#who cannot legally make money from fanfiction | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

pebblysand · 1 year

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okay, i'm going on a rant and i might make enemies but honestly this has been brewing inside me for weeks and i can't hold it in anymore.

i've seen a lot of content lately (and this is no one in particular, just a general trend) of people getting mad when fanfic writers 1) try to monetise their craft and 2) try to link their ko-fi/patreon/what-have-you to ao3. the general consensus seems to be that this endangers ao3 as a platform, that these "gen z-s" who aren't scarred by anne rice don't know the risks they're taking, that everyone will get sued, etc.

now, for the record, i do not put my own ko-fi in my a/n-s because a) i do want to respect the rules and, b) i don't really need to make money from ff, but:

i wish people would mind their own fucking business sometimes. if someone wants to take the risk to monetise their work because they need to, then that is their risk to take, not yours. stop acting as though Money Is The Devil. money allows people to put a roof over their heads and food on the table. i've always found it sort of ironic that ao3 keeps lamenting every year about their struggles re:staff turnover and lack of diversity when only very fortunate people with a lot of time on their hands can actually afford to dedicate hundreds of hours of their time to allow them to function. not everyone can afford to work/do art for free. and, sure, we can all agree capitalism is bad but also that is the world we live in. you want to change it? revolt. have a revolution. don't report people to a fucking website.

this is tied to my first point but when it comes to links on ao3 specifically, just because AO3 has been the best site so far, doesn't mean it cannot be questioned ever. for the record, i love ao3. i think it's a great website. it's a fantastic idea. but, after spending an evening looking through their public accounting (yeah, i'm ✨fun✨ like that), i have loads of questions about the hundreds of thousands of dollars they seem to be hoarding year on year and refusing to reinvest to "keep it safe". ao3 as a website are extremely risk-averse in their functioning. that is their ethos. and, it can be a good thing (i'm not denying that) but that can also be a bad thing. we should at least be allowed to publicly debate certain decisions without being called "traitors" who want to bring the website down. it's healthy to debate.

for the love of jesus, mary, joseph and all of the people of jerusalem, stop telling people that if they make money off fanfic they will get sued and die. first of all, the legality of the monetisation of fanfiction is a lot more complicated than tumblr discourse makes it out to be. i don't want to go into too much detail because i have a life but know that: just because you monetise, doesn't mean you will get sued (and lose). at the same time, just because you do not monetise doesn't mean you won't. since these people love quoting anne rice as an example, i will say this: the people who got cease and desist letters, as far as i know, were not monetising. that is because monetisation is one of four factors related to the fair use exception, not The Only One. this is me making an educated guess here but i suppose that when they refuse to monetise, ao3 is actually just protecting itself and its users (again, that ngo, risk-averse strategy). they are not only leveraging that in a potential fair use argument, they are also taking a gamble that the lack of monetisation will discourage lawsuits. this may come as a shock but very few sane people sue each other for no money. it is thus safer not to monetise fanfiction, but not safe. making people believe in that dichotomy is misleading.

building on the above, i think the misunderstanding here comes from the fact that ao3 has become so mainstream and has outdone itself so much that the use of it has superseded its primary purpose. ao3 sees itself as an archive first and foremost, not as a reading tool/content host. its purpose is the safekeeping of History, which is why it's so risk-averse. but, that might not be what we need anymore as a collective. i don't know. but the idea that AO3 is going to get sued and disappear immediately if people start profiting from fanfic is flimsy at best. ff.net runs ads and monetises, so do tumblr and wattpad. they're fine. yes, it is a more difficult position to defend, but not an impossible one. tumblr even lets you put your fanfiction behind a paywall if you want, and the money transits through them. sure, that means that their terms of service push the responsibility onto you to respect copyright laws and defend yourself if you get sued (it's obviously a very different business model) but it is a thing. the fear-mongering about the doomsday of ao3 if anyone at all sought to question their system is ridiculous.

which brings me to my next point: stop blaming this on gen z. who allegedly don't remember what it was like "before," when we all swam in a sea of cease and desist letters and fanfiction websites were collapsing left, right and centre. this is not the first time i make this point online but why are we, millennials, turning into our parents, questioning young people's capacity for intelligent reasoning? even if the above was a realistic picture of the 00s, it was twenty years ago. times have changed. fanfiction has become democratised. we do not know what would happen if people started earning money off fanfiction. we don't know that they would get sued. if they did get sued, we don't even know what would actually happen because very few fic-like cases have been litigated. so let's just step back and let people do what they want.

lastly, a lot of people seem to think that bringing money into fanfic (even the smallest amount) would ruin their enjoyment of it, and would ruin the whole medium altogether. i understand this, i feel it sometimes myself. but, that's sort of a me problem, isn't it? we are projecting our own issues about how we feel money would decrease our enjoyment of fanfic onto other people. but that's for them, not us, to decide. to each their own.

and, bonus point: this is HP specific but if you are one of those people who only buys merch off etsy creators because you don't want JKR to profit and then scream at fanfic creators for trying to monetise, you are making literally no logical sense.

which is all to say: the conversation about the monetisation of fanfiction is a fascinating one, and a very complicated and nuanced one. there is no black and white. i have doubts myself and i have been thinking about these things for a long time. i do still feel very uneasy about the idea of the exploitation of someone else's property by another without their consent. it's tough. but i think it's important to sometimes get off our high horses and see both sides of a story, and feed intelligent discourse, not fear-mongering.

#rantover, thanks for coming to my ted talk.

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pheonyxian · 3 months

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Something that is constantly missing in layman discussions about copyright law is that copyright protects fans just as much as it protects large companies. Many authors have stated that they legally cannot read fanfiction of their works because, if they include a similar character or plot point that a fanfic created first, they could be sued. If you completely get rid of copyright, then yeah you can make your fangame without fear of getting C&D'd... but then [big company] can remake your fangame with better graphics, with no credit or money given to you. And big companies have millions of fanworks to pick and choose from to make a quick buck off of. And let's be honest, people in fandom (usually younger fans) get *very* defensive about other fans stealing their characters and ideas. (see: Original Character Do Not Steal, that video about Omegaverse, etc). Fandom culture has a lot of unwritten rules pertaining to what is okay to take from and what is not.

I'm not saying I think copyright law is perfect and doesn't need to be reformed, but I do think people who say "copyright sucks, everything should be public domain" don't actually realize that's not what they want.

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fanworksforfreechoice · 2 years

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Fanworks for Free Choice!

Hello! Welcome to the Fanworks for Free Choice exchange! This exchange works to encourage donations to abortion networks and funds in exchange for a customized fanwork! Creators will set their own suggested donation amounts, suggested organizational recipients, as well as restrictions on what they will and will not create.

Donors will claim work from a creator whose suggestions and works line up with their preferences for both receiving organizations and fan content. After providing proof of donation, the donor will request a fanwork from their chosen creator by providing a prompt/details for what they would like to see.

