The experience of BioWare and EA, developer and publisher of multiplayer online role-playing game Star Wars: The Old Republic suggests that addressing problems of representation should probably not be done after the fact. While many were happy to hear the company would be introducing same-sex romance options to the game, the announcement received both the usual homophobic backlash as well as disappointment from same-sex romance supporters of how slowly and how poorly the gamers were accommodated. "These characters will only be available via Rise of the Hutt Cartel, an expansion pack to be released in Spring 2012 [sic], meaning that players will have to pay to be gay in the game. SGR will also only be limited to Makeb, a planet that has been dubbed as a "gay ghetto" by multiple media outlets."

TechDirt discussed the new site DMCAInjury.com, which was set up to keep track of bogus DMCA takedown requests. Those who file such claims could face punishment for those actions under section 512(f) of the DMCAbut so far it's happened rarely and with difficulty. Keeping track of accidental or malicious takedown requests might spur more cases against those filing them, or "at the very least, perhaps it will create a useful dataset to explore the nature and frequency of bogus DMCA takedowns."

• An article from the Oakland Tribune provided a good exploration of fanfiction and the activities of people who write it. "The online communities -- fandoms -- are vast and develop their own guidelines, techniques and even vocabularies. People write about, talk about, have mini conventions about, make videos about and even edit each other's stories about everything from favorite novels, TV shows and comic books to Japanese anime and mangas, poems, video games or popular songs...'It's really big, it's really diverse, and if you've only seen one little slice of it, you haven't seen anything.'" The piece also featured discussion with OTW Legal Chair Betsy Rosenblatt, and mentions OTW projects the AO3 and Fanlore.