A Writer's Life

Licking Melky Cabrera

Emma Span at Baseball Prospectus has discovered the world of Real Person Baseball Slash Fanfic, which Jack Dickey at Deadspin calls "Penthouse Forum, as edited by Jayson Stark." Span's article is absolutely hilarious... and a little frightening.

 I thought that over the years I’d seen most of the dark corners of sports fandom, but as it turns out, I still was not fully prepared for baseball fan fiction. [...]You just do not ever expect to encounter the phrase, to quote one story, “Doug Mirabelli’s huge, unlubed…”

Well—Doug Mirabelli’s huge, unlubed anything, really. Let’s leave it at that.

[...]I came across a story about Kyle Farnsworth and Vance Wilson, but it was labeled with a warning: “people who are squeamish about bloodplay, knives, severely disturbed mental states and semi-non-con (but only semi!) should not touch this with a 20 foot stick.” As that would include me—not to mention that, as a Yankees fan, I’m just squeamish about Kyle Farnsworth in general—I didn’t, and am grateful for the heads-up. Even in the name of scientific research for a column to advance baseball knowledge, I have my limits.

Jack Dickey at Deadspin offers a few more very funny examples, like this cringe-inducing tale by Candle Beck, describing a 1997 tryst between an insecure Mark Mulder and a slick Barry Zito:

You think that telling someone what your name is, in a situation like this, is actually a pretty good thing to lie about, but you don't tell him that. You shrug. You just got a handjob from a boy named Barry. Crazy world.

"I just never met anybody named that before."

He nods, and shifts a little bit so that his outstretched leg nudges against your knee. "And you're Mark."

He knew your name the whole time. You almost smile, but bite it back at the last second. He knows your name, big fucking deal, quit acting like a fourteen year old girl. But you're blushing with pleasure, you can feel the burn in your ears, washing down your neck.

Uh-huh. All that's missing from these stories are Justin Bieber, Mr. Spock, and the kids from TWILIGHT.

(Thanks to Scott for the heads-up!)

Lori Jareo'd

No surprise:  Faster than you can say "Lori Jareo, " delusional fanficcer Lady Sybilla's self-published TWILIGHT sequel RUSSET NOON has been yanked off of Amazon. It's also now "on hold" on CreateSpace.

Lady Sybilla issued a press release after Hachette Group slapped her, Amazon and CreateSpace with a cease & desist order. She says, in part:

[...]However, the question still remains: Is this the end of Russet Noon? Does Lady Sybilla really need Amazon in order to continue to sell her controversial book?

And, last but not least, will Hachette Book Group go as far as suing Lady Sybilla in order to get a judge to determine whether or not Russet Noon is a parody?

Only time will tell.

For the time being, Russet Noon is still for sale via its official website at www.sequel-to-breaking-dawn.com. Moreover, according to a statement issued today by AV Paranormal Publishing, "Lady Sybilla has no intention of backing down. She will gladly stand before a judge to prove that Hachette's claims are unsubstantiated and that Russet Noon is, in fact, a parody, as it has undergone major rewrites since its online publication in 2009."

Let the legal battles begin.

Oh, I hope this goes to court. Hilarity will ensue.

Mrs Potato Head is Back...Again

Lady Sybilla, the dimwit who tried to sell her own TWILIGHT sequels on eBay, is back. Now's she's self-published RUSSET NOON through CreateSpace and is offering her swill on Amazon as a "parody" in a pathetic and transparent attempt not to get slapped with a cease-and-desist order. The product description of her craptastic opus clearly indicates that it's not a parody...but a lame attempt to sell a sequel to a book, and characters, she doesn't own. This delusional fanficcer must have studied at the feet of the master, Lori Jareo.

(Thanks to C.S. Winchester for the  heads-up)

UPDATE 8-10-2010: No surprise:  Faster than you can say "Lori Jareo, " delusional fanficcer Lady Sybilla's self-published TWILIGHT sequel RUSSET NOON has been yanked off of Amazon. It's also now "on hold" on CreateSpace.

Talked to Death

Denis McGrath was talking about fanfic on his blog the other day, and happened to mention my many discussions here on the same topic, prompting someone to comment:

I find your posts re: fanfic far more fun because you actually address the issue whereas poor Lee, who is usually so eloquent, seems to be rendered a name-calling child in the face of the issue, unable to put an actual argument together. Just because he is on the side that is obviously right doesn't mean that slanging nasty words around is sufficient advocacy or even entertaining commentary.

Denis replied, saying what I might have said if I wasn't guilty of exactly what the commenter said.

To be perfectly honest? I think he's just been at it longer than I have. My recent experiences on the Copyright brief have kind of siphoned off my good humor and goodwill, too. There comes a point where you've made the arguments, and when you face utter illogic, misinformation and misunderstanding, that you lose that humor.

I couldn't have put it better myself. I've made the rational, coherent, good-humored arguments 10,000 times...and that's  just if you count my posts on the topic when I was producing SEAQUEST. I ended up writing a book about that experience (BEYOND THE BEYOND) and, to be honest, I think I do a better job dealing with the fanfic issues now in a fictional context (eg my novel MR. MONK IN OUTER SPACE and my Diagnosis Murder episode MUST KILL TV) than I have done here lately.

I fear I am reaching the same point of humorlessness, repetition, and lack of clarity when I discuss the vanity presses that prey on the desperation and gullibility of aspiring writers.  At a certain point, you say everything you have to say, in every way you can possibly say it, and it might just be better to drop the whole thing (which I have largely done on the fanfic stuff, except when highlighting a special case, like the delusional woman who is writing & publishing her own TWILIGHT sequel).

But the vanity press thing is something else altogether. I'm not going to stop talking about those scams because it is so important to alert writers about them. But I'm dialing it down in that department, too, as you may have noticed.

How Did I Miss This?

Glorianna Arias, aka Lady Sybilla, the delusional fanficcer who plans to self-publish her own TWILIGHT novel entitled RUSSET NOON, has launched a blog where she's sharing chapters from her upcoming, craptastic opus...

"The reason we continue to move forward with the publication of Russet Noon as a paperback novel is because we are confident that there are no grounds for a lawsuit. We do not intend to make a profit from this venture, and any books we publish will be given out for free. The only difference between Russet Noon and other Twilight fanfics is that Russet Noon will be a free paperback novel."

What she meant is that she no longer intends to make a profit from the book...but she once did. Arias was taking orders for the book on her website and on ebay until word got out about it. 

But this story keeps getting better...and weirder. Arias has announced that she's going to self-publish a "tell-all" book entitled LADY SYBILLA'S MANIFESTO: THE TRUTH BEHIND THE 'RUSSET NOON' CONTROVERSY. 

You will be able to find the book online and in the gift shops of  mental hospitals nationwide in January. 

I can't wait.

Why I Wrote BEYOND THE BEYOND

This article originally appeared in Mystery Scene Magazine back in 1997. I thought I'd repost it here to mark the publication of the Kindle edition. 

An awful lot of people in the television industry see shrinks. Those who don't, write novels.

Well, that's my theory, any way.

I figured it was either write a book, or go into psychoanalysis. Writing a book seemed like a better alternative, since you can actually make a few bucks while you sit and whine about how crazy the business is and what the craziness does to you.

I wrote my first novel, My Gun Has Bullets, while writing/producing a really terrible, syndicated action show. In that book, a good, decent cop named Charlie Willis is gunned down by a lunatic TV star on her way to a sale at Neiman-Marcus. To cover up the crime, the studio buys him off by making him the star of his own action series. But things go bad when someone loads his prop gun with real bullets and he kills his guest-star. I trashed everything and everyone that drove met nuts about the TV business...and there was a lot, having written and/or produced such series as Hunter, Baywatch, Spenser: For Hire, Cosby Mysteries and Diagnosis Murder, to name a few.

I felt a lot better after I wrote the book.

But I didn't get around to writing the sequel, Beyond the Beyond, until a couple years later, when I became a writer/producer on SeaQuest. Within weeks, I was getting email death threats from deranged fans, including one lady who was enraged weren't consulting her for advice or staying true to the "fanfic" (fan-written, self-published fiction). Another lady, calling herself an "Admiral in the United Earth Oceans," was convinced one of the characters in the show was in love with her.

Of course, it reminded me of what the actors and writers on Star Trek must go through (which I knew well, since many of my friends have worked on the show). And that reminded me that a spin-off of Star Trek was the cornerstone of a new television network. And that made me think about the whole Star Trek phenomenon...and the emergence of new TV networks...and the consolidation of media empires.

