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Congratulations to the Archive of Our Own and to all of our users on reaching the amazing total of ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND WORKS. Nearly 8500 fans archiving their work in just short of 5500 fandoms -- we might not be able to say that there's something there for everyone yet, but we're getting close!

We're less than a year into our open beta phase, and the AO3 has grown and improved daily, with help, support, and feedback from fans all over the world. The AO3 is an important and groundbreaking open source project, one of the only such projects in the world where women are in the majority, and where we welcome anyone who wants to help.

This is our place: we've built it, we can keep it. We have a home where we aren't merely tolerated, but welcomed.

Fandom. We're amazing, you know? \o/

The Copyright Office now has information about the new ruling up on their website. Particularly interesting is the Statement from the Librarian. The full text of the decision is available as a .PDF.

Coverage of the decision is coming out fast; we'll keep updating. Please feel free to comment with links we haven't seen.

* EFF Wins New Legal Protections for Video Artists, Cell Phone Jailbreakers, and Unlockers at the EFF's site;

* EFF wins enormous victory against DRM: legal to jailbreak iPhones, rip DVDs for mashup videos at BoingBoing;

* Apple loses big in DRM ruling: jailbreaks are "fair use" at Ars Technica

* Jailbreaking iPhone apps is now legal from CNN Money.com; quotes our own Rebecca Tushnet and discusses vidding particularly:

The agency also granted an exemption allowing users to break DVD copyright controls to extract snippets of copyrighted movies for the purpose of incorporating them into new works, so long as the new creation is noncommercial. Known as "vidding," such remixing is a popular hobby among fan artists, and their creations are widely available for viewing on YouTube.

The ruling doesn't remove all of the legal murk around vidding. Creators still need to ensure that their clips meet "fair use" guidelines, and the Copyright Office specified that its exemption applies only to motion-picture snippets extracted "for the purpose of criticism or comment."
But advocates say the decision is a big step forward. Hollywood movie studios had long held that ripping DVDs for any purpose whatsoever is a violation of the DMCA.

"This ruling is useful because it removes a tool that was able to be deployed over and above copyright law that already has fair-use safety valves," said Rebecca Tushnet, a law professor at Georgetown University who testified in favor of the exception at a Library of Congress rulemaking hearing last year. "Now we're back to where we should have been all along, and we can continue the conversation about what's reasonable fair use."

* Fair Use Victories on the DMCA from the Center for Social Media

* New DMCA Exemptions Legalize Phone Jailbreaking & DVD Ripping for Fair Use at Geeks are Sexy; this article shouts out the OTW and vidding in particular.

* OTW's own press release

* Review Of US Digital Millennium Copyright Act Brings New Exemptions from IP Watch

* New DMCA exemption from animemusicvideo.org

* Letting Us Rip: Our New Right to Fair Use of DVDs in the Chronicle of Higher Education

* Copyright Office Rules in Favor of Fair Use and Consumer Freedom - vidders get a shout out in the Huffington Post

The OTW's Legal and Vidding Committees have just been informed that the Library Of Congress is about to release a (long-awaited!) ruling granting a DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) exemption to makers of noncommercial remix, which includes vidding, anime music videos, political remix videos and the like. Previously film studies professors had the only exemption: now documentary filmmakers, makers of noncommercial video, and media studies teachers are also permitted to circumvent DMCA technologies if they need to in order to teach or to make artistic statements. (The DMCA exemption applies to you if you are in the U.S. or if someone tries to apply U.S. law to your work.)

This ruling does not mean that all vids and other remixed works are entirely out of the fog of legal uncertainty; rather, it means that people making noncommercial remix video do not have to worry about violating the DCMA's anticircumvention provisions (which otherwise might prohibit ripping a protected DVD), which are separate from ordinary U.S. copyright law and which don't otherwise allow for fair use. There is a requirement that circumvention must be necessary, because the Copyright Office believes that screen capture software might in some circumstances produce results of sufficient quality. As Tisha Turk testified, however, this is unlikely to be true for vidders.