This event has been inspired by the recent decision by the US Supreme Court to overturn Roe v Wade through the ruling in Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health, however, this event will be international. Participants outside the US are encouraged to donate to abortion networks, funds, and reproductive justice advocacy organizations in their regions.

Timeline

Sunday, June 26 - Sunday, July 3 11:59PM EST: sign-ups are open

Monday, July 4th - Monday July 11, 10:00PM EST: offerings for the exchange will be posted and donors can make their claims

Works should be completed by August, 31 2022 (please let us know if extensions are needed)

Rules

General:

Please choose reputable, pro-choice networks and organizations. Do not ask for donations to pregnancy crisis centers or other organizations that do not support abortion access.

Planned Parenthood is an acceptable organization, but we encourage you to choose local/regional branches rather than the national organization. Furthermore, donations to abortion fund networks and grassroots organizations are encouraged.

Donations to campaigns for political parties and politicians are not allowed.

Creators and donors, please be open to communicating with each other so that if more details are needed for a prompt, you can share that information and be happy with your exchange.

Creators:

Please only sign up if you are confident you can complete the exchange. Obviously, things come up, so, please let us know as soon as possible if you need to drop out and we can discuss a backup with your fan recipient.

If you are writing fanfiction and want to post the work on archive of our own, do not mention anywhere in the fic’s summary, tags, or notes that this is done in exchange for a donation. You are simply gifting a fanfic to someone who happened to donate to a reproductive justice organization. (This is as a result of AO3’s legal status and how fanfiction writers cannot receive money in exchange for their works.) ***EDIT 06/26/2022 6:35PM EST*** I stand corrected, you may mention that the fic is for charity on AO3! You just can't solicit for donations on AO3.

Authors, fanartists, and crafters are all allowed to participate. If you do crafting, you will have to coordinate shipping and addresses with the recipient.

Donors:

Creators can also be donors to receive works from other creators.

Please provide proof of donation (ie, a screenshot of your donation or the confirmation email) but be sure to redact any personally identifying information!

If you choose a craft, please be aware that you will have to either give out your address or a PO box to the creator.

Sign-ups for creators are now live on google sheets

#pro-choice #fandom activism #fanworks for free choice #pro-abortion #fanfiction #fanart #fandom

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mamushroomoracorn · 1 year

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The "TikTok" Ban Bill isn't just a singular Ban: It will Change our internet and Violate our Free speech/Press/The Right to Assemble to a Protest/Economic Rights/People right to vote anonymously.

Also why it is happening/speculation.

What you can do

Firstly

No you cannot use a VPN to get around and here's why

I haven't post here in a while since I been busy

But this "bipartisan" Bills will shift the internet, effect small businesses and is will throw us further into a f@cist state in the US if we don't do anything.

The RESTICT act is mainly what I will be inferring to.

It is a bill that was

It was written by Republican representative the man is known to be in the photo of the raise fist during the events that took place during Jan.6 and was cosponsor by a Democrat who is investing in Meta.

If you do or do not know the RESTICT act is or The Tiktok Ban, both bills effects everyone on the internet.

It is still in the early congressional revising

But to sum it up 》》

It gives the president excutive power to sign then give commerce the power to ban sites and apps with 1 million people which is only 3% of the population.

Then the ban tiktok act, bans tiktok

It also make VPNs use to get around the ban illegal, 20 years in jail and can land you over 2 millions in fines.

Tiktok Ban is a trap

This will legalize the government to your data, indoor and outdoor security cameras, computer, speakers on Google or Alexa devices, search history.

This bill is a prime example of a big brother law.

This should make you angry and scared because this ban effects everyone, every app, every site and everywhere.

This bill problem, is it is too vague, it is overreaching, it will do negative impact to our economy ,and it is taking your rights.

It will effect vvv

- Small businesses

- Poc creators

-travelers/refugee access

- Online journalists

- People who create fanfiction/art/music/writing/content

- Commissioners NSFW or not

- Vloggers

- Privacy

- Educational sites, Fact checkers, Educational Creators.

- Protesters

- Game development, Game developers, people play games from countries, people who play games about political topics.

- Pirating apps and sites, emulators

- YouTubers, Streamers, Redditors, People who post on Instagram.

-LGBTQ+ people

-People with disabilities

-People who post online platforms

-ARGs

-Abortion rights and rights to medical privacy

-People who like the things or do the things on this lists

-Dark Web

- Then everyone that of course uses the internet for various reasons

What this will allow

Newstations to censor anything they want, guess what your "trusted source" is own by the same company.

CNN and Fox News is owned by the same group.

Many major news outlets are own by the same people.

A lot of information about things will be restricted by corporations.

The incident in Ohio wouldn't have been talked about if it weren't for people speaking on it online.

Even worse imagine a shooting happen like what happened on monday and they will completely censor, or even not speak about it.

---

It will strip the rights to vote in privacy and to know who to vote for.

Government can spy on you if this gets passed.

That can go wrong in many ways.

If passed like I said information will be restricted.

So polling places and voting, what is closed, what is safe, what is working, where to resubmit, if your votes are being tampered with, will be harder to know.

---

As for the things listed

It will either effect you

- Because you are part of a marginalized(s) group that rely on quick information to Assemble.

- The platforms can easily ban you or your creators, control narratives or keep in ad money.

-The things you create will have to follow a certain structure to try not to Violate any laws relating to it.

-Protesters/allies/anyone with a opinion may face difficulty with organizing.

-People who have the ability to get pregnant will have a harder time being safe.

-Meta stop paying their users

- Games like Genshin can be put under this law

Additional Note:

-*You will have to get a license to be on the internet from what I heard.

I cannot confirm this because of the fact this is still technically in drafts.

》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》》

Now there's many reasons:

Either your senator/rep(congressional people) is investing in Meta

The Congressional folks are fascists

That the US wants to reestablish the patriot act

The force selling of tiktok

To pressure China to leave to BRICS program/Look tough on China because China is becoming a superpower.

To control the narrative

To "protect" your data

That they are just racist towards a superpower app who is own by a asian man.

The protect data excuse doesn't fly,

it is not only we know they haven't been informed before the congressional hearing of Mr.Chew the CEO of tik tok.

Also because they got chances to regulate Facebook which Facebook is well known either evidence to actually to sell data towards governments like China which they are a accusing tiktok of.

Facebook is also sponsored this bill, same with Google and if remember Twitter.

As you can see they were racist and bigoted during this.

Mr.Chew is Singaporean and the company is completely private.

Mr.Chew also offed solutions like Project Texas which will have states store the data and the US companies can check.

If you look into the hastags on relating to the "tiktok ban" you can see the various reasons I listed, with evidence.

I suggest watching

@photosteveg81

@crutches_and_spice

@sayheyjames

They are talking about it the most, but please also REPOST other creators and spread this around.

》》》》》》》》》》

What you can do

Do this always, Call your congressional people CALL THEM EVERY DAY. Do not give them a sob story they don't care what they care about is money.

There's many great templates online but basically what you gotta is you are going to support their primary opponent the primary elections.