Before I was a TV producer, I worked as a reporter covering the entertainment industry beat for Newsweek, Starlog, American Film, Electronic Media, and Los Angeles Times Syndicate, among many others. During that time, I wrote extensively about the birth of the Fox Network and was the first person to break the story that Paramount was reviving Star Trek as an all-new, syndicated series. So I already had a lot of background in both the business of TV and the business of Star Trek and had given this stuff some thought before.

Suddenly, I felt a book taking shape...

What if someone bought a studio decided to use it to launch a new network? And what if the cornerstone of that new network was a revival of cult, 60s science fiction series – with an all-new cast? How would the lunatic fans and original cast react?

There was a story there...and I also had a lot more personal demons to exorcise now, too. And I was fresh from my experience on SeaQuest.

In Beyond the Beyond , Charlie Willis is now a special security officer for Pinnacle Pictures. When the studio revives the cult series Beyond the Beyond as the launching pad for a new network, two forces fight for control of the show, a vicious talent agency that uses blackmail, torture and murder to keep its clients on the A-list, and a homicidal legion of rabid fans led by an insane actor who thinks he's in outer space.

The publisher calls it a dark/comic thriller about TV. But I'll tell you a little secret: most of it is true, drawn either from my own experience or those of my friends in the TV business.

And like the first book, I felt great after I finished it... though somewhere out there a shrink is going hungry because of it.

Sickficcer Cleared

You may remember Darryn Walker. He was the 35-year-old UK civil servant who posted a graphic Sickfic story on the Internet in which the singers in the group Girls Aloud were kidnapped, tortured, raped, and mutilated. He was arrested and charged with violating the Obscene Publications Act.  Yesterday he was acquitted on all charges.

Walker's lawyer Tim Owen told reporters that "the effect of this prosecution on Mr Walker has been devastating. He has lost his job and has not managed to get further employment. Hopefully he can now recommence his life. [...] It was never his intention to frighten or intimidate the members of Girls Aloud."

Owen said Walker wrote the story as "an adult celebrity parody" and that it was only meant "for an audience of like-minded people."

Can you imagine what those "like-minded people" must be like?

(Thanks to PM Rommel for alerting me to the news)

Fanficcers say "Uncle"

That delusional TWILIGHT fan isn't the only one trying to sell fanfiction on eBay...fanficcers L. Lazarus & A. Morrisetti have copied the look of the original MAN FROM UNCLE tie-in paperbacks from the 1960s to sell their unauthorized UNCLE novels on the auction site for $21.95 each:. 

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. Continued...

NOW FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE THE DISCONTINUED PRINTING OF THE BELOVED ACE NOVELS, NAPOLEON SOLO AND ILLYA KURYAKIN COME TO YOU ONCE AGAIN...IN PAPERBACK!

148 pages of sheer thrills and adventure just as you remember it from the original series. This book and the rest to come in this series are near exact replicas of the original paperbacks...but with new stories. Written by an actual screenwriter, you will feel you are seeing what you are reading.

A MUST HAVE for any U.N.C.L.E. fan.

Make room on your bookshelf right next to the ACE books you have loved and cherished for all these years.

They offer this laughable "disclaimer" :

THESE BOOKS ARE NOT ACE PUBLISHED NOVELS, NOR DO WE INTEND TO COPY ANY PART OF ANY ACE PUBLICATION. THESE BOOKS ARE FOR FAN USE ONLY AND ARE NOT INTENDED FOR MASS MEDIA DISTRIBUTION.

And yet, they have copied the Ace books and they are selling them on eBay, trying to make money off a property they don't own. 

One of the two idiots, who purports to be a "professional television writer with credits to include 'Hart to Hart''" is also selling an UNCLE novella for $18.00.

This is, of course, a blatant copyright violation, but my guess is that the guys think they can slide by because the underlying property is so old. My guess is that they are wrong.

UPDATE 4-19-2009:  They have revised their "disclaimer": 

These books are fan fiction and are not meant to infringe on any rights held by ACE Publishing, Warner Brothers, or any other entity who holds any rights to the Man from U.N.C.L.E., the television series or the previously published series of books. These books are NOT intended for mass distribution and are for fan use only!

I have news for these dimwits. Saying that you're not infringing on rights while you are doing just that doesn't make it okay. That's like saying "I'm not stealing your car even though I've just hotwired it, sped away in it, and am trying to sell it on Craig's List for money I will spend on hookers and blow. The car is intended for fan use only."

Mrs. Potato Head Speaks

Lady Sybilla, the much-maligned, crack-pot author of  "Russet Noon," a self-published, fanfic sequel to TWILIGHT, has given an interview to a Brazillian website. She says, in part: 

F: So besides all the problems you are excited and proud of it? 

A: Absolutely, I know there’s been a strong reaction, and I’ve learned to take the good with the bad. 

F: So what do you see as good? Cause I know that a lot of the fans don’t want it, but a lot of them do. 

A: Yes, I have to thank the haters for the publicity. 

F: And how the release is gonna be, still September on the internet? 

A: Well, I had already bought an ISBN number for it and everything but I withdrew it, because I realized I’d never get away with selling it, so I gave refunds to all the Ebay buyers, and now I’m waiting a while to see how things turn out. But probably the release will still be September, in chapters online. 

F: Do you feel like your work its more like a regular book or a fanfic in a bigger scale? Cause some people say it is. 

A: I believe I have more training and education than the average fanfic writer, so that’s the only reason I wanted to release it as a book, but I guess it’s been turned into a huge moral issue. 

F: So about the whole publication problem and rights,did you receive any contact from Stephenie’s people? 

A: Yes, that’s definitely a legal mess, no attorney will defend me if I decide to publish. Stephenie’s rep or even herself didn’t contact me, I believe she probably has her mind made up about me already. I think she laughs at the whole situation, to be honest, it’s just hilarious, the rage, the hate, the strong emotions.

Mrs. Potato Head, although she considers herself more educated than your average fanficcer, seems to have realized too late that she has no understanding whatsoever of copyright law. I suspect this revelation came sometime after eBay shut down her account for terms of use violations and shortly before the cease-and-desist letters came from Meyer's attorney, publishers, etc. Yes, I think she's lying about not being slapped down by Meyer & Co. Her  "Russet Noon" website has been shuttered for "renovations" and the press releases touting her fanfic novel have been yanked from prlog.org.

I love that Mrs. Potato Head has the audacity to presume that Meyer sides with her. What an idiot. 

UPDATE 4-19-2009: It's official, Mrs.Potato Head is insane. She has issued yet another rambling, nearly incoherent press release. Her new argument for copyright infringement is that we are all part of some vast, shared mind and therefore anything that anyone claims to create really belongs to everyone. At least, I think that's what she's saying. You decide:

Writers and readers all over the net have opened their eyes to the truth: authors sell their fanfiction and get away with it. Sure, published authors play a safe game around copyright laws and change the names and circumstances of their characters around just enough to claim they've created a new character.[...]No author truly creates characters. The characters already exist in the archetypal world that Jung, Freud and Joseph Campbell have described in their books. The author is a medium who channels these characters. The origin of all characters is the Shared Mind, the only mind that truly exists. Our minds are all one single ocean of shared memories, fantasies, dreams, nightmares and visions [...]Laws that attempt to privatize the ownership of characters operate based on a delusion of separateness that we all share in this matrix we call reality.

Uh-huh. I think Mrs. Potato Head lost touch with this "matrix we call reality" a long, long time ago.

What It's Like to Be Delusional

Lori Jareo has finally been unseated as the dumbest fanficcer ever. Some idiot has sent out a press release touting the fall release of her self-published, fanfiction sequel to Stephenie Meyer's TWILIGHT:

This September 2009, a new controversial book hits stores. It is called Russet Noon and it is a tribute sequel to the Twilight Saga. Written by Gothic webmistress and author LadySybilla, Russet Noon is an unofficial continuation to the last book in the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn. Russet Noon is told from Jacob Black's perspective and it explores the questions left unanswered at the end of the last installment in the Twilight Saga.

This delusional fanficcer doesn't care that she is violating Stephenie Meyer's copyright because she doesn't think Meyer has one. Honest.

We'd like to thank all the buyers who pre-ordered Russet Noon. The promotional offer to purchase the novel early is now over and will resume in August 2009. Please contact our sales department to find out more about the release of Russet Noon this September 2009. Beware of half-truth accusations and find out about the actual facts on copyright laws.

