Slashdot Mirror
Fan Fiction Writers Balk at FanLib.com
bill jackson writes "A couple of former Yahoo execs are trying to create the next MySpace by aggregating fanfiction on a website called FanLib. But the fanfic writers recognized that exploitation was written all over the idea and they've refused to participate. 'Instead of creating the Myspace of fanfic since the launch two weeks ago, FanLib.com sparked a white-hot Internet firestorm.The meltdown is a hard lesson in how not to conduct business on the Internet.But it's a firestorm of FanLib's own making because, in spite of the Yahoo pedigree (or maybe because of it), they plowed in like china shop bulls.'"
The fanfic crowd is riled up. Everyone take cover!
What about the recent news of the LJ fanfic writers flare up? LJ have deleted a massive amount of accounts and well known communities (some 5 years and older) over night with no explination or reason given.
I like muppets.
Let the bad fanfiction about the bad fanfiction site begin.
It never ends.
...better than they write their complaints. I can barely make heads or tails of the linked article. The "Read More" link isn't much better. From what I can tell, Fanlib is big and corporate, which scares away people who want to write slash fiction. Oooookaaay.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
If I had, I probably would have mocked it less when I was young, dumb, and running from hole to hole like a golfer on crack.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
and got themselves clawed.
I suspect an awful lot of the negative reaction comes from three factors:
1. Membership in the site would certainly have a "We own your postings." clause in the Terms of Service.
2. *And* a "We reserve the right to censor anything you post we don't like." clause.
and the cherry on top:
3. An unwritten consequence of (1) would be: "If it's really good, we'll use it to make money. Thanks suckers." clause.
And just remember, in Hollywood, "Trust us." translates to "F**k you."
The second quote links to someone's LiveJournal, and it's not the only one. This seems like a Cyber Sister storm to me.
2500+ odd stories in 2 weeks certainly makes one wonder if some of the fanfictioners didn't get the memo that they were supposed to be ticked.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
ScuttleMonkey was manning the Slashdot queue. "Fan Fiction Writers Balk at FanLib.com" suddenly appeared amid a sea of more interesting stories, but ScuttleMonkey knew this was his next frontpager. He always knew, even before he was an editor. Minutes before the story was set to go live, CmdrTaco saw it and ran, if you can call it that, down the hallway. "STOP!" he screamed. "This is a terrible story! You must remove it." ScuttleMonkey pulled out a knife, stabbing Taco in the heart before he had a chance to react. "Remove that, Taco!" cried ScuttleMonkey as he watched the story go live.
They created a service that if people use would make them a profit, and if people don't, then oh well. The only real beef in the article seems to be about some overzealous advertising, which can be annoying but hardly exploitative. It's not like they are chaining fanfiction writers to their desks, forcing them to churn out 20 Harry Potter fanfics a day or else they will be deported.....Can we please lay off the overly emotional language?
Monstar L
Is this the story where Kirk and Spock are lovers and fight the **IA, or the one where Wonder Woman uses her Magic Gender Lasso to get the GPLv3 passed?
It was dark in the Holland, Michigan office nestled deep within Slashdot's Geek Compound. Shifting and moaning, ESR laid sprawled over his filthy desk. Dried spittle stuck several Post-It notes to his cheek. His PC, running Linux, silently printed swap error after swap error to the screen, lighting ESR's sickly form. As he burped several times he attempted to recall the night before that had led to this stupor. Holding his head in his hands, he was interrupted by lights and doors slamming. Someone was in the office!
As Rob CmdrTaco Malda walked past ESR, he noticed the several empty bottles of Jägermeister and what appeared to be fecal stains on the floor and walls surrounding the recovering ESR -- nothing new. He also noticed the some semen bubbling in the cracks of ESR's chafed lips.
Another all-night office orgy, Eric? Rob asked coyly.
Tilting his head gingerly toward Rob and raising his eyebrows slowly, ESR spoke softly. Oh shit. Is that what happened last night? I believe I blacked out at some point, I can't remember anything. Who was here last night?