If they support this bill, bills like the RESTICT act or the sell of Tiktok.

Also tell people the same important information Givin here and tell them to do the same.

Both Republicans and democrats, leftists, centrist citizens HATE THIS BILL.

You need to spread it on all platforms.

It threatens them if more people know about primaries

it threatens their money for campaigning in midterms because if they have to use it on a primary opponent that is supported it will cost a lot more.

Of course they know if they don't "catch up" they get left behind.

This was the bare minimum but to go beyond to make sure it is stuck in their minds do this.

Make it clear you aren't going back to meta

Also there's two ways, you can find online on how to call.

Tank Meta stock, you can quit, dump, deactive your account, give it a bad review, or do all 》 ON ALL AREAS including Facebook, Instagram, Whatapp.

Organize protests outside their buildings congressional or Meta

Tell everyone about it

Email content creators, on all platforms about this

Repost posts like this, posts like mine

Take a screen Shot of said posts and share it

Spam your congressional people emails.

Deny gov Republicans and democrats services.

Ruin their lives

Tag this

#important #importance #fypツ #creators #commisions #ai art debate #vote #anime #tv shows #lgbtqia rights #lgbtqia #lgtbqplus #spring #video games #games #art #internet #genshin impact #genshin

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rollercoasterwords · 2 years

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I have a question about your fic-printing policy. Your FAQ says this:

"essentially, if anyone anywhere is making money from you printing the fic, it is NOT legal and could ultimately jeopardize fanfiction websites like ao3, and i cannot condone it. that means please stick to hand-binding rather than using websites that take a commission!"

I'm a bookbinder who takes requests. I bind books that are less than 100,000 words for no charge. But if someone wants one of YOUR glorious, wonderful and lengthy fics printed, I really need to ask for some money to cover materials.

Is it okay with your ficprinting policy if I ask someone to pay something towards materials? It's never more than just covering costs, so I'm not profiting from it at all. In fact, I still lose money on every commission, it's just that instead of being $100 out-of-pocket, I'm only $15 out-of-pocket.

sorry it's taken me a bit to respond to this but yes i'm totally fine with that!! i am very much not a lawyer and have never studied copyright law so my fic printing policy is coming exclusively from what i have heard from those more knowledgeable on the subject, but essentially the thing i worry about is pay-to-print sites where there's a company charging a fee and making a profit, and more specifically people posting online very publicly about using those sites, because i have heard that if those kinds of posts gain enough attention it could lead to legal trouble for fanfic sites like ao3. i'm totally fine with hand-binding by commission and really don't see how it could lead to any legal trouble if you literally aren't making a profit! (if someone has like...a business hand-binding fanfic and is charging lots of money for it, i can see where that might get dicey, but it sounds like that's not at all what you're doing)

so, in conclusion: yes, please go ahead! also i think it's incredibly cool that u do this and i am in awe of literally every person who knows how to hand-bind books it is SUCH a cool skill

#ask #faq

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suzylbooks · 24 days

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Who Owns a Fanfic?

Throughout the past four years, one online community has gone from niche to power-player. Booktok has transformed from a hashtag with simple book recommendations, memes, and reviews to a cultural phenomenon that has publishers scrambling to monetize. The previous success of BookTube in the mid 2010’s laid the groundwork for BookTok’s current state—filled with hauls, wrap-ups, and homogeneity about what books become and stay popular.

This is where Manacled enters the conversation. For the uninitiated, Manacled is a mega-viral fanfiction based on Harry Potter by author SenLinYu. It’s dark in nature, with the quick, catchy premise of Harry Potter meets the Handmaid’s Tale, with Dramione (the fan-favorite pairing of Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy) at the core. At the time of writing, it has nearly eigh million hits on Archive of Our Own and sits at over 370,000 words. It has cemented itself in fanfiction history alongside Cassandra Clare’s Draco Trilogy and Tara Gilesbe’s My Immortal as fanfiction that has taken on a life and fandom of its own. A quick search on Tiktok and Instagram reveals that Manacled is treated like any other book, with the Manacled tag having over 470 million collective TikTok views in February 2024. There’s fanart, dramatic edits to favorite quotes, people recording themselves crying over the ending—and, most importantly, there are videos of people learning bookbind so that they can make themselves a hardcover copy of Manacled.

Printing fanfiction is hardly new. In the early days of fandom, before mobile phones could let you bring your fanfiction anywhere you wanted, people would print out their fics, put them into three ring binders, and carry them to school. This stands in a shocking contrast to the Manacled hardcover copies. These look professional—they’re often printed on specialty paper, with gold-foil cover designs and decorative formatting. And, most shockingly, they sell on Etsy for over $100—though, as I was checking this story before hitting publish, I noticed that many of the Etsy listings had been removed. This cannot be said for the dozens of listings for other Dramione fanfics.

In February, author SenLinYu announced that she had signed a book deal to see the traditional publication of Manacled, reimagined in a different, non-Harry Potter universe and retitled to Alchemised. In their post announcing the deal, they stated that her primary reason for publication was not monetary—the sale of bound versions of her books was both a violation of her intellectual property and copyright infringement on the Harry Potter franchise, and this move would protect her fanfic and fanfiction as a whole. Fanfiction has long held the defense that authors do not make any profits off of the work they create, since their existence has been a hotly contested legal issue (hello, Anne Rice) and protected by Fair Use. Those Etsy listings were putting the Organization for Transformative Works in danger, because they meant someone was profiting off of fanfiction, as well as stealing from SenLinYu. They have, as far as I am aware, never made a cent off of Manacled. Her FAQ page on Tumblr states clearly that she does not allow sales or commissions of bound Manacled copies, and that anyone who wants to create fanart, fanfic, or remixes of her work is allowed to do it so long as they do not make any money off of this.

Clearly, Booktok didn’t get the memo. In her post, SenLinYu laments how she has been unable to protect her own works from ‘exploitation,’ and she states that she cannot take the fanfiction down yet as the sudden disappearance might only make the issue of bootleg copies worse.

While explaining this phenomena, SenLinYu’s decision suddenly appeared as a checkmate—by making Manacled into Alchemised, it alchemizes itself into copywritten material, and with the help of a major publishing house’s legal team, Senlinyu will actually be able to take back ownership of their work.

This poses a question—who owns a fanfic, and why does the modern state of fandom seem to encourage fans to think of a fic as public property?

To be clear, the writer of a fanfic is the owner of a fanfic. Just because it is transformative work doesn’t mean it is somehow less than original work. Someone took the time to write it—it is their writing, and it is their work. Whether or not they’re able to make money off of it doesn’t make it a public good for someone else to make money off of.

In the last decade, fanfiction has turned from a small hobby to a mainstream activity—with fanfictions being published, albeit with character names changed and typically set in alternate universes. When Fifty Shades of Grey exploded into the mainstream, E.L. James denied that her book was originally fanfiction and lied about its origins. Now, Reylo fanfictions are hitting the New York Times bestsellers lists, and Harry Styles fanfictions are seeing movie adaptations. This change in cultural awareness also comes with a change in cultural interaction.