She elaborated on her view on copyright law in a second press release.

When fictional characters become such an intricate part of the popular psyche, as is the case with the Twilight Saga, legal boundaries become blurred, and copyright laws become increasingly difficult to define. This is especially the case when actual cities like Forks and Volterra are used as the novel's settings. Such settings are not copyrightable, as they are considered public domain. Similarly, the Quileute Nation is also not copyrightable, and neither are vampire or werewolf legends. Copyright laws protect writers from unauthorized reproductions of their work, but such reproductions only include verbatim copying. Characters are only copyrightable if their creator draws them or hires an artist to draw them. Stephenie Meyer herself borrowed a great deal from previous works dealing with these mythologies. Russet Noon is an original story inspired not only by the Twilight Saga, but also by many classic Gothic novels from the Romantic and Victorian Periods of Literature. If anything, the publication of Russet Noon will only strengthen the popularity of the Twilight franchise, since it will serve to further establish its already legendary status.

This dimwit's rationale for violating Stephenie Meyer's copyright is so inane that I bet even  the Organization for Transformational Works won't defend her... 

UPDATE 3-26-09:  Ebay has pulled Russet Noon off their site, prompting the author to issue another press release:

Author Lady Sybilla met with her publishing partners at AV Paranormal today to discuss the fate of her upcoming novel Russet Noon. One of the main issues discussed at the meeting was the hate campaign that some message boards and forums have instigated [...]As for the September release of Russet Noon, the AV Paranormal team is considering one of two options. Either the novel will be published in weekly installments on the website for free, or the plug will be pulled on the project altogether. The final decision will be announced in early or mid April. Only one thing is for sure at this point: No more Russet Noon on eBay. Let the detractors have their victory on this one. But, regardless of what the final outcome may be, everyone who preordered a copy of Russet Noon will receive a full refund.

It should be noted that the "AV Paranormal team" behind Russet Noon is the author, Ms. Potato Head herself.

Look up "Pathetic" in the Dictionary and this is what you will find

Trekkies who watch Star Trek reruns while sitting in their replica Enterprise Captain chairs and wearing costumes are the walking -- or should I say sitting -- definition of pathetic:

So what, beyond pushing buttons, do these men — as all Kirk chair owners appear to be — do with the most conspicuous piece of furniture in the room?

Some watch TV in theirs, or simply loll, and some seem to find the chair an empowering place from which to deal with others. “When we have a little family powwow — I have four children — I sit in it to lay down the law,” said Mr. Boyd, the auto parts manager.

And most, of course, indulge their fantasies, imagining doing battle with Klingons and otherwise cruising the cosmos. “Sitting in it,” said Mr. Bradshaw, the graphic designer, “I find myself striking an action pose quite unconsciously.”

To his regret, he must strike those poses in his home office. “My wife is not big on it,” he said. “I’ve actually been threatened with divorce if it comes into the living room.”

Mr. Monk and the Blogs

I've been catching up on everything I missed while I was out-of-town and discovered some bloggers had some very nice things to say about my MONK books last week. The William-To-Jose blog liked MR. MONK GOES TO GERMANY:

What a pleasant surprise it turned out to be. This is a funny, funny book! Goldberg has a fantastic grasp of the characters and reading this was almost like watching the show. [...]The book also has it's serious moments, however, especially when Monk has to confront certain truths he'd rather not. This grounds the book so it doesn't come off as pure fluff.

I agree with him about the importance of grounding Monk...of finding something with emotional stakes for him in every story...otherwise he'd just be a cartoon character.

Author Bill Crider enjoyed Monk's adventures in Germany, too.

The book reads smoothly and quickly, with plenty of laughs and a smile on every page. Which is quite an achievement, considering that Monk is in reality a sad case, a slave to his phobias and compulsions. Even Natalie loses control in this one, but to good effect. And at the end, well, she pulls quite a stunt. [...] Sitting in hospital waiting rooms is no fun at all, but Mr. Monk Goes to Germany brightened my time in them this week, and it might brighten your day, too.

I don't think there's any greater compliment that a writer could get than hearing that his stories have made someone's day brighter...and helped them forget whatever woes they have, if only for a while. Thank you so much, Bill...and I hope your wife is feeling better.

Karen Rainey draws a distinction between between "derivative" books, which she doesn't like much, and tie-ins which, in the case of Monk, she likes a lot.

A derivative book is NOT a tie-in book such as Lee Goldberg’s Monk books. He’s contracted to write those books based on the television series. (By the way, he goes way beyond the television character arc in his books and they’re really good.)

She defines "derivative books" as ones in which an author continues the work of another, using the same characters, the same world, etc, like sequels to Jane Austen's books or "Gone with the Wind." She says:

A book ends when it ends. A book ends when the author thinks it’s right to end it. Would I like a different ending to Gone with the Wind? It’s not my call. It’s Margaret Mitchell’s work, not Karen Ranney’s. It’s my opinion that no one else has the right to come along and “borrow” those characters.

I'm sure there are plenty of fanfiction writers out there don't agree with her and they've probably let her know in the strongest possible terms. In their minds, tie-in writing is simply "paid fanfic." I'm not sure whether they truly don't understand the significant differences between tie-ins (which are the equivalent of being a freelance writer of an episode of a TV series) and fanfic (which is the equivalent of stealing someone else's work and putting your own name on it) or if they simply don't want to acknowledge it. But I've talked enough about that already.

Is Free, "Ravenously Referential" Fiction the Future of Publishing?

A lot of folks have sent me a link to Lev Grossman's essay in Time Magazine that proclaims that:

Saying you were a self-published author used to be like saying you were a self-taught brain surgeon. But over the past couple of years, vanity publishing has becoming practically respectable.

He's the only person, besides a vanity press huckster, I have ever heard voice that opinion. He tries to back it up by citing a couple of the extraordinarily rare examples of self-publishing success. He neglects to mention, just like the vanity-press hucksters do, that these are extremely rare cases that represent a miniscule percentage of the self-published books printed every year.

But I'm not surprised he neglects that fact...and so many others in his essay. He's the same guy who thought Lori Jareo, the dimwit who self-published her STARS WARS fanfic and sold it as a novel on Amazon, was some kind of "unsung hero." He's also notorious for trying to jack up the rankings of his novel on Amazon by posting scores of fake, five-star reviews.

He believes that publishing books on paper, paying authors advances and giving booksellers the opportunity to return unsold books are old-fashioned practices that are so "20th century" and will soon become extinct in favor of  -- drumroll please -- fanfic.

Put these pieces together, and the picture begins to resolve itself: more books, written and read by more people, often for little or no money, circulating in a wild diversity of forms, both physical and electronic, far outside the charmed circle of New York City's entrenched publishing culture.

[...]Not that Old Publishing will disappear--for now, at least, it's certainly the best way for authors to get the money and status they need to survive--but it will live on in a radically altered, symbiotic form as the small, pointy peak of a mighty pyramid. [...]The wide bottom of the pyramid will consist of a vast loamy layer of free, unedited, Web-only fiction, rated and ranked YouTube-style by the anonymous reading masses.

And what will that fiction look like? Like fan fiction, it will be ravenously referential and intertextual in ways that will strain copyright law to the breaking point.

Only someone who thinks Lori Jareo is a pioneer, and who wrote a novel about a "Boston slacker who has trouble distinquishing between reality and Star Trek," could make that prediction with a straight face. 

He's looking at publishing from within the insular world of science fiction and fantasy fandom, which bears little resemblance to reality. I don't think the majority of book-readers today-- the millions who can't speak Klingon and never heard of Joss Whedon -- would embrace the "ravenously referential" and poorly-written world of free literature that he desperately hopes the future of publishing will become.   

I agree with him that publishing is changing, and I suspect that ebooks and print-on-demand will be a big part of the future of the industry, but I doubt that wide popular and critical acceptance of self-publishing and fanfiction will be the ultimate result. To put it in terms Grossman would understand, I think commercial publishing, brick-and-mortar bookstores, and authors being paid for their work are practices that will "live long and prosper" in the face of new technology and new means of communication.

"They Painted Beautiful, Plunged Creative"

Annie Proulx has complained to the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times, among others, about how much she hates all the "Brokeback Mountain" fanfic out there. So The Guardian in the UK decided to see just how bad the fanfic is and published excerpts from ten of the very worst.  Here are a couple of examples:

4. Ask, and Thou Shalt Recieve, chapter 8: You Checkin' Me Out, Cowboy?
" Jack wasn't bad at giving directions. He was awful."