Well, CowboyNeil got there a little late last night, but he said that by the time he got there that Alan, Emad, Jamie, Michael, and Signal 11 were already pretty drunk, Rob said just a little too loudly for ESR's tender head.
Closing and opening his eyes gently, ESR muttered to himself about having not invited Signal 11. He also started sniffing the air and licking his lips. I can smell dried feces on a dick a mile away. Just where were you last night, Robbie? You get a piece of ass last night and decide to ditch my party?
What's it to you? Your breath smells like semen and you don't hear me asking whose it is, Malda shot back.
ESR smiled and swiveled with a gleam in his eyes. Ah, but you see, this is my own sperm!
And it must taste specfuckingtacular! Rob shot back.
Eric interjected before Rob could go on. Ah yes. You see, I like to add a shot of Jäger to it to give it a little kick.
No, Rob replied with anger rising in his voice, You fucking raging alcoholic. Your semen tastes like old motor oil. I think you may have ruptured both of your testicles and now your colon is shooting diarrhea out of your cock-hole.
What!? You little fudge-packing piece of shit! ESR threatened, Ditch one of my office parties because Hemos calls up and says he's lonely, will you? I bet that's what happened. Well, guess who I'll be recommending we lay off at the next LNUX board meeting? How do you like that, Taco?
Whatever, Eric. You don't scare anyone except your parents, Rob said as he stormed out of ESR's office, his green plaid flannel whipping in the wake behind him. You would be nothing without Slashdot.
ESR stammered and shook. Ever since the LNUX stock had plummeted, things were so tense around the office. Relations were falling apart between he and the Slashdot admins. Last night, Michael and Jamie had pounded each other exclusively, ignoring ESR's crooked, erect penis, and Eric had to convince Emad and Alan to restrain CowboyNeil before he could engage in homosexual intercourse with him.
With a flick of his wrist, ESR popped a dozen extra-strength Bayers down his stinking gullet and washed them down with some Jäger from the bottle he had woken up holding. Depressed, aching, and on the verge of vomiting up the entirety of last night's semen binge, ESR cried silently and went back to sleep at this desk, ignoring the pile of work that sullied the landscape of his desktop.
Clapping twice to darken his office, ESR curled into fetal position as best he could and rested, preparing to do it all over again later that night.
You used to get bizarre trolls around here that took our learned editor-folk and made them characters in short, absurdly pornographic fictitious literary scenes.
Guess that too counts as fan-fiction, right?
Hm...At first, this would seem like a victory for literacy and the market. I mean, the notion that the fanfic community would at least pause to discuss amongst themselves before jumping in, indicates a higher level of capability than the average "social networking" site member. So yes, "Fanfic writers > txt kiddies" would be an accurate statement.
But...I doubt this site will go away anytime soon. I'd actually be more concerned with the scenario of publishers/content providers declaring this aggregator (or similar ilk) to be the "official" home of their fanfic, and use that position to launch IP-based attacks on non-moderated (read: unapproved) content. That's really what this position smells like: carrot before stick.
I have Canadian and US filed copyrights for most of my fan fiction, so if they do this, we're looking at long jail terms and big fines.
Caveat emptor.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Quite frankly, I won't form an opinion until we've heard an official response from the most influential contingent in fan-fiction:
Furries.
Without their unique insight into subjects like "Kirk romances a full sized Gadget from Chip n' Dale's Rescue Rangers" or "What would happen if the crew of the NX-01 were anthropomorphic animals and there's maybe a crossover with the X-Men why not?", we would have no way of knowing what we did and didn't like about the various trek series, and, by extension, an online repository of stories.
So count me out until the "Commander Troi as a sexy lemur" crowd weighs in, THEN I'll know what to think.
I'm sure the lawyers for the actual copyright holders would have something to say about #3.
"Terry Semel at Yahoo doesn't really understand how to run an Internet business"
-----
PGP Key ID 0xCB8FF658
Man, I gotta cut down on the caffeine and get more sleep. I was really confused about why the fanfic folks were having their LinuxJournal forum accounts terminated.
If the Internet doesn't exist to host Harry Potter slash fanfic, then what the hell is it for?