The OTW worked with the EFF on the proposed exemption, submitted its own reply comment in support (special thanks to Casey Fiesler for her hard work), and went down to DC to support this comment with live testimony from Francesca Coppa, Tisha Turk, and Rebecca Tushnet. Today's ruling is the result of the hard work of a coalition of documentary filmmakers, media studies professors, and fair use advocates.

The ruling is expected to be posted on the Library of Congress site later today! We'll post more news and links as they become available!

One final note: because of the restrictiveness of the law, we have to do this all over again in two years. We need your stories to help, because the Copyright Office needs to see evidence of the need for an exemption: tell us why you need high-quality source to make your vids, why they are transformative, and/or why you don't use screen capture. You can comment, or email the OTW's Vidding Committee any time.

You can read OTW's press release on the decision here.

The Board of the OTW is pleased to release its Vidding Roadmap, a guide to the various features and services that we hope to be able to offer vidders, fan artists, and the larger fan community. Our priorities are stability and sustainability -- we want to build services that will work long-term with our resources, and that will help protect vids and help keep the vidding community together in a changing legal and economic climate. Full Roadmap beneath the cut!

The Second Circuit has reversed the injunction against 60 Years Later, J.D. California's published sequel to Catcher in the Rye. The OTW submitted an amicus brief in support of this reversal. The decision is worth a read; as OTW legal chair Rebecca Tushnet notes, there's some nice language about the public's independent First Amendment interest in getting to see ideas and expression. The case has been sent back to the lower court and the fight will no doubt continue, but it's nice to see that books can't be so easily suppressed.

The Wiki Committee have revised Fanlore's policy on Fandom as a Category and have posted the revised version of the policy change to the Fanlore wiki. You can read it here: http://fanlore.org/wiki/Fanlore:Fandom_as_a_Category.

We invite discussion on the new policy at the Fanlore Dreamwidth community here: http://fanlore.dreamwidth.org/23175.html. If there are no problems or issues that require a change, the policy will become final in seven days after posting (4/28/2010).

Thanks!

The academic journal Transformative Works and Cultures, a project of OTW, released its latest issue on March 15, 2010: an issue on Supernatural guest-edited by acafan Catherine Tosenberger. Rush over here to read and comment on the essays! This is the first issue of TWC to focus on a single text.

In addition to academic essays, the issue contains shorter Symposium articles. There are close readings of specific SPN eps and the show as a whole as well as essays that discuss fan-created artworks and fandom itself. We also interviewed SPN profic writer Keith R. A. DeCandido, members of the Super-wiki team, and Wincon organizer Ethrosdemon.

The full press release appears below the cut. Feel free to disseminate widely!

It's that time! Time for a new drive premium!

The OTW, as you may know, is committed to keeping our donors hydrated. Well, maybe not committed, as such, but not standing in anyone's way. And definitely interested in offering donors at levels of US$100 and above a swanky bottle to fill with their beverage of choice. This time, it's a 24 oz. capacity stainless steel water bottle, in a lovely white finish, bedecked with the OTW logo in an ever-stylish and striking red. It's kind of ridiculously sexy, too, with an easy to grip shape and well-fitted screw-on cap. If you find that sort of thing sexy, that is. We won't judge you!

We're still offering a packet of OTW stickers and iron-ons, both useful for transforming your non-OTW related possessions, at a donation level of US$50, and you can opt to get everything -- stickers, iron-ons, and water bottle -- for any donation at or above US$120. We ship donation premiums all over the world. In fact, our premiums-shipping volunteer has been known to particularly enjoy sending packages internationally. We don't judge her, either.