[...]this is trailed by the author with the tantalising line: "another one of those where Jack survives his attack ... but perhaps, it's not for long. Warnings: Rape"

5. The Chill Hour
"They painted beautiful, plunged creative. The kingfisher, silent, did not remove his belt."

A nice short one, this. Unfortunately it's quite difficult to know what's going on.

6. Memories
"Good mournin' to ya to cowboy."

The fabulously named DracoPotterMalfoy-JackEnnisDelMar adds the ingredient all Brokeback Mountain afficionados have been crying out for. No, not gratuitous sex (although there will be some of that in the final draft, apparently), but amnesia.

Fanfic Makes Proulx Regret Writing "Brokeback Mountain"

Pulitzer Prize winning author Annie Proulx has complained before about the misery  "Brokeback Mountain" fanfic has caused her and now she's doing it  again, this time on the front page of the Los Angeles Times.

"I wish I'd never written it," Proulx says at her home five miles outside town, looking out enormous windows onto the river and the limestone cliffs that define her property.

Not because of the people of Saratoga, a town she doesn't think much of. Not even because the word "brokeback" has been misappropriated, as in, "Hey, you're not goin' brokeback on me, are you?"

It's all the manuscripts, screenplays and letters sent to her by men who rewrite or serialize her story, adding new characters, endings and even successive generations.

Her frustration has been building for a while. She told the Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago that "Brokeback Mountain' has had little effect on my writing life, but is the source of constant irritation in my private life."

She lamented that  "remedial writers" are constantly sending "ghastly manuscripts and pornish rewrites of the story to me, expecting me to reply with praise and applause for 'fixing' the story...they know nothing of copyright infringement, that the characters Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar are my intellectual property."

UK Prosecutors Target SickFic About Real People

There's a whole sub-culture of fanficcers who get off writing fantasies about famous people having sex with one another and others. You know, stuff like Leonardo DiCaprio giving Jude Law an education in male coupling or the Spice Girls re-enacting their favorite sex scenes from "The L Word." The authors of this kind of SickFic argue that because they are writing and distributing stories about fictional sex between "public figures," it's okay. Well, prosecutors in the U.K don't think so. They think it's obscene and a violation of the law. The Register reports:

The legal world is buzzing at the announcement last week of the prosecution of 35-year-old civil servant Darryn Walker for the online publication of material that Police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) believe to be obscene.

This is the first such prosecution for written material in nearly two decades – and a guilty verdict could have a serious and significant impact on the future regulation of the internet in the UK.

The case originated in summer 2007, when Mr Walker allegedly posted a work of fantasy – titled Girls (Scream) Aloud - about pop group Girls Aloud. The story describes in detail the kidnap, rape, mutilation and murder of band members Cheryl Cole, Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh, and ends with the sale of various body parts on eBay.

The piece was brought to the attention of the Internet Watch Foundation, whose remit includes the monitoring of internet material deemed to be criminally obscene: they in turn handed details over to the Police.

The case goes to trial on March 16, 2009 in Newcastle. Other newspapers report that Walker wrote the story under the pseudonym "Blake Sinclair" and posted it on Kristen's Collection, SickFic site that also includes a "Real Person Fic" about raping and mutilating Britney Spears.

I'm sure that the Organization for Transformative Works, which thinks that writing and distributing this kind of swill is a God-given "fannish right," and Dr. Robin Reid, the creative writing instructor at Texas A&M who writes and champions "Real Person Slash" (her favorite SickFic fantasy is Viggo Mortenson and any male actor in Hollywood) will be watching this case very closely. A conviction could lead to a long overdue crack-down on this garbage.

Annie Proulx Says No to Fanfic

Author Annie Proulx, who wrote BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN,  tells the Wall Street Journal that the fanfic ripped off from her work by "remedial writers" is a "source of constant irritation."

There are countless people out there who think the story is open range to explore their fantasies and to correct what they see as an unbearably disappointing story. They constantly send ghastly manuscripts and pornish rewrites of the story to me, expecting me to reply with praise and applause for "fixing" the story.  [...] They do not understand the original story, they know nothing of copyright infringement—i.e., that the characters Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar are my intellectual property

Defamer comments on all the insipid BROKEBACK fanfic.

We can see Proulx's point; after all, it somewhat dilutes the gist of the original story if a sequel just happens to involve Ennis Del Mar meeting the slain Jack Twist's identical twin (coincidentally, also gay!). When will the internet accept that Proulx's simple, elegant tale simply can't be done justice by a poorly written Livejournal follow-up?

(Thanks to Sue for the heads-up!)

Potter Fan Tries to Cast Spell To Free His Book

The Detroit Free Press reports that the publisher and author of the "Harry Potter Lexicon" aren't giving up trying to make a buck off of Harry Potter -- even though a judge has barred publication of the book. Now they are seeking to publish the book without the copyrighted content that the judge determined was lifted from Rowling.

Roger Rapoport, a Muskegon publisher, and Steve Vander Ark, a Grand Rapids area librarian and author, expect their attorneys this week to file a notice of appeal preserving the men's right to continue the legal battle for their Harry Potter book.

U.S. District Judge Robert P. Patterson Jr. ruled Sept. 8 that the book violated Rowling's copyright and blocked its publication.

In a 60-page opinion, Patterson said the work quotes too directly from the Potter books and dwells too much on a pair of books written by Rowling to explain aspects of the wizarding world she created.

Rapoport and Vander Ark are considering whether they could edit the book to pass the judge's muster.

Seperated at Birth?

Harry Potter freak Steve Jan Vander Ark and plastic surgery freak Steve Erhardt. 

Court Rules in Rowling's Favor

Deadline Hollywood reports that a New York court has ruled in favor of Warner Brothers and J.K. Rowling in their lawsuit against RDR books, a publisher attempting to cash in with an unlicensed, unauthorized Harry Potter "lexicon" that drew heavily from Rowling's work. The Judge determined that the book, which he barred from publication, did not qualify as "fair use" and violated her copyright.

J.K. Rowling today issued the following statement: "I took no pleasure at all in bringing legal action and am delighted that this issue has been resolved favourably. I went to court to uphold the right of authors everywhere to protect their own original work. The court has upheld that right. "

The New York Times reports that Steven Jan Vander Ark , the creepy fan (pictured on the left) who wrote the book, still lives in a dream world. He told the Times that he'd like to have a chat with   Rowling some time:

“I have been a huge fan of the Harry Potter series and Ms. Rowling for 10 years; that’s not going to change,” Mr. Vander Ark said by telephone on Monday from his home in Brighton, England. “We had a disagreement about the definition of a particular book. It was a legal disagreement. I would rather that it wasn’t personal.”

[...]For now, however, Mr. Vander Ark has his sights on his next Harry Potter project: his book “In Search of Harry Potter” is scheduled to be released next month. It is a memoir of his travels to locations similar to the ones described in the Rowling books.

You might wonder why I think he's creepy...beyond the fact that he tries to look like Harry Potter and actually believes Rowling would want to chat with him. Here's an example from the trial, as reported by the Times.

Like a true fan, Mr. Vander Ark treated even Ms. Rowling’s assertions that he had made mistakes as wonderful revelations rather than embarrassments.

When [David Hammer, the lawyer for RDR Books] told him that Ms. Rowling had testified on Monday about the etymology of “Alohomora,” an unlocking spell, Mr. Vander Ark — who had been sequestered during her testimony — blurted, “Oh, really?”

In her testimony, Ms. Rowling said Mr. Vander Ark’s link between the spell and the Hawaiian “aloha” was “errant nonsense,” explaining that it actually had come from West African dialect.

“That’s exciting stuff for someone like me,” Mr. Vander Ark said from the witness stand. “Did she happen to mention which dialect?”

Any day now this goof is going to tattoo a lightning bolt to his forehead...if he hasn't already.

UPDATE: A reader reminded me of these examples of Vander Ark's creepiness and cluelessness  from the New Yorker:

Last summer, at a “Harry Potter” convention in Toronto, a fan named Steve Vander Ark made a similar mistake when he dared to compare himself to Joanne (J. K.) Rowling. “It is amazing where we have taken ‘Harry Potter,’ ” he said to a crowd of dedicated “Potter” fans. Many readers dislike the epilogue in the final book; Vander Ark urged them to disregard it entirely, and even invented his own spell to do so (“expelliepilogus”). “Jo’s quit, she’s done,” he told the audience. “We’re taking over now.”