WIRED noted in their recent piece on the SenLinYu story that the increase in fanfiction has turned it from a tight knit community into a traditional author/reader relationship, or worse—a creator/fan relationship. Fandoms as they existed in the early 2000’s on forums or even in the early 2010’s on Tumblr are dead, and the pressure to monetize our art and creations has compounded with changing cultural awarenesses over fanfiction. It’s no longer seen as a fun thing that people put online for other fans to read—there are pressures to update and keep churning out chapters. I’ve noticed it in my own fics over the years—I’ve written fanfiction for fourteen years across several platforms, and there’s something different now.

Kaitlyn Tiffany’s Everything I Need I Get From You details the evolution of fandom from its beginnings in the infancy of pop culture to its modern-day form. Teenage girls would share their paper zines for the Beatles and Star Trek, and it was decidedly counterculture. Once the internet became popular, fangirls used it to create blogs and forums dedicated to their favorite characters and ships. Over time, fanfiction became easier to access with centralized sites like Fanfiction dot net—and, later, AO3—and this made fanfiction more commonplace to general fandom members.

During this time, writers would often put disclaimers at the start of their fics that they did not own the characters they were writing in an attempt to avoid legal action (even Manacled, originally published between 2018 and 2019, contains one of these disclaimers). Archive of Our Own, the current king of fanfiction, is run by a non-profit (the Organization for Transformative Works), and, as such, its formation acted as a more explicit step toward legal protection for fans. There was an awareness that fanfiction was not something to use for monetary gain and that there could be major consequences if someone were to monetize their fics, since a creator would then absolutely be able to sue an author or website for copyright infringement. In this sense, there was an awareness that fanfictions were the creation and property of the author—it was theirs, because no one could own it in a legal sense, but there was an honor rule. After all, you were enjoying something for free—why would you want more?

With the explosion of Booktok and the traditional publication of fanfiction with books such as The Love Hypothesis and You, Again, fanfiction has hit its next stage: consumption and promotion by influencers. Manacled is promoted organically, just like any other book, and someone unfamiliar with the fic could be forgiven for thinking that people are discussing a book that had already seen traditional publication. It has spawned a fandom of its own—where it might have once been elevated as the most popular fic among Dramione shippers, such as Isolation by Bexchan a decade ago, it has instead found success with readers who have never read fanfiction before. And those readers might not be aware of this unspoken rule. It��s online, and you can download the complete PDF from AO3—so, why wouldn’t you be able to make it your own? Why wouldn’t you be able to bind it and sell it? After all, you’re putting in the work of binding it, who cares if the author won’t see any money? Why shouldn’t you buy it—your money is going to the binder, and didn’t they work hard? Aren’t you just showing your appreciation for the fic?

As I wrote this, I asked myself why people were so determined to have a ‘nice’ binding of this fic. After all, printer paper and a three-ring binder seemed to work before. Was it to get clout online? Was it for the aesthetics of displaying it on a shelf? Was it because it was your favorite fic of all time and you never wanted to risk it being taken down, like it will in 2025? Or was it because you wanted to make yourself feel more elevated, like you weren’t reading fanfiction anymore?

I considered the option that Booktok itself had created and promoted a culture where it wasn’t enough to read 370,000 words, you had to also show it off in a physical and aesthetic way. Last year, the rushed release of romantasy sequel Iron Flame came with an explosion of think pieces asking if Booktok had an overconsumption problem. Time and time again, we’ve seen Tiktok and similar platforms encouraging overconsumption through everything from Shein hauls to Stanley cup shrines. While I feel that this culture of owning for the sake of showing off plays a major factor in seeking out physical copies of Manacled despite the author's requests to not, I can’t say for sure that it is the root cause.

I might not know why, but I can speak to the effect it has had. With the rise of bound fanfiction being sold online, the rights that transformative authors—a fancy term for fanfiction writers—have has been violated. While there might not be a moral wrong in pirating the works of a famous, rich author, there is a moral wrong in profiting off of work that has been put online for free. SenLinYu isn’t the only author pulling their fics, either, and I worry that this could signal the death of a free, fun fandom—or online fandom as we know it.

Just last year, Hbomberguy detailed how a single Youtuber had made a silly amount of dollars by stealing the words of queer writers and filmmakers, many of whom were never paid for their work in the first place. The video itself saw massive views and started a discussion about plagiarism across the internet. The success of the video was rooted in the fundamental understanding that stealing someone else’s work is wrong, and that people who plagiarize should not be able to make money off of it because they are, plainly, jerks.

Publishing Alchemised will allow SenLinYu to finally be paid for her work—any other author who had sold over seven-million books would be able to live off of royalties for a long time and be offered countless opportunities—but it will also allow for her to use the laws in place for protecting authors from having bootleg versions of their works sold without seeing any money. While she was previously unable to stop people from profiting off of her work, she now has a way forward. And, perhaps most important, her two-book deal will allow her to publish more through Del Rey at Penguin Random House.

That WIRED article mentioned that years ago, the act of pulling fanwork for publication was seen as a betrayal, but now it’s seen by many as an accomplishment. Taylor Lorenz notes in her book Extremely Online that when Instagram began disclosing brand partnerships, both the app and influencers feared that they would be abandoned for ‘selling out’ and running ads, but fans instead saw them as a sign of ‘making it.’ The publication of Alchemised hasn’t been without criticism, though—a quick search through social media turns up comments calling the removal of the original fanfiction (a move that must be done for legal reasons) a ‘slap in the face.’And beyond that, there are countless, and I mean countless, posts where people say that they are actively downloading the fic before its removal. SenLinYu is aware of the downloading rush, and is giving people plenty of time to do so in order to preserve something that means so much to them—not to think ahead so that they might sell a hardcover copy of a ‘rare’ fanfic.

This isn’t the piece to rehash tired discourse about the trend of fanfiction being edited and published. This isn’t the piece to ask why the publishing industry is beginning to look toward fan spaces for manuscripts or why agents and editors now seek manuscripts that read like fanfiction—or just are fanfiction.

This is a piece to acknowledge that while fandom has always been a public, collaborative experiment, the work being produced does not belong to the public. Fanfiction is not ownerless in nature simply because the writer doesn’t own the original characters or world. The state of writing and intellectual integrity has never been more fraught with the rise of AI and the rapid shift away from new authors, and SenLinYu’s move to protect her work signals a massive change.

No one, not even fanfiction writers, should be okay with people making money off of their words.

Works Cited

Alter, Rebecca. “Hbomberguy Didn’t Want to Make That 4-Hour Plagiarism Video.” Vulture, Vulture, 22 Dec. 2023, www.vulture.com/2023/12/hbomberguy-interview-james-somerton-plagiarism.html.

Bosker, Bianca. “How a Crowdsourced Novel Became a Young-Adult Obsession.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 18 Dec. 2018, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/12/crowdsourcing-the-novel/573907/.