Why, Furries, of course. That plus Naruto.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
This marks the first legitimate shot for a Kirk/Spock TV pilot.
Star Trek
The Search for Spock's Nipple
If Nalgene water bottles are outlawed, only outlaws will have Nalgene water bottles.
The summary mentions it alot, which makes me wonder, how much does Bill Jackson actually know about the kids? Who wants to create the next MySpace? Not me. Who wants to read about some guy creating the next MySpace? Not me.
You already had your last chance when you first clicked Submit. No second chances for you.
Infuriate left and right
Stories OnLine
The Pendorwright Projects
usenet:assm
And none of this is lining any corporation's pockets off the sweat of the authors.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Other choice lines include:
I'm currently majoring in business marketing , and I can't believe the misanthropical tone and language of their marketing plan. It's as cynical and exploitive as I've ever read.
SEO Copywriter. Just Say ON
I've occasionally posted stuff @ fanfiction.net, what makes this
new website significantly different?
I Rasengan your contempt for Naruto.
After all, I am strangely colored.
Contempt? Heck, my son writes fanfic for Naruto (and has tens of thousands of rankings for his writing).
I even watch it sometimes.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Between Yahoo Executives http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/11 0443243/article.pl and lawyers, darn it, I'm on the side of the lawyers. Tear them a new one, my well-healed Mercedes-driving friends. Class Action. You know the drill. Do it for the Gipper, and Wang Xiaoning http://www.hrichina.org/public/contents/press?revi sion_id=27803&item_id=27801
The more fanfictions all in one place, the more websites I can completely avoid.
Because frankly, slashdot has been very disappointing in this regard.
sic transit gloria mundi
So, let me get this straight...
They're upset that someone else is using their IP, [generally] ignoring copyrights and trademarks of the work they created by using someone else's IP, [generally] ignoring copyrights and trademarks?
How utterly unprecedented!
Somehow I don't think General Electric and Proctor and Gamble want to be known as supporters of fantasy depictions of gay mind control sex between tom cruise and has anthropomorhic clone.
yiff!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
"Ninety percent of everything is crud".
-- Theodore Sturgeon
...on a website I don't control.
Invariably, when a site gets popular, it attracts the attention of people who would like to ruin your shit. Things like this happen.
Don't rely on third parties if you have speech you want to protect.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
Boys can't write for shit unless they're English majors or gay.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
We also don't have to deal with Digg's & (especially) Reddit's attitudes of "post obvious troll stories with no credible sources because you know everyone on the site agrees anyway."
Hey, guys, I heard this new 'Linux' thing sucks. What do you all think?
...it seems the only good fanfics are the ones that center around stories and characters that had poor writing behind them anyway. Basically it functions as a bridge to the audience; you go in already knowing something about the background and the characters, and presumably the author has a new angle or bone to pick and would like to "sell you" that.
Writers scratching an itch.
And if the fics are good, then the authors are already writers of original work that is popular on their own merits. This is just a way for them to "fix" what is broken about some popular media they enjoyed. Or they may find it as a challenge (you can argue that it's easy or more difficult to write a successful fanfic -- subject to the rabid whims of the fandom -- then it is to write about characters and situations entirely under your control).
But the rest of it is crap. To filter: ignore any stories based on popular, long-running, or throughly-imagined franchises.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
but I could film an episode of (insert the name of a show corresponding to your fan fiction) based on a script "adapted" from your material by a screenwriter, and not have to pay you a red cent.
Copyright only extends to cover the material in question, not the underlying ideas nor scenarios. And I'll change some things superficially, rewrite the dialog to better fit my cast, and so forth.
Gathering it in one place doesn't change what I could do with the material. That hasn't changed.
Anyway, I'm sure your fanfiction is utter crap, so it's not like it'd get passed around the office. Writers and producers will scan through the fandom, look for popular ideas and themes that resonate with the fanbase, and then make new material that caters to that.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
excuse the ignorance- doesn't every writer start off as a "novice"?