[...]From the witness stand, Vander Ark directed beseeching glances toward Rowling, who was sitting a few yards away, but she slowly shook her head. After several hours of intense questioning in front of his idol, Vander Ark broke down and cried.

“I really wish we had had a different kind of meeting,” he said later. “There were a couple times I kind of gave her a half-smile. She didn’t smile back.”

Attracting the attention, and the wrath, of his hero is a surprise for Vander Ark, who at the age of fifty maintains the air of a serious child, with a mushroom-cut head of hair parted in the middle. A self-described “massive ‘Star Trek’ fan,” he wrote a book, in the nineteen-eighties, called “The Complete Encyclopedia of Star Trek the Next Generation Season One,” and sold forty copies.

That's 40 more than he's going to sell of his Harry Potter Lexicon.

Fanfiction Friction

The July/August issue of the Literary Review of Canada features an extensive overview  of the controversies  -- legal and artistic -- surrounding fanfiction in the U.S. and Canada. The article is written by copyright lawyer Grace Westcott, who is Vice Chair of the Canadian Copyright Institute, and she does a very good job of presenting the arguments on both sides of the issue.  But there is one unique, Canadian wrinkle to the debate:

it’s hard to see a case for fan fiction as fair dealing under Canadian law. Besides, there are the author’s moral rights to consider. The US analysis of fan fiction makes barely a passing nod to moral rights. No wonder: in the US the notion of moral rights is fairly slight. (And a media corporation cannot have moral rights; it’s strictly a personal right.) But in Canada, and much of the rest of the world, an individual author has the moral right both to be credited as the author (or to remain anonymous, if he or she chooses) and to have the integrity of the work protected. That integrity is infringed if the work is, to the prejudice of the honour or reputation of the author, distorted, mutilated or otherwise modified, or associated with any product, service, cause or institution.

Obviously, a moral right that a work not be “distorted, mutilated or otherwise modified” poses a serious legal impediment to the fan fiction writer. It is a significant fetter on the fan’s freedom to rework the canon without this act being viewed as an attack on the artistic integrity of the source work and ultimately on its author’s reputation. After all, an author may well feel that something he or she has spent years researching and writing is a finished work, not a literary buffet or a cultural spare parts counter for others to rummage in. An author may object to distortions of his characters when they are appropriated to the divergent narrative sensibilities of fan imaginations.

She concludes:

So where does all this leave fan fiction? It may be that its shadowy status – largely tolerated, but legally vulnerable – leaves it just where it ought to be, in a healthy state of tension between fans and authors. Because the fact is that fan fiction has so far been able to operate as a tolerated use, if not a fair use. Both parties have good reasons to accommodate the concerns of the other. No one wants to crush a fan; and fans don’t want to damage their favorite author’s livelihood or reputation. Fan fiction, particularly under Canadian law, and in view of authors’ moral rights, requires the author’s forbearance, and probably deserves a degree of that. There is a danger, in this balancing game, in taking a militant stance. What is needed is a kind of digital civility, an online code of respect in engaging with cultural works that recognizes and addresses authors’ rights and legitimate concerns. This, together with the recognition that fan fiction comes from basically ‘a good place’, should encourage authors, media owners and fans to develop a code of fair practices to define what’s fair in fandom, to allow fans to engage creatively with the works they so sincerely admire.

Poking a Sleeping Tiger in the Eye?

Lately, fanficcers seem intent on testing how far they can claim "ownership" of their work before the authors/rights-holders of the original media properties take legal action (just look at the Organization for Transformative Works or the Rowling dispute).

But now there is a new wrinkle. For many years now, a group of ardent STAR TREK fans have been producing STAR TREK: THE NEW VOYAGES (aka STAR TREK: PHASE II), their own, hour-long version of the original series. Original cast members like George Takei and Walter Koenig have "guest-starred" on the web-broadcast episodes and FX experts from the various "real" STAR TREK series have donated their talents to the project. So far, Viacom/Paramount has turned a blind eye to the project, presumably since it's a "fan production" and nobody has tried to make any money off of it.

That could change.

I just got my 2007 Nebula ballot from the Science Fiction Writers of America and among the movies & TV shows vying for the Script award is "World Enough and Time," an episode of STAR TREK: THE NEW VOYAGES written by Marc Scott Zicree & Michael Reeves that "aired" on 8/23/07.

Here's the problem. The  Nebula Rules state that to be eligible for the award that it must be "a professionally produced audio, radio, television, motion picture, multimedia, or theatrical script."
But the fans behind STAR TREK: NEW VOYAGES have claimed repeatedly that what they are doing absolutely isn't a professional production, it's just for fun, the video equivalent of fanfic:

The cost of the production is being paid out of pocket by the producers/crew. Yes, it is expensive, but we're fortunate to have many talented people donate their time and money for a worthy cause and a once in a lifetime trip around the galaxy! We in no way make money from this show and we all volunteer our time, effort and our own money to bring these shows to the internet. If you desire to help us in that capacity, please see "How can I donate" below

[...]Due to copyrights, there are no stations broadcasting our episodes. Star Trek: Phase II is a web-series. The episodes are available for FREE via the Internet. IF YOU FIND OUR EPISODES FOR SALE or RENT ANYWHERE, WHAT YOU HAVE FOUND IS AN ILLEGAL COPY. We cannot and do not make any money from the episodes. We ask you to inform us if you find anyone selling our work.

If they are now claiming to be a professionally-produced program, it puts their "fan" status in doubt...especially if they are now hiring writers...and it could bring Viacom/Paramount crashing down on them.

There's no question that all the other nominees in the Script category were paid for their screenplays. The inclusion of the script by Zicree & Reeves among the nominees (CHILDREN OF MEN, THE  PRESTIGE, PAN'S LABRYNTH, etc.) suggests that they were paid for their work, too. If they were, that's a big no-no... and would also seriously undermine the claims by the producers of STAR TREK: NEW VOYAGES that they are just doing the Internet equivalent of putting on a show in the barn for their friends.

It will be interesting to see what happens next.  Could Zicree & Reeves' submission of their script for a Nebula spell the end of STAR TREK: NEW VOYAGES...?

UPDATE:  I'm not plugged in to the SF scene so I had no idea that a controversy about this was already raging. See the comments section for statements from Marc Scott Zicree, who says he was paid for the script so it's a professional job, and ST:NV producer/star James Cawley, who emphatically maintains that his show is not a professional production and should not have been nominated. It will be interesting to see how this affects the future of ST:NV, not just with Paramount but with SAG, DGA, and WGA...

It's Just Pathetic

The Diary of a Mad Editor tackles the fanfic issue. He says, in part:

[...]fan fiction isn’t a bad thing just because the writing’s bad – it’s bad because it also undermines the integrity of the original work [...]Clearly, though, there is a difference between what Goldberg writes and what some acne-faced turd on Quizzilla.com or FanFiction.net writes.

[...]See, Goldberg’s writings are licensed by the original creators of the characters he writes about whereas fan fictioneers are infringing on the original authors’ copyright. One form of writing is done by professionals for commercial purposes and the other is done by delusional amateurs purely for love/self-love. Here’s the problem — now the fanfic losers want copyright protection extended to their “original” creations.

He believes that if the efforts by the Organization of Transformative Works to extend copyright protection to fanfic are successful, it could have a wide-ranging, negative impact on all writers.

If fan fiction receives legal parity with original work, it would create a wave of frivolous lawsuits in which any author of fan fiction could claim that the original author stole their ideas. As a writer, I cringe at this very thought. Giving derivative works that kind of legitimacy would destroy any value intellectual property protection has for writers.

I think he sums up the fanfic issue pretty concisely when he says:

A 14 year old kid writing fan fiction is unfortunate but forgivable, but when you’re 30 and still writing it, it is just pathetic. If you want to be taken seriously as a writer and have full copyright protection and all that good shit, write something original and worth reading.

A New Approach to Fandom

The Los Angeles Times reports today that DR. WHO executive producer Russell T. Davies is taking a new approach to fans. He's completely ignoring them.

"I think we're an unusual science-fiction franchise in taking a very big step back from fandom and having nothing to do with them. . . . Every program on the BBC has a message board on the website. I forbid it to happen on 'Doctor Who.' I'm sorry to say this, all the science fiction producers making stuff in America, they are way too engaged with their fandom. They all need to step back."