CarefreeDreamer. “R/Dramione on Reddit: Mancled Is Getting Published!!! And More Works by Senliyu🖤.” Reddit, 5 Feb. 2024, www.reddit.com/r/Dramione/comments/1ajl17r/mancled_is_getting_published_and_more_works_by/.

Ellis, Maddie. “Harry Potter Fan Fic ‘manacled’ Has the Internet under Its Spell. How the Author Turned It into a Book Deal.” TODAY.Com, 26 Feb. 2024, www.today.com/popculture/books/manacled-senlinyu-alchemised-interview-rcna138822.

Grindell, Samantha. “A ‘Harry Potter’ Fan Fiction That Imagines Harry Died in the Wizarding War Has Taken over the Book Community.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 25 Sept. 2023, www.businessinsider.com/manacled-harry-potter-fan-fiction-explained-2023-9.

Held, Elizabeth. “From Friends to Lovers: The Fanfic-to-Romance Pipeline Goes Mainstream.” Vulture, Vulture, 29 Aug. 2023, www.vulture.com/article/fanfic-romance-reylo-publishing-trend.html.

Jackson, Gita. “Anne Rice Really Hated When People Made Her Characters Bone.” VICE, 13 Dec. 2021, www.vice.com/en/article/88gqjz/anne-rice-really-hated-when-people-made-her-characters-bone.

Karl, Jessica. “Fourth Wing and Iron Flame Author Rebecca Yarros Needs a Reality Check.” Bloomberg.Com, Bloomberg, 8 Nov. 2023, www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-11-08/fourth-wing-and-iron-flame-author-rebecca-yarros-needs-a-reality-check.

Lorenz, Taylor. Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence and Power on the Internet. WH Allen, 2023.

Minkel, Elizabeth. “Lots of People Make Money on Fanfic. Just Not the Authors.” Wired, Conde Nast, 28 Feb. 2024, www.wired.com/story/pull-to-publish-fanfic-senlinyu-manacled-fanbinding/.

“PMJ Spellbound by Senlinyu’s Standalone Dark Fantasy.” The Bookseller, 5 Feb. 2024, www.thebookseller.com/rights/pmj-spellbound-by-senlinyus-standalone-dark-fantasy#:~:text=Alchemised%20is%20a%20standalone%20dark,all%2Dconsuming%22%20PMJ%20said.

Rizer, Addison. “Is Booktok Changing the Way We Talk about Books?” BOOK RIOT, 20 May 2022, bookriot.com/is-booktok-changing-the-way-we-talk-about-books/.

SenLinYu. “Announcing SenLinYu’s Debut Novel ‘Alchemised’ .” Tumblr, 5 Feb. 2024, senlinyu.tumblr.com/post/741499573811445761/im-excited-to-announce-that-i-have-signed-a-book.

SenLinYu. “FAQ.” Tumblr, senlinyu.tumblr.com/faq. Accessed 17 Apr. 2024.

SenLinYu. “Manacled.” Archive of Our Own, 27 Apr. 2018, archiveofourown.org/works/14454174/chapters/33390198.

Tiffany, Kaitlyn. Everything I Need I Get from You: How Fangirls Created the Internet as We Know It. Farrar Straus Giroux, 2022.

#essay #fandom #fanfiction #fandom studies #internet studies #manacled #i guess i'm publishing essays on tumblr now?

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the-chaotic-christian · 6 months

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Fanfiction And My Current Project

Voice of the Dark is my most massive project currently, having a projected length of thirteen books, not including at least three prequels. Outside of my original work, this series is my main focus at the moment. And it's a Ninjago re-write.

I actually started this project about sixteen months ago, and the first book is in editing processes while the second undergoes drafting, and the third outlining. I'll do another post about all those techniques later. Right now, I would like to discuss the place of fanfiction in Creative Writing.

There's a lot of opinions about fanfiction and whether it's viable writing or not, and I'm sure we've all heard published authors talk about it. Fanfiction has become increasingly popular in the advent of the internet and the creation of sights such as Archive of Our Own, Fanfiction.net, and Wattpad, to name a few. I myself am on the first two of those websites, and post semi-frequently on both when I'm not working on a large project like the one mentioned above. Before then, fanfiction wasn't as much of a controversy as there really wasn't a way to, on a large scale, share and read other people's creations. Now, of course, fanfiction is a major part of online communities.

So, should we or should we not write fanfiction?

As you can see, I'm sure you know my immediate answer; yes. My full answer is much more nuanced than that.

Fanfiction has been accused of stifling creativity, especially in young writers with aspirations to become published. I disagree with this to an extent. Fanfiction, in my experience and in many of my friends', has been a safe place to practice writing techniques and receive helpful feedback from other writers, some of whom have more experience. However; fanfiction cannot become all-consuming. If you have a dream of becoming a published author, you must branch out and step outside of fanfiction. Practice is great; but this is a part of being a creative where Yoda's most famous quote applies fantastically-Do or do not, there is no try. At some point, you have to take the leap and do, not just try to write, or else you'll never advance.

Fanfiction is still using another person's work. This argument is essentially null because no one makes any money off of legally produced fanfiction. I'm sure there are some folks out there, but in what I have seen fanfiction is a popular pastime-particularly among teenagers and young adults. There is one space I see as different-as in you shouldn't write fanfiction unless given explicit permission-and that's unpublished authors and fanfiction writers' original plots and characters. These artists are not getting paid to do what they do, unlike mainstream creatives who sell their work. I myself prefer not to share OCs or original plots with others. Of course, if permission is given than obviously it is perfectly fine, but outside of that I find it inappropriate and rude to simply take another unpublished writer's imagination.

On that note; what should we write fanfiction about? This is probably the most biblical portion of this discussion, since what we write about is directly influenced by our Christian beliefs. If you write fanfiction as a Christian, I would advise holding your content to first the Bible, and then to the great Christian classics such as the Pilgrim's Progress and the Chronicles of Narnia. Of course, target audiences vary, but the point is that Christian media-media written by a Christian, that is-should line up with the three transcendentals; Goodness, Truth, and Beauty. Obviously, not all Christian media contains overt references to God, but all should contain morals and values in line with traditional Christianity. In other words, Christian stories should not end with darkness winning. Oh yes, we can have darkness, deep, terrible darkness, but the darkness should not win-to let it win, even in a story, surmises that God is not all-powerful, and that is blatant Christian heresy (heresy in all Abrahamic religions, in fact). A story can be well-written and have compelling characters and yet contain a theme completely out of line with Christian faith, and that, I strongly believe, is wrong.

As for actual content.......well, I leave that up to personal conviction. That's not for me to call, and I don't believe I have lived long enough or have the proper judgement over what is and isn't appropriate. The only thing I will be stalwartly against is writing fanfiction about real, alive, people. That is treating another person as a tool, as opposed to remembering that even celebrities deserve an amount of dignity and respect even if they give neither to themselves or others. Published biographies (with verified truth and accuracy) are a completely different story, as the celebrities themselves often are involved. People who are dead......well, that's a different story, particularly when it comes to historical fiction.

