derivatives of her work. That's not true for other authors who can see this precedent as an opportunity.

I'd rather there be no precedent set in court. And honestly, I think Netflix should have been more direct with the wording and their lack of permission at the time for fans to get the idea that it's simply not done for profit.

I mean all of us wish we could earn money by creating fan made tributes to someone else's original work. Mostly because who doesn't want to make money out of something they're passionate about. But if you're passionate about the work of someone else then it's really unethical to make money out of it without their permission

To me it's really simple.

I thought that this was simple To the entire fanworks community as well. We do this for fun, because it makes us and other people like us happy to share what we love

I guess I also love that from fanworks. That it's non profit. This isn't anyone's day job, this is their escape, their refuge, their corner of happiness. Nobody comes to a fandom thinking about how much money they can make, they just come to relax, to enjoy, just because they're looking for something happy to happen.

Commercializing any type of fanwork kinda pops the illusion for me.

music and writing fanworks are meant to be enjoyed for free because it's done for fun

I mean I run this blog for fun. I write and read fanfiction for fun. It's definitely improved my mental health.

But there's too much pressure in society to make a profit out of people's free fun, else it's somehow not enough.

These girls won a Grammy! Why did they need to add paid performances to the package. It's unethical to profit out of fanworks everyone knows that. But I guess we'll just have to wait and see how this ends

Hopefully without a major struggle.

So far Barlow and Bear have refused to comment and I can't tell if that's good or bad news.

But here's hoping it's good news