His policy of ignoring the fans doesn't seem to be hurting his show at all.  In fact, it may be helping by making his show more accessible to mainstream audiences worldwide.

It falls to Davies "to keep balancing how much continuity there is, how many stand-alone elements there are." Ever mindful of the shows' "mainstream audience" (meaning, not just sci-fi enthusiasts) and put off by "exclusivity" in general, he said he is reticent of creating overly inclusive stories dependent on viewers' in-depth knowledge of ornate histories.  This job is made easier by Davies' policy of ignoring the voices of those most vigilant.

Is there a lesson to be learned here for showrunners?    

Can Barnaby Jones Save The Human Race?

I've stumbled on something extraordinary ... a BARNABY JONES novel written by Buddy Ebsen with Darlene Quinn and "published" by Authorhouse, the print-on-demand vanity press. I couldn't resist buying the  $4.95 ebook version. What's interesting about SIZZLING COLD CASE is that it was published in 2006, three years after Ebsen's death, and is copyrighted by Ebsen & Quinn, even though they don't own the copyright to the TV series its based on.

In other words, it's fanfiction...and it's being sold on Amazon and on Authorhouse's site.  That's a big no-no, as Lori Jareo could tell you. She wrote her own unlicensed STAR WARS novel and sold it on Amazon...and was promptly slapped down by Lucasfilm.

But this blatant violation of copyright isn't likely to turn Quinn into another Jareo, mainly because BARNABY JONES isn't a huge media property like STAR WARS, isn't protected by lawyers as vigilant as those at LucasFilm, and is based on notes from Ebsen, who played Barnaby Jones, the elderly private eye. That doesn't mean Ebsen actually owns the character...but hiding behind Ebsen's ghost and his heirs will probably protect Quinn from a cease-and-desist letter.  Besides, it's not like anybody gives a damn about BARNABY JONES...and that probably includes the studio that owns the property. Can you imagine any studio suing Buddy Ebsen's family for publishing and selling "Barnaby Jones" fanfic? I can't.  Even so, publishing the book and copyrighting the character of Barnaby Jones as if it was their own was a pretty ballsy thing for Quinn and the Ebsen estate to do. 

I must confess that I haven't bothered reading the book. I couldn't get past Quinn's fan lyrics to the "Barnaby Jones" theme in the opening pages. I was laughing too hard:

Though many dangers now surround you
And evil lurks beneath the night
One man will fight the wrong around you
And strike a blow to make it right
When naked terror rides the highways
And sudden death waits in the street,
one man alone will roam the byways
confronting crime he must defeat
Barnaby, Barnaby -- what driving force has set your pace?
Barnaby, Barnaby -- can one man save the human race?

You can sing along with this:

Rowling Protects Her Copyright

When the Harry Potter Lexicon website announced plans last fall to publish a book based on their fan-written content, JK Rowling and Warner Brothers sued for copyright infringement.  A Federal judge halted the planned November publication of the book while the lawsuit plays out. Now Tim Wu at Slate argues that Rowling has gone too far.

Are fan guides actually illegal? As sympathetic as I am to Rowling and her rights as an author, the answer is no. There is a necessary and healthy line between what the initial author owns and what follow-on, or "secondary," authors get to do, and Rowling is running over that line like the Hogwarts Express. The creators of H.P. Lexicon may not be as creative as Rowling, but they are authors, too, and deserve a little respect from the law.

[...] Rowling takes the position that she, as the original author, has the right to block the publication of any such guide. In her words: "However much an individual claims to love somebody else's work, it does not become theirs to sell." But Rowling is overstepping her bounds.

It appears he is wrong, at least from a legal standpoint. A reader on Rebecca Blood's site refers to previous court precedents that support Rowling's claim:

Castle Rock Entertainment, Inc. v. Carol Publ. Group, 150 F.3d 132 (2d Cir. 1998), aka, the Seinfeld Trivia case. Someone created and published an unlicensed book of Seinfeld trivia, with details about characters and lines in the show, arguing that doing so was fair use and merely a compilation of facts. The court held that the facts about the show weren't really facts, but rather expressions of the creators' imaginations, and the most important fair use factor of effect on the market was in Seinfeld's favor since they had plans for their own derivative books based on the show. See also Twin Peaks v. Publications Int'l, Ltd. 996 F.2d 1366 (2d Cir. 1993), which was plot summaries and quotations from the TV show Twin Peaks - again, the court held that the amount of material taken from the original was substantial and adversely affected the market for authorized books about the show, and so denied a fair use defense to copyright infringement."

Variety reports that Rowling is taking action because interferes with her plans to do her own compendium.

"I cannot, therefore, approve of 'companion books' or 'encyclopedias' that seek to preempt my definitive Potter reference book for their authors' own personal gain," Rowling said in a statement, released by Warner Brothers.

[...]The lawsuit doesn't seek action against the Web version of the Lexicon, but criticizes it for numerous sections it said "regurgitate Ms. Rowling's original creative expression with minimal additional commentary."

The CBC reports that Rowling isn't happy about having to take the fans to court.

Rowling had been a supporter of the website and in a statement released on her website, Rowling admitted she took "no pleasure" in launching the lawsuit.

"I feel massively disappointed that this matter had to come to court at all," the statement said. "Given my past good relations with the Lexicon fan site, I can only feel sad and disillusioned that this is where we have ended up."

The outcome of this case, if it goes to trial, could have far-reaching impact on how far fans can take their so-called derivative work and claim it as their own.

(Thanks to "Calistoy" for the heads-up).

The O.T.W. Wants Your Copyright

Novelist and First Amendment attorney Julie Hilden argues that authors and rights holders should be very concerned about the Organization for Transformative Work's proposal to extend copyright  protection to fan fiction. She writes, in part:

Does fan fiction deserve to share the same respect as original work, for copyright purposes? The OTW's proposal suggests so. Recognizing fan fiction as "legal and transformative" would put it on a par at least with "fair uses" of original works, and perhaps also with the works themselves. And the recognition of fan fiction as "legitimate creative activity" seems to put it on, or close to, the level of original works. But is that the fair or right level for fan fiction to occupy?

Hilden doesn't think so. She believes if copyright protection is extended to "fannish works," the original authors or rights holders will suffer a very real, detrimental impact with far-reaching implications.

the OTW is not asking for a fixed, low royalty rate for fan fiction; rather, it is trying to destroy original authors' ability to both silence fan fiction and require royalties for it. Thus, the OTW has bypassed the more moderate solution of a low, fixed, statutorily-mandated royalty rate for fan fiction that effectively sets that rate at zero.
Does that matter? Absolutely. Even those who strongly value fan fiction may worry about maintaining authors' incentives to create the original works that feed it.

 

The OTW's proposal is a complete abrogation of control with no compensation for taking away rights, or any substitution of rights (for instance, switching a right to refuse to license fan fiction with a right to charge a low, statutorily-mandated royalty.) In this sense, it is the most extreme proposal possible.

And one not likely to succeed, if the OTW is foolish enough to pursue it.  It would poke the studios, publishers, and authors right in the blind eye that they've been regarding fanfiction with for years. That should have fanficcers very worried. All it will take is one court challenge by the O.T.W for that blind eye to open and view the entirety of fan fiction with a very hostile gaze.

The studios, publishers, and authors aren't about to sit back and allow such an outrageous rights grab...nor,  Bilden argues, should they. She believes that copyright law is rightfully tipped in favor of original creators:

Our Constitution's Copyright Clause has always seen original authors as far more important than derivative users. However, especially in light of the Internet's influence, many have taken issue with that hierachy - even to the extreme of ignoring original authors' interests.

[...]not only does the Copyright Clause in fact privilege these creators over derivative users, but that hierachy may be the right one, from the standpoint of policy: Original work may actually be more worthy, in that it brings something genuinely fresh and innovative into the world, representing a creative leap and not just an incremental extension.

But, incredibly, the O.T.W. believes that Harry Potter slash fic is on equal footing with J.K. Rowling's books and deserves the same protections as her work...more over, that it deserves to be protected specifically from her.  And they don't understand why authors might have a problem with this...

What Would Happen if NBC Hired Fanficcers to Write "The Office"

Fannish Rights

"We envision a future in which all fannish works are recognized as legal and transformative and are accepted as a legitimate creative activity. We are proactive and innovative in protecting and defending our work from commercial exploitation and legal challenge. We preserve our fannish economy, values, and creative expression by protecting and nurturing our fellow fans, our work, our commentary, our history, and our identity while providing the broadest possible access to fannish activity for all fans."