At the end of the day-yes, I think that Fanfiction is a valuable way to develop skills as a writer and practice in a 'safe' way, but I also think that fanfiction should be held to the same parameters as regular Christian-and non-Christian-media that we consume on a daily basis. Basically, a good rule for both writing and reading fanfiction is this; if you wouldn't pick up a book in a store, or choose a movie on Netflix with the exact same content as that fic you just clicked on on FFN, it's probably a good sign to read your Bible, pray, and get outside for a few hours.

Hope you enjoyed my rambly post and it got you thinking about something new.

Remember Jesus loves you and have a blessed day!

#creative writing #christianity #christian creative writing #ninjago #star wars #master yoda #fanfiction #jesuslovesyou

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hjbender · 3 years

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Tumblr debuts Post+, a subscription service for Gen Z creators

From this article on TechCrunch

It astounds me how ignorant the general population is when it comes to IPs, copyright law, and attempting to monetize transformative fiction.

It seems like the only people aware of the dangers of monetizing fanfiction are 1) fandom olds who remember the early days of lawsuits and C&D orders, and 2) the owners of the IPs themselves. The average Joe who is not in fandom--and the brand new generations of fans--have no idea. And it’s that ignorance which is going to create a veritable shitstorm for the rest of us fans, and threaten Tumblr’s very existence. (Yeah, we all know Tumblr isn’t the best, but right now it’s probably the only tolerable social platform I personally can stand and I don’t want it to die, especially with no comparable option in sight.)

The way I see this panning out:

User puts fan content (fic, gifs, etc) behind paywall

IP holder finds out and hits Tumblr with DCMA/C&D

In typical hamfisted Tumblr fashion, staff will delete user’s blog instead of dealing with this on a case-by-case basis because a) a precedented knee-jerk reaction like when the app got removed from the Apple store, and b) who has time for that anyway? Pffft

Mass deletion of monetized blogs. Remaining monetized blogs either become victims of harassment or make no money at all because solid gold nobody wants to see Post+ happen

Negative net profit for Tumblr

Tumblr finally shuts down

And what is Tumblr going to do in order to prevent users from monetizing fanart and fanfiction? Hire a team of living breathing humans to examine every single paywall to make sure the content is 100% original? How would someone who is not the IP holder be able to tell if the artist ripped off a character? What if the character was traced but slightly altered? What if it’s an original character but from an existing franchise like Star Wars or Marvel?

Would a regular person be able to make these judgement calls? I don’t think so. And Tumblr certainly isn’t going to bother hiring people to do that. (Which they could and should have done in 2018 instead of throwing thousands of artists under the bus and doing fuckall about the bot problem. Which is still a problem, nearly 3 years later. Good job, guys.)

@staff you need to be aware of the absolute deluge of litigation that implementing Post+ will bring down on your heads. People will try to monetize fanfiction, regardless of whether or not they know it’s illegal.

You have to ask yourself, is this venture really going to be worth a lawsuit from Disney--and the subsequent loss of your remaining userbase? Because you definitely won’t be making any money when all of us have been deleted.

#post+#tumblr #techcrunch #monetization #paywalls #transformative fiction #copyright law #dcma #c&d #legal repercussions of monetizing fan content #content creators #fanfiction #this is why #otw #ao3 #has a team of actual lawyers #to protect the rights of fanwriters #who cannot legally make money from fanfiction

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bondsmagii · 3 years

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Ppl rail against fanfiction site bc ppl are donating large sums it money to it when there are people who were starving or barely meeting rent on here asking for a couple bucks

see, the thing is... if that's what I was bitching about, I would make a post about that particular thing. I know that a lot of people on this website like to just throw words out without understanding or even particularly caring that they have meanings, but when I make posts bitching about things, it's because I've seen multiple instances of that thing. and trust me, out of all the shit I've got on that post, you are the very first person to mention this. literally every other person has been wailing about paedophilia and/or tags and dark content, proving my point beyond my wildest dreams.

but I'll assume that in your circles, this is the major complaint. alright. have you considered:

it's impossible for you to know what these people are doing with the rest of their money, therefore they could be donating to multiple causes;

the average donation to AO3 is about $25, hardly a "large sum" of money;

a lot of people donating to AO3 are probably not even on Tumblr, meaning they didn't even see these donation posts;

a vast majority of donation posts on here only get a few hundred notes at most, and expecting every AO3 donator to find and donate to every single one is ridiculous;

it's really none of your business how people spend their money, even if you don't like it;

yelling at everyone for their personal finances while knowing absolutely nothing about said personal finances aside from a single assumption you've jumped to makes you kind of an asshole and therefore most people will probably block or avoid you?

finally, you might want to do some research. people aren't donating to "the fanfiction site". AO3 is only part of it. they're actually donating to its parent organisation, the Organization for Transformative Works, which is a non-profit organisation dedicated to the collection and archiving of fan-made content, as well as a lobbying group campaigning for fairer laws for transformative works (meaning you, personally, cannot be sued for thousands by big corporations for writing or posting fanwork, including gifs and fanart), and assisting in legal advice for fan creators who find themselves getting threatened by corporations. you can find out more about their aims and goals here.

but "fanfiction site", right? this is a shitty and ignorant attitude to have, anon, and very ironic that you come over here to criticise a point I never made, by preaching charity over people donating to a non-profit that assists and benefits hundreds of thousands.

#anon #asks

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tangent101 · 3 years

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An interesting Life is Strange writing concept

I just recently stumbled across an interesting concept for Life is Strange in which Alex Chen was adopted by the Caulfield family and went to Blackwell with Max... and it got me thinking.

First, I need to say this outright. I am using this fanfiction's idea as a launching point for brainstorming of concepts and ideas. My ideas are no better or worse than the fanfiction. This other story is fantastic on its own and does not need my input and this is not a criticism of the story. Instead, it's an examination of a basic concept: What happens if Alex Chen were to be adopted by the Caulfield clan.

The first thing to consider is this: Alex is a psychic. She is predominantly empathic and can get flashes of thoughts when emotions are intense enough and/or she focuses on what that person is thinking. So... this has caused a number of fostering situations to fall through.

Interestingly enough, there is a point when the Caulfield clan could have taken in Alex before this became an issue... and that's when Alex was 11 and first put into the foster care system. Foster parents are actually given a stipend to help pay for the financial expenses behind caring for a child, and in theory that could have been enough money to keep Ryan and Vanessa from moving out of Arcadia Bay.

But let's say that they actually adopted Alex (and thus potentially forfeited that financial boon). Would they adopt Alex and abandon Gabe to the system? Would we have two kids becoming Max's big brother and kid sister?

In this situation, Chloe would obviously know that Max has siblings now. And what's more, I cannot help but think that Alex, with her burgeoning psychic abilities, would push Max to either stay in contact or get back in contact with Chloe.