In other news of useful things that you may want to make grabby hands at, we would like to direct your attention to the search bar plugin that resourceful Archive of Our Own user Punk has created! You can now search the AO3 on the whimsy of the moment, going directly to your search results. If you are using Firefox or Internet Explorer 8, you can download the plugin from this page on mozdev.org -- just click the link that says "Archive of Our Own" and answer yes when prompted by the dialogue box. Punk has also pointed out that there's a Fanlore version created by Loren Leah that can be downloaded from mozdev.org as well!

March at the OTW is an exciting month -- we're far enough in to 2010 that we've had time to evaluate our goals and examine our tasks with a fresh eye. We're excited about what we've done so far as an organization and in service of fandom, and we're exhilarated by the possibilities that are just around the corner.

So now, from 9-15 March, we are calling on you to donate. Any amount above US$10 will extend your membership to one year from the most recent donation -- that means if you donate today, you're a member until a year from today. Membership is a way to take part in the work and to accomplish our aims, and anything more you can give helps make our dreams a reality -- our fanworks hosted on servers controlled by fans, on software created for fans, and using fan-created policies. The donations made last March allowed us to buy those servers! \o/ It's an amazing accomplishment, and one we intend to make ever stronger and more sustainable. And we can't do it without you -- your suggestions, energy, hard work, and financial support.

While our members support us, we also want to be clear that we are the sum of our parts -- we are you. The OTW isn't just member-supported; our members are the OTW. We, as fans, want the OTW to reflect our diversity, our globalism, our many voices. Please join us, and bring your friends. Bring the fannish world.

<a href="http://transformativeworks.org/how-you-can-help/support"><img src="http://transformativeworks.org/sites/default/files/memdrive_0.png" alt="9-15 March 2010 OTW Membership Drive" /></a>

We've been accomplishing so much more than we can list for you in a single post! In fact, we'll be posting every day during the drive to spotlight our projects and mission, and to tell you more about why you should help us to sustain our work. The Archive Of Our Own is flourishing in open beta! Transformative Works and Cultures is about to release a much-anticipated issue focusing on Supernatural! Fanlore, where we are recording our history, our (sometimes not-so) common language, our tropes, and our inventions! The zine collections of the Fan Culture Preservation Project! The rescued fansites that make up the Geocities Rescue Project! Advocacy for Vidders and remix artists!

During this drive, we’re also continuing to offer the option of premiums for donations: at a level of US$50 or more you can choose to receive an OTW sticker & iron-on pack, to proudly display your support; at a level of US$100 or more, we're changing things up a little! For the first two days of the March drive (or while they last), we'll continue to offer the OTW insulated travel mug -- beginning 11 March (or as soon as we're out of mugs) we'll roll out an eco-friendly OTW stainless steel water bottle; at US$120, you can opt for either the mug or the bottle (whichever is currently active) along with a sticker & iron-on pack!

Greetings from the OTW Webmasters! We're pleased to announce two changes to our blog on transformativeworks.org that will streamline the user experience. These changes do NOT affect accounts on the Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, or Transformative Works and Cultures.

We're discontinuing user accounts on the OTW blog. Accounts have been a source of confusion for many people and offered little in the way of added features. New account creation is now blocked, and existing accounts will be disabled. Again, this does not affect AO3, Fanlore, or TWC accounts.

You can still leave comments on blog posts — simply enter a name or pseudonym to sign your comment. Existing comments will be preserved. And you can still receive comment notifications via e-mail.

In fact, we've installed a new comment notification system that is more powerful and easier to use. Notification e-mails now include the full comment text, LJ/DW-style, and you no longer have to leave a comment in order to receive notifications. Anyone can watch a post, with or without commenting, by clicking the "Watch this post" link and entering an e-mail address. (Your e-mail address will not be publicly visible.) You can unsubscribe at any time via a link in the notification e-mails or by returning to the post and clicking the "You are watching this post" link.

We hope these changes will make it easier to follow and respond to conversations on the OTW blog. If you have feedback about the website, please feel free to contact the Webmasters Committee.