That, my friends, is the mission statement of the Organization for Transformative Works, a new organization that hopes to legitimize fanfiction. I kid you not. When I first saw the site, I thought it was an elaborate practical joke, like amptp.com. But it isn't. The movers and shakers behind this effort include Naomi Novik, a fanficcer turned acclaimed fantasy novelist, and Dr. Robin Reid, the Texas A&MUniversity professor best known for writing fiction about real people like Viggo Mortenson having sex with other male actors.

They steal the creative work of others and then have the balls to say they want to "defend their work from commercial exploitation."  Their hypocrisy is staggering…and apparently boundless. One of their "missions" is "establishing a legal defense project and forming alliances to defend fanworks from legal challenge." (I wonder if they will also form an alliance with the group that polices plagiarism of  fanfic by other fanficcers) Novik writes on author John Scalzi's blog:

"We just want to enjoy our hobby and our communities, and to share our creative work, without the constant threat hanging overhead that an overzealous lawyer at some corporation will start sending out cease-and-desist notices, relying not on legal merit, but on the disproportionate weight of money on their side."

With that kind of reasoning, I'm surprised they haven't recruited Lori Jareo to lead their organization. 

While their staggering hypocrisy might be lost on the majority of fanficcers, the foolhardy nature of this effort isn't. For years, studios, publishers, authors and other rights holds have largely turned a blind eye to the blatant copyright infringement that is Fanfiction as long as fanficcers haven't tried to profit from it. Or, as John Scalzi puts it:

"To the extent that fandom currently does what it does, it does it because of the benign neglect or tolerance of the copyright holders of the works the fans are working with.

Now many fanficcers seem justifiably concerned that the OTW's efforts to claim ownership of their copyright-infringing works could end this fragile détente. Elfwreck writes on Scalzi's blog:

"Sooner or later a copyright owner is going to issue a DMCA notice to a fan, a fan is going to run to OTW (or alternately, OTW will offer its services), and an expensive legal suit will be on and if the case is of sufficient profile, then other copyright owners, alerted to the existence of a group who says they can in fact no longer control their copyrights from people who claim to be fans, will start giving the fannish community quite a bit more attention, and probably not of the good kind..."

Scalzi envisions it happening like this:

"If and when a fan, told by, say, NBC Universal to take down her Battlestar Galactica fanfic, decides to make the legal argument that her work is transformative and fair use, […] and the fan shows up in court with the assistance of an umbrella group dedicated to the proposition that all fan work is legal and transformative, I suspect the era of benign neglect or tolerance of fan activity will be at a sudden and pronounced end. Because now the fans are saying, why, yes, this really does belong to us, and corporations who have invested millions in and can reap billions from their projects will quite naturally see this as a threat. From there it's all DMCA notices and entire fan sites going down."

The OTW claims that "fannish work," an umbrella term for fanfiction and the "Real People Slash" that Dr. Reid gets off on and even such fetish fanfic as  "DUE SOUTH Masturbation" stories, is "transformative" rather than "derivative," that it is a unique and important expression of feminism, and therefore should be legally protected. John Scalzi observes:

"OTW's claim, however, appears predicated on a fairly expansive idea of what "transformative" means under the law, and also that all fanwork is transformative, apparently by the mere nature of being fanwork. OTW is perfectly in its rights to make such a claim, but they are fairly significant claims, and I don't imagine that OTW's interpretation of the law would go unopposed if it were presented in a court of law."

[…]I suspect that a judge asked to consider a possibly infringing works' "fannishness" as a relevant criterion for evaluation will toss that out early, chosing instead to look at what the law actually requires."

One fanficcer offered this comment on Scalzi's blog:

"I'm not going to stop [writing fanfiction] either way, so I'd like to see the rules set on fandom's terms, even if it is a segment of fandom that I and others don't wholly agree with. There's a risk in founding OTW at all, of course– it scares me to think of what unintended consequences might arise due to the whole thing. But there's also a risk in sitting on one's hands and doing nothing. If this history ends up being rewritten by victors that are not part of fandom, I'd at least like to know I didn't stand still and do nothing while they were at it."

I want to see the day OTW legally challenges J.K. Rowling's right to prevent people from disseminating stories about Snape and Voldemort gang-banging Harry Potter and Ron. Or the day the OTW fights for Robin Reid's right to create and distribute stories about Sean Bean having sex withViggo Mortenson. Because when that day comes, instead of legitimizing fanfiction, they will kill it…not only in a court of law but in the court of public opinion.

Fanfic Survivor

Novelist Lorraine Bartlett writes on her blog about her early experiences in fanfic.

I've never been ashamed of my writing roots.  I started out writing classic Star Trek stories when I was a teenager.  These days fanfic has a seedy reputation and, sad to say, rightly so. [...] Back in my day, distribution of these stories was small.  A big print run was 200 copies.  Now millions of people worldwide can peek at badly written fan stories from franchises that are still hot.  I can't say I blame the writers/producers for objecting. 

It was while she was a fanficcer that she discovered what it feels like to have your work stolen though, ironically, her work was also copyright infringement.

A "fannish" person removed the names of the authors from the stories in one of my zines (and my story as well) and sold hundreds, possibly a thousand copies of that fanzine at professionally run SF/Fantasy conferences.

That was my first taste of what copyright infringement feels like. I complained to the conference organizers, but since our stories were quite blatantly copyright infringement themselves, we didn't have a leg to stand on.  Still, I hated the fact my work was stolen.

This Will Cause a Fanfic Frenzy...

The Associated Press reports that JK Rowling made a surprise revelation in New York this week when asked by a fan at a signing if Dumbledore every finds "true love."

"Dumbledore is gay," the author responded to gasps and applause.

She then explained that Dumbledore was smitten with rival Gellert Grindelwald, whom he defeated long ago in a battle between good and bad wizards. "Falling in love can blind us to an extent," Rowling said of Dumbledore's feelings, adding that Dumbledore was "horribly, terribly let down."

Dumbledore's love, she observed, was his "great tragedy."

"Oh, my god," Rowling concluded with a laugh, "the fan fiction."

       

A Jewcy Assignment

While I was away, my brother Tod actually got paid to read Harry Potter fanfiction...and he lived to write about it for Jewcy.com.

I haven't read much fan fiction over the years; saddled as I've been with student writing, I figure reading stories about Kirk and Spock gang-banging a Romulan cum slut or Scooby and Scrappy taking it to a whole new level with "Scooby snacks" probably won’t enrich my life much. But it's summer, and I've got some time.

What he found is absolutely hilarious...

LiveJournal Pounces on Potter "Slash"

CNet reports that LiveJournal has created an uproar by deleting blogs that feature  sexually explicit drawings of Harry Potter doing the nasty with other men.

The users' journal entries contained "drawings depicting minors in explicit sexual situations," which represented a violation of LiveJournal's policies, according to copies of the letters posted by their recipients.

In ponderosa121's case, the offending image depicted an unclothed Harry Potter of ambiguous age receiving oral sex from sometimes-villain Severus Snape.

[...]the latest episode has fanfic devotees once again encouraging livid LiveJournal users to switch to "clone" sites in protest and to register their discontent through feedback emails.

Predictably, and laughably, the irate fanficcers are trying to equate Harry Potter porn with larger social issues in an effort to gain mainstream support. Good luck. The blog Darkside Rainbow says:

now users are wondering: who’s next? Will a mother be suspended for posting pictures of her baby’s first bath? Will a gay male be suspended for posting a photograph or even a drawing of himself and his boyfriend kissing? Will a closeted lesbian be suspended for using LiveJournal as a safe haven to discuss her erotic thoughts about other women? Will artists and writers be censored in their creativity because LiveJournal believes that writing or drawing about an act - be it sex, violence, etc. - construes endorsing and promoting it?

I don't know what's scarier...that these idiots can't see the difference between Potter Porn and a picture of a mother bathing her child...or that the so-called "artists" of the Potter Porn are considered "respected members of the fanfic community."

Harry Potter and the Brazen Knock-offs

The New York Times reports that bootleg editions of the Harry Potter novels as well  as unauthorized continuations and sequels abound in  China, where counterfeiting and copyright infringement are major industries.

No one can say with any certainty what the full tally is, but there are easily a dozen unauthorized Harry Potter titles on the market here already, and that is counting only bound versions that are sold on street corners and can even be found in school libraries. Still more versions exist online.