Okay, let's change things up. Alternative Reality #2 had the Chen family uproot themselves as Alex's father looked for employment. He ended up working at the docks in Seattle but losing his job when the incident happens that resulted in Social Services putting Alex and Gabe in the foster system. Alex languishes in a foster care system that is not good. Gabe ends up in Juvie. And when Alex was 14, she ends up fostered to the Caulfield family.

At this point, it's 2011. Max has been out of contact with Chloe for several years. She is pining though. And Alex, with psychic nerves rubbed raw, likely has come across several instances of this. Max, being the sort of person who hates causing a commotion, would not tell her parents about any weirdness and indeed if her parents were getting weirded out likely would come to Alex's defense. So after a small waiting period you end up having Alex adopted by the Caulfield clan... with emerging psychic powers but a family that is far more comforting and caring than the foster care system.

Alex knows how much Max misses Chloe. Yes, it's been a couple of years. But Alex herself has had friends in the foster care system that she has fallen out of touch with, others that ditched her, and she likely knows what it's like to be abandoned. Alex likely would push Max to get back in touch with Chloe early on.

I can't help but think that Max would succumb to Alex's good-intended urging on this. So Max contacts Chloe. She sends a text.

Let's say that Rachel intercepted the text. She blocks Max's number. Chloe doesn't need that drama in her life. (Bad enough that Joyce is constantly bringing up Max, and Chloe is having trouble letting her go. It's better this way. Sometimes you have to move on. Jealousy has nothing to do with this.)

Or maybe David confiscated Chloe's phone and blocked the number and deleted the text because Chloe doesn't need old friends when he's trying to break down this young soldier to rebuild into a productive member of society according to his military mindset (HA!) and Rachel's innocent in this.

Alex wouldn't just let this drop. Anyone who's played True Colors knows how stubborn our young lady is. And she's driven by psychic powers as well that are blossoming under a more loving home. Wouldn't Alex follow up with her own text? And Rachel or David likely wouldn't intercept every text or block her as well. Hell, she might go for broke and call Joyce. And Joyce sure as blazes would make sure that Chloe knew Max was contacting her. (And that Max has a sister now.)

So Chloe is now in touch with Max. The roadblocks are quite important because if Rachel blocked Max's number, then this is going to cause a bit of a blowup that weakens Chloe and Rachel's relationship, while if David were the culprit then Joyce is going to have words with him (as she loves Max and sees her as not only a second daughter but a stabilizing influence).

Of course, there is always possibility 3 - neither David nor Rachel tried to block Max's efforts to contact Chloe and that went off without a hitch but where's the fun in that? XD

Anyway, Alex would be urging Max to remain in touch with Chloe. She would also likely notice that Max is crushing hard on Chloe and may very well push Max down that path. And given that Rachel was flirting with other people... well, Max being back in Chloe's life could do one of two things - either draw Rachel closer into Chloe's circle out of jealousy, or give Rachel reason to push Chloe toward Max and do her own thing while remaining friends with Chloe.

I like Rachel. I can't help but think it would be #2, especially given what we know about Rachel from the original Life is Strange. She cared deeply for Chloe and didn't want to hurt her. So... yes, I can see Rachel helping encourage Chloe to let bygones be bygones and to pursue her own romantic leanings toward Max. We'd have shippers on either end pushing the two together (Alex pushing Max and Rachel pushing Chloe).

It might even be amusing and interesting to see Rachel and Chloe drive up to Seattle to meet Max and for Rachel in that situation to meet the mysterious Alex Chen who she's been texting and possibly flirting with on the phone. (Amberchen? Hmmm...)

One other thing that is likely to happen is that Max would be a stabilizing influence on Chloe's life. She is a pressure valve even as Rachel was more of an instigator. So with Max urging Chloe to focus more on school, we may very well see Chloe starting to apply herself more to her classes. And if Chloe doesn't get kicked out of high school then David has one less thing to rail against Chloe with.

Rachel and Chloe would graduate a year before Max would (and two years before Alex). With Max back in Chloe's life, and a new friendship growing between Alex and Rachel? Then we may very well see Rachel less desperate for an escape because now there is a plan. Go to college with Chloe up in Seattle. Sure, it's not California but there are other advantages to the region (including legal weed!) and having good friends there would be reason enough. She escapes Jeffershit's death trap by never getting close to him. Nor does she get close to Frank. Similarly, Max has no reason to go to Blackwell because Chloe is coming to Seattle!

And Alex? Alex gets a home life that is far more loving than what she went through in the original timeline. And she has good friends... which will be useful when on October 13, 2013 a truly nasty storm strikes Arcadia Bay, wiping out most of the town and killing hundreds of people including the student body of Blackwell Academy. Because fate is a fickle bitch and Chloe Price wasn't dying as a sacrifice in a bathroom in Blackwell Academy. But you know? While Chloe, Rachel, and Max grieve... Max never blames herself for something outside of her control, and the girls never went through the horrors of the original Life is Strange.

Well done, Alex! You saved the day once again! ^^ And amusingly enough, when Max, Chloe, and Rachel go with Alex to meet her brother Gabe, Max is on hand to witness Gabe's death, her powers emerge, and she saves Alex's brother... but that is a different story. ;)

#alex chen #max caulfield #chloe price #rachel amber #life is strange #lis #life is strange: true colors #lis: true colors #lis: tc #alternate universe

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dukeofonions · 3 years

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Oh god if Thomas is changing the canon because of fanart and fanfic than I’ve lost all hope for Sanders Sides. Literally, published authors legally CANNOT read fanfic of their own works because if they ever write something based off a fic is like, breaking intellectual property laws. My moral compass is spinning out of control over everything Thomas is doing right now

Well technically they can read fanfics, most are just advised not to in order to avoid messy legal issues, and those that choose to read it typically don't mention that they do. It really just depends on the creator.

Thomas is a little different in that he's a YouTuber that, honestly, isn't as well known as he used to be. He's got his one main series that has a following and has always been chill with people creating fan works for it. Heck, he's even bought some stuff made by fans so clearly he doesn't have a problem with people making money by selling things with his characters on them.

(Plus I don't think he or a majority of his fan base would ever take legal action against each other over something like this. Considering most of his fan base falls in the younger area)

Now as far as him using fandom ideas in the actual series, it's kinda in a Grey area since we as a fandom tend to share general ideas that we're not sure where they originated from. Like the imagination for example, or the idea that Janus is cold blooded, or even the Sides having movie nights in their onesies.

Ideas like that have been used so much in the fandom that it's nearly impossible to trace them back to the original source. Could anyone tell me who first came up with the idea for the "subconscious?" A place that does not exist in canon but is used in so many fan works that some people might think it is?

So basically what I'm getting at is, Thomas technically can interact with fan works (including fanfics) and use general ideas in his own series because, let's face it, how would we ever know where he got the idea to do a onesie movie night with the Sides?

Or if he does decide to change the Sides's outfits again, who can stop him from using the idea of Patton having round glasses when so many works portray him as having them? If he was outright copying someone's design on some art they made without permission than that would be a problem. But a general idea (like Roman getting a cape or crown) that's been used over and over again and no has a direct claim to it is completely fair game.

