The Marketing PDF

[killersharky.livejournal.com]

The TOS talk can be confusing at times, but thanks for all who have posted so far!

I think this marketing PDF that was linked to earlier is just as important as the TOS for people to read. Among the things I noticed on page 3 of the PDF:

-- Managed & Moderated to the Max includes these points: Automatic "profanity filter" [I would love to see what would happen to the pieces you smut writers may post] and "Complete work is just 1st draft to be polished by the pros." To me, that means taking my work, giving it over to The Powers That Be, and letting them do what they want with it. Am I wrong in this?

-- A Fan's Ultimate Reward! Apparently, I get to see my name in a book that someone else makes money off of. Our "rewards" include: Publish as a book or part of an anthology [how much of a cut do I get for that?] and print in magazine as part of a sponsored ad section [do I get compensated for my writing for that? Yeah, didn't think so].

Also, here's an article written last year by The Wall Street Journal about fanfic writers getting bigger audiences and landing book deals. FanLib's Chris Williams is quoted about The L Word and romance novel contests the site ran.

I'm a writer for a smaller fandom that has treated its fans well and I wouldn't be too worried about how they would treat fans if they did something through FanLib. That being said, I'm lucky to be in such a fan-friendly fandom. Most don't have that luxury. And while my Powers That Be appreciate the fans, I'm not sure their corporate lawyers would act the same way.

Coloring Books?

[laurie-ky.livejournal.com]

( My two cents on Fanlibs quote about colorig books )

Signs & Portents?

[boji.livejournal.com]

I'm wondering about the timing of all this, the fact that Fanlib opened it's doors at roughly the same time as Simon & Schuster have made a move towards an all rights grab of pro-fic. The Authors Guild is up in arms about the proposed rights grab, the SWFA concurs and if the article in the Herald Tribune is a portent of things to come then Hollywood could be facing the same kind of strike it saw back in 1988.

That strike saw the rise of the spec script moving to prominence as a way of working. Which meant that from that point forth authors wrote for belated fee, rather than under contract (I'm paraphrasing what I remember from Joe Straczynksi's book The complete book of Scriptwriting) - The coming strike is in part about royalties for digital rights. Or, as the article says, in part it's about:

complex issues involving how much TV and film writers should be paid when their work is distributed on new media platforms, including the Internet, cell phones, digital media players and other devices. The writers argue the payments — modeled after the structures used for DVD rights — are too low.

I wonder how the current kerfuffle with fanlib, how fanlibs very conception fits into this climate.

On compromises

[kazaera.livejournal.com]

( Or what the debate with the FanLib people actually achieves. )

Crossing the Streams

[anarchicq.livejournal.com]

I asked this question in Fandom Wank, but I want to ask it here.

There have been posts about Fanlib TPTB taking fanfic posted their and using it to produce episodes (Fanisodes). and all the fic author gets is...the specialness of having helped make an episode.

No one ever said anything about keeping the fics within their fandom.

What will the fan do if they wrote a fic for House wherein House has to give his dying yet abusive father a heart transplant?

Then, next week on Grey's Anatomy, McDreamy has to give his dying yet abusive father a heart transplant?

THEN what? Recognition? Or theft?

Asking for ff.net passwords.

[scarah2.livejournal.com]

Sorry if this is old meme but a skim of the last couple days doesn't reveal anything about it. I figure a lot of people in this comm might be afraid to register a FanLib account like I am, LOL.

But I just found out something interesting from someone who did register an account (link to my journal).

The upload section apparently asks for your fanfiction.net username and password so they can import all your stories from there. Fanfiction.net has responded in kind by requiring image verification at login to prevent bots.

Fans and the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007

[quicksilvereyes.livejournal.com]

Hi,

I've been researching the bill for the IP Protection Act of 2007 that was proposed a little over a week ago and have come up with some very scary results. It basically increases the punishment for copyright infringement to the point where you can serve up to a lifetime in prison in some cases. In my journal, I discuss more about the act and what it means for fans. Especially in light of this whole FanLib Kerfluffle and the fact that it was introduced right after FanLib launched.

Why FFN isn't like FanLib: Profit, Risk and Exploitation

[lyore.livejournal.com]

I was reading my way through metafandom, and I came across a couple of people honestly enquiring how FanLib was any different to FFN, since both are funded by advertisements. I wrote up a nice, long comment, and then LJ ate it and crashed Safari. So I've lost not only the comment, but who I was replying to in the first place.

But, since writing it out helped me to get my thoughts in order, I thought I might revisit it at my journal.