These include "Harry Potter and the Half-Blooded Relative Prince," a creation whose name in Chinese closely resembles the title of the genuine sixth book by Rowling, as well as pure inventions that include "Harry Potter and the Hiking Dragon," "Harry Potter and the Chinese Empire," "Harry Potter and the Young Heroes," "Harry Potter and Leopard-Walk-Up-to-Dragon," and "Harry Potter and the Big Funnel."

Some borrow little more than the names of Rowling's characters, lifting plots from other well-known authors, like J. R. R. Tolkien, or placing the famously British protagonist in plots lifted from well-known kung-fu epics and introducing new characters from Chinese literary classics like "Journey to the West."

The publishers of these rip-offs are unapologetic and surprisingly candid about what they are doing.

Wang Lili, editor of the China Braille Publishing House, which published "Harry Potter and the Chinese Porcelain Doll" in 2002, one of the Chinese knockoffs, said: "We published the book out of a very common incentive. Harry Potter was so popular that we wanted to enjoy the fruits of its widely accepted publicity in China."

I can only imagine how these knock-offs make Rowling feel...and how confused Chinese readers must be. How can they tell the real books from the fakes?

Getting off to See the Wizard

Dorothy rolling in the hay with the Scarecrow? C'mon, we all know they wanted to get naked together. That's just one of the bizarre, fanfic couplings that Fleshbot has , um, uncovered on LiveJournal.

"D-Dorothy?"

Dorothy looked quickly over her shoulder, but her own movement against her hand caused to moan loudly again as her eyes met the Scarecrow's.

Without a conversation, or her needing to persuade him, he came over between her thighs and kissed her thoroughly.

Dorothy was surprised to feel his cloth mouth feeling rather erotic on her mouth, making her even more wet than she was before he walked in.

She grinded her hips against his straw structure, and even that felt right.

She looked up at him with frustrated eyes, "I want you inside me."

Potter's Literary Eco-system

The Wall Street Journal recently published an article about the "the whole literary eco-system spawned by the series" and briefly touched on the fan fiction.

At least a dozen new or updated Harry Potter-related titles will likely be published this year, according to Cambridge Information Group Inc.’s R.R. Bowker. These aren’t the kind of faux Potter fantasy tales that are posted on the Web, though there are plenty of those. (One site, harrypotterfanfiction.com, says it holds more than 34,000 stories and receives in excess of 40 million hits a month.)

[...] There are limits. Copyright law will prevent other authors from offering new titles using Ms. Rowling’s characters and settings unless they’re obvious parodies. “Boundaries exist,” says David S. Korzenik, a publishing attorney with the firm Miller Korzenik Sommers LLP. “Characters can be copyrighted, and settings can be protected,” he says. “But if you are doing a parody you can go forward with the understanding that the parody won’t be book eight or nine of the series but rather is trying to deliver something very different or transformative.”

Most authors don’t challenge amateur authors who write tales about favorite characters as long as it’s not commercially distributed, he says. While it’s technically a copyright infringement, “fan fiction” is usually perceived as a way for fans to enjoy themselves while creating further interest in the original work. “Nobody views it as a substitute,” says Mr. Korzenik. Guidebooks and predictions of future events are protected as well, as long as authors don’t borrow too heavily from Ms. Rowling’s work.

You've Got to Love The Hypocrisy

I got this email from Penny today:

I recently discovered your website while looking for information on fan fiction and copyright law.  I was extremely interested in your views and the dry wit with which you describe the fan ficcers that you have encountered.  One aspect of your site which particularly interested me was your reference to plagarism within fan fiction communities. [...] I came across this community where fan ficcers "name and shame" those who are found to be "plagiarising" their creative exploits.  It really does take hypocrisy to a whole new level.

It certainly does. The site is called "Stop Plagiarism: Investigation into and Condemnation of Plagiarists." These fanficcer plagiarism vigilantes don't have a problem with people who steal the characters, ideas and worlds of original authors, just those who steal from the intellectual property thieves. The hypocrisy is really quite astounding...and, sadly, all too typical of the fanficcer mindset. Here's an example of one of their  "investigations" :

On the 20th and 22nd February 2007 respectively, Jabri uploaded the two RPS fics 'A moment in time' and 'I Just Called Him "Love"' to her LJ. It became apparent that these were in fact close copies of the two fics 'Afterglow' by Melly (loopy_1981), published on LJ on the 22nd February 2005, and 'Ya Wanna?' by Mouse, published on boundbyblood.com and last modified on the 22nd August 2002.

In both instances the only fundamental changes to the fics were to make them fit JM/DB slash - 'Afterglow' being JM/NB and 'Ya Wanna?' not being RPS at all, but in fact Spike/Angel slash. Apart from this the structure and majority of the content was the same in both. Jabri's fics were clearly recognisable replicas of Melly and Mouse's, and for this reason her actions appeared to be plagiarism.

Jabri deleted her LJ on the 23rd February 2007. I contacted her on the 28th February, but have yet to receive a response. I informed her that if she did not respond we would assume her to be guilty, and so I shall now be adding her to the list of plagiarists on the information page.

Many thanks to all involved in this case!

My favorite part these "investigation" reports is the bit where they find someone "guilty" and add them to The List.  Funny stuff!

Fanfic vs Profic

Author and editor Keith R.A. DeCandido discusses the differences between fanfic and what he calls "profic."

First off, fanfic is illegal and profic isn't. This is not an irrelevant concern -- we're talking about the theft of intellectual property. Does that mean fanfic shouldn't happen? Of course not -- I've written fanfic, read fanfic, enjoyed fanfic. But then, I also enjoy driving very fast, and sometimes state police have something to say about it, and I have to pay a ticket. Of course, most of the owners of those intellectual properties turn a blind eye, mainly because no money is being made off the fanfic, and since money is the primary reason for protecting your IP...

Hey, Did You Know That if Fanfiction Went Away, There Would Be No More Gays or Lesbians? What would we watch late at night on Cinemax?

I got a long email the other day. It turns out it's from the same blogger who thinks I'm a sad little man who longs to write fanfiction.  She writes, in part:

I am a fanfiction writer, a slash fanfiction writer at that, I am not as illustrious or ambitious or zealous as some but I am glad to be one. I am as proud to be a slash fanfiction writer as I am to a lesbian and let me tell you it is very much the same feeling.

[...]At fifteen I bumped into my very first piece of fanfiction and it was like a bolt of lightening and then a few weeks later when I read my first piece of slash- its was very much like the first time I ever consider that I might be gay. It’s that monumental feeling of freedom, of knowledge; you finally know why the world seems a little off.

[...]My point is that fanfiction to you and (I’ll be presumptuous and say) I get the impression writing is too, nothing more than a hobby or a job and there’s nothing wrong with that. But you have to understand that for a lot of fans this writing helps shape who they are.

[...]Do you hate gay people Mr. Goldberg? I don’t think that you do, even if you just objected to slash fanfiction, I still would not think that. But what is the difference between what you do and a father who tells his 15 year old son it’s not okay to be gay? If there is one I can’t see it and you can hide behind all the copyright laws that you wish, but I assure you it will be no different then how the church hides behind over-zealously translated bible script.

Why is it that the people who write & publish fanfic feel that if I oppose what they are doing I must be either homophobic or have no passion for writing myself?

I love writing and am passionate about it.  I'm extremely fortunate that it's also how I make my living and support my family, too. But believe it or not, loving to write...and making money doing it...aren't mutually exclusive. 

But now by opposing fanfiction, I'm not just a passionless hack who writes only for the money...I am also preventing people from discovering their sexuality.

Call me crazy, but I think there are lots of ways you can discover and explore your sexuality without taking  characters you didn't create or own, writing stories about them, and publishing them on the web without the author's permission. It's one thing to write fanfic for yourself to fantastize about or as a writing exercise, it's another when you publish and/or post the stories on the web without the original authors' consent. 

I believe it's theoretically possible that women will still discover that they are lesbians without writing and publishing/posting stories about Buffy and Xena exploring the joys of sapphic love together...and that men might continue to discover their gay selves without writing and publishing/posting stories about Harry Potter giving Ron blowjobs...

Am I Satan...

...or just a sad little man with serious self-esteem issues who longs to write fanfiction? You tell me. I am too distracted to decide...I'm very busy working on my FARSCAPE/BATTLESTAR/HARRY POTTER crossover slash epic.