And fanfiction is kinda the same way seeing as there are so many common tropes used in Sanders Sides fics. The problem here would come from using specific plots of fics in the series without consulting the author first. But again, it's kinda tricky when so many fics have similar plots and ideas (just think about how many sick fics there are) that it'd be nearly impossible to track down the original creator of that idea.

If Thomas wanted to make an episode where a Side was sick and being taken care of, he couldn't really be accused of stealing an idea when it's such a common thing and has even been used in so many other shows over the years.

And honestly, I don't think Thomas is the type of guy to go running around reading fics and stealing their plots because he thinks it's a better story than his own, but he definitely spends enough time in the fandom looking at what they've made and gets inspired by the things they make.

The downside to that is now it feels like he's just trying to cater to the fandom and give them whatever they want to see regardless of whether or not it fits in the story or makes sense for the characters.

For all we know Janus and Remus's relationship could have originally planned to be something much different, but after it being so long and the fandom already getting their own idea about what the two are like, they decided to just go "Yes. This exactly how these two are in the series." Because they didn't want to upset any fans when their relationship was nothing like they imagined it would be.

Which, I dunno. Joan said at one point that (in regards to fan theories) they wouldn't change anything if someone got a theory right, so I'm hoping that the same attitude extends towards catering to fan ideas and expectations as well.

However now that Joan is gone Thomas may just completely resort to "keep the fans happy by doing what the majority wants even if it makes no sense they'll be too happy to notice."

But again, I don't know. It's not a bad thing if he slips some fan service in from time to time. But if that's all the series ends up being then I'm out.

#dukeofasks #now if ships suddenly start becoming canon im burning my blog #are there ideas the fandom has come up with that i think would be cool to see in the series?#absolutely #but at the same time I'd rather they just stick to the story they originally wanted to tell #even though im not entirely sure what that story is supposed to be #look dark side logan is an interesting concept #but given how logan is and that dark sides technically don't exist it just wouldn't make sense #but i don't even know what they ever plan on doing with logan so he knows if they just decide to do it since it's such a popular idea #long post

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fangirltothefullest · 3 years

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Hi-a! I have a question about a post you reblogged, the one about writing commissions and fanfic. I'm a bit... confused. I get what the post is saying in how creators have reacted to fanworks being monetized, but, why is it exclusive to fic? Fanart commissioning is completely open I've seen. What makes writing different from art in that respect? I know you do art commissions yourself so I thought you might know.

Ah ok yes this can be very confusing! This is also something I have to go into detail on because it covers multiple things.

One, fanart is an art form that is entirely visual. Visual arts are not copyrighted the same way as written works/print. Fanart commission, while it seems more widespread is not actually open. There’s a very delicate line we walk under the creative commons liscense that says we are not making an exact copy of a thing and selling it so we have the right to slight creative liberty and freedom. This is also why farce can make fun of stuff while referencing it for comedy’s sake. There’s a lot of legal stuff about it I can;t go into because I’m not a lawyer but that’s part of it.

I cannot sell drawn pokemon works on redbubble because they have contacted redbubble and said purge all artwork pertaining to our licensed characters. Even if I draw it in my own style, even if I’m drawing pokemon fusions or whatever, redbubble kicks it off because the company which owns the licensing for pokemon said NO. sometimes you can squeak under the radar but usually they get you eventually.

It’s a lot EASIER to sell fanart but it’s still a touchy subject. At any point a creator can say hey that’s my character, do not draw artwork of my character. Disney is notable for doing this. So while fanart is much more prevolent, it’s stil la fine line to walk.

Now onto the written word- This is all Anne Rice’s fault. I’m only barely joking. The author got SO angry that people were doing fanfiction of her works that she literally sued people and it became a huge thing in court. This is why AO3 is what it is and why it’s run by lawyers and why they have such strict rules. The lawyers that run AO3 have the rules they have because they are your ticket to total fanfiction freedom. Their lawyers say that if someone comes after you and tries to sue you for writing a fanfic, they will protect you from harm under fair use. BUT you CANNOT make money off of it or the protections they have given you by using the site no longer count. AO3 is a place where you can post it freely, but the moment you make money off it, then it becomes questionable as fair use. Because parody or not, a good lawyer can argue that it’s not fair to the original author if you are profitting off of their original copyrighted material and that’s a fair assumption to have.

You CAN charge for fanfics, but again you have to be EXTREMELY careful where you put it, who sees it and what you do with it. That is why you must never say on AO3 that you take commissions and that is why they say it in their TOS. It’s to protect the users. Posting on AO3 means you’ll never be sued so long as you follow those rules. It’s literally a safe haven for fic writers.

And, it’s also a matter of content- nothing is ever new, particularly when it comes to the written word. We only have so many words and there are gazillions of books, more being made every day. I can guarantee there are hundreds of thousands if not millions that have the same plots, the same character names and even the same wording here and there. Humans do that.

But this is also why copyright is stupid and why written copyright has a limit before it runs out. (Alice in Wonderland is out of copyright, but the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland is not. This is why you cannot make disney-looking characters but you can have as many versions as you want. It’s the same with Hans Christian Anderson’s faerietales.)

No matter how much we try to be innovative, people will have the same ideas. That’s just human. But the problem is, if you are a published author you might be in the middle of writing a book and realize you have the same plot as someone else. And if you publish that book and the other person says wait I wrote this first, they could accuse YOU of stealing and claim you owe THEM money. Marion Zimmer Bradley (the article talks about this too) actually experienced this. She encouraged fanfiction because loved that people enjoyed her stories. I’m like this too, if I write something and people love the world, it makes me happy. But you can see why things like that could get touchy!

The Copyright Act of 1957 (in America) lists parody under the protection of fair use and technically one can make the argument that fanfiction is parody. But if I published my own personal book and someone accused me of stealing, knowing full well I have read fanfiction before, I might have to pay royalties to a person whom I never even knew existed over a story I worked really hard on!

This is why (as an example) Thomas Sanders and his team when writing for the Sanders Sides have outright stated they are not going to read, and have never read, fanfiction. Because while they encourage it wholeheartedly, if they happen to have similar ideas they can claim it came naturally and this way nobody can go to them and be like you stole my work where’s my money? This is also why his team decided to offer patrons of their patreon the ability to be part of the writers room. It’s a good compromise- get ideas from the fans which they know have good ideas, while also avoiding the whole “we stole this” thing by making them part of the team through access to that privilege, and then writers of fanfic can get their ideas maybe canonized. I think a lot of creators should think about doing this.

Artwork is a COMPLETELY different ballgame in that regard because the styles vary SO much more than writing. It’s also a different process to get your art copyrighted as a style itself. So like... that’s also a thing. That’s why it’s hard for artists when people repost their art without credits because copyrighting a style and each artwork? I don’t even know how you’d begin to do that, much less uphold it. But writing you can uphold, writing is easier to prove because you can match things, character, places, scenarios word for word.

This has been a little back and forth but does this all make sense?

#amouress16

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