• Michelle Dean wrote in Flavorwire about why Kurt Vonnegut should not be part of Kindle Worlds. "The fights about identity politics in the fan-fiction community make those in good, old real world politics child’s play — which mostly tells you how crucially important those debates are to a great many people. There is, I am saying, in the better bits of fan-fiction a desire for a truly 'transformative' use. And it’s one we might do well to respect — even if we are in charge of some of the most prestigious literary estates in the country."
• Fans are becoming more active in demanding their rights to fair use of their entertainment. But fans can also be confused about what steps they should take to protect themselves and which rights to assert. Business 2 Community published a set of legal myths about fanfiction, though the author noted she was not an attorney. The myths included believing that disclaimers protect you, and believing that fanfiction can't be plagiarized.
• HuffPost Live hosted a discussion about the legality of fanfiction with various authors including Naomi Novik. In response to a discussion about how permissiveness varies from author to author, she pointed out "I'm one of the founders of The Organization for Tranformative Works, which is a non-profit that works to protect the rights of fan creators. And the Archive of Our Own is based on the principle that people do have the right under fair use protection in the U.S. to write transformative, non-commercial works of fanfiction, whether or not the author consents." Comparing fanfiction to the right of readers to review a work of fiction, she said "We generally recognize that people have the right to respond as they want." (No transcript available)
• While hosting content digitally has made sharing fanworks easier and broadened the possibilities of who can take part, when a site used by fans closes or is sold, very often content posted there gets lost as was the case for Bebo users. In the end, the right to create needs to go hand-in-hand with the ability to share and preserve.

What discussion have you seen about legal aspects of fanworks? Write about it in Fanlore! Contributions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent OTW Fannews post. Links are welcome in all languages! Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.

After we announced the successful matching grant in Sandy Herrold's name we received this note from her partner Brie Gyncild. Now that we've wiped away our tears, we are reposting with her permission, to pass the message on to our community.

Hey there, I'm Sandy's partner.

I heard about the matching grant in Sandy's name, and since I don't know who donated the money (or all the other donations that were made in Sandy's honor), I'll ask you to pass on my gratitude. Sandy was deeply excited and passionate about OTW and the Archive of Our Own. In the weeks preceding her death, we talked a lot about how to make sure the archive got money. She decided that the most effective thing to do would be to list it as one of the organizations people could give to in her memory. I don't think she expected gifts so large - but she also underestimated her importance to the fannish community and to the world in general. I am thrilled that OTW is receiving generous donations, period - but even moreso that Sandy's memory has something to do with it.

On a metaphysical note, I've been feeling Sandy's presence very strongly in the house today, so I read her the blog posts about the grant. I know she's thrilled, too.

Thank you for the good work you're all doing.

Brie Gyncild

* The big news of the day: YouTube founders buy Delicious from Yahoo; this is also the big story on the blog at delicious.com. So far, there's not much in the way of details, though geek.com is reporting that users will have the ability to opt out when the service changes hands.

* Fans, beware: Tumblr may push you out of your account name without warning if a corporation decides it wants it. danah boyd is reporting that Tumblr moved her account without notice or warning at the behest of a corporate entity who had trademarked her long-term internet handle, "zephoria." Gawker.com reports another case in their story Tumblr Screws Hipster Underclass to Appease Hipster Overlords at Pitchfork, reporting that the person who blogged at pitchfork before Pitchfork Magazine got involved was moved, without permission or notice, to pitchfork1.tumblr.com.

* New Zealand snuck a '3 strikes you're out' copyright law into a larger emergency bill meant to help earthquake victims. Not only are these new amendments to the Copyright Act widely disliked, but there is resentment against the process of attaching them to an urgent emergency bill. A series of protests are planned for May 1st.

* Alison Croggon's talk, The Rise of the Amateur, is now online; in it, Croggon argues that the internet has created new excitement in the arts - both in terms of amateur art and amateur criticism.

* The Atlantic has published an interview with Kembrew McLeod, co-author of Creative License: The Law and Culture of Digital Sampling, called, How Copyright Law Hurts Music, From Chuck D to Girl Talk .

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, event, or link you think we should know about you can submit it in three easy ways: comment on the most recent Link Roundup on transformativeworks.org, LJ, or DW, tag a link with "for:otw_news" on Delicious or give @OTW_News a shoutout on Twitter. Links are welcome in all languages!

Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.

The OTW has been told that fanfiction.net is removing fanfic written for the HBO show True Blood; we have given Archive of Our Own codes to the writers who contacted us and want to remind fandom at large that right now, most people who sign up for an account get one within 48 hours. Please spread the word if you have connections in True Blood fandom - and of course all fandoms are welcome! (We currently have 5,