"You can kill the revolutionary, but you can't kill the revolution."-- Fred Hampton
I offer you pr0n based on the FanLib ads. Pink dude/Blue guy 4EVA! http://lizbee.livejournal.com/640762.html?format=l ight
The Yahoo execs are not attractive enough to write porn about. Let me know when the FanLib saga is turned into a made-for-tv flick starring Wentworth Miller and that one guy in that movie.
Looks mainly like they're taking the next logical step, having the audience, that watches the shows, help make the scripts. This must really be pissing off the main stays of hollywood writers.
I don't think it really matters, but if enough people reject the idea, the fan written episodes will end up being worse, and ratings will drop.
And yes, they're just going to take your work and run with it.
Don't worry though, this sort of interactive advertising is the new future you've created. Deal.
Yes. I believe the goal is to get rid of free fanfic and replace it with corporate approved fanfic that earns the IPs money.
They are upset that they've spent years (nay, some have spent decades) fighting lawyers and D&C orders. The cornerstone of fan fiction writers' argument is that they make no money from it and therefore aren't denying the copyright holders of income.
If some Yahoo! suit comes along and makes money off their fan fic, guess what? It's like shitting in their sandbox. So in a way, it is about precedent, just a different meaning from your usage.
Had FanLib said they wouldn't use excerpts and summaries to make money, then there would be no problem.
Q: Why is starting a comment in the Subject: line annoying?
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
where will i find gilmour girls fanfic porn now?
Hah! I love it when elitist trolls get nailed... ;)
You'd be surprised. ;)
Really, though, most people never move beyond "novice".
"Now," she thought, watching the dolphins adjust their bowties, "might be a good time to up my medication."
Wow, first time I read straight through the word 'cried' without noticing it, perhaps I can pick up reading in English again. As a young teen I was extremely annoyed by the usage of crying out in literature, I visualized a hardball character as described and then suddenly he started weeping in the middle of verbal fight. I learned that English was a highly dynamic language so I thought to myself this is plain silly I'd rather watch movies in modern English then read the contradicting and old fashioned English as used in the penguin school books, I'll just wait till literature catches up.
Why is the English litterairy vocabulary so different from the vocal and subtitled English? I know it's usually bigger but why are the meanings of words so different?
Now I'm not sure where to post my latest "Wesley Crusher Plays Doctor with his Mom" story!
Life needs more saving throws.
That's interesting blurb. Did someone print that story?
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
In a million years, they'd never come up with ideas like this for the franchise (source here and here): Starfleet Command is haunted by the wraith of a ship designer who is about to die but has projected his soul into the ship to make starships alive - Starfleet loves the new ships and the designer has to kill murderers and psycopaths to put their souls into battleships so he goes around murdering new people. Brilliant!
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
Is this true? I'm a dude and I neither write nor read fanfic, so I guess it's possible. Given that there are a fair number of males writing original fiction I would sorta expect there to be a population of male fanfic amateurs. The Phantom Edit (the closest thing to fanfic present in my version of the popular consciousness) was done by a dude, right? That's basically a version of fanfic, isn't it?
The tone of the article seems to be 'by-women-for-women'. I'm not saying that fanfic isn't female dominated, but is there some actual source for this apart from Mary McNamera's assertion?
-- "Oh. This guy again."
Boy...this is just, um...
I'm a pro writer, and it's not often that I'm short on words, but this is just a staggeringly bad idea.
Fan fiction is in the shadows for a reason - strictly speaking, it's illegal. It's pretty harmless, when it's all said and done, and some groups, such as the BBC when it comes to Doctor Who (where I got my start during my amateur writing years), support it so long as it doesn't go commercial. But, illegal and harmless means that it is sometimes tolerated - but this doesn't make it legal.
And this site wants to bring this material out into the open...and use it for financial gain...
Now, Showtime and a couple of the affiliates who are supporting it may not have a problem here, but a whole lot of other content owners will. I think the term "lawsuit magnet" may be a good one on this idea.
Robert B. Marks
Author, Demonsbane in Diablo Archive
Fanfiction is about 90% women written, and yes, they do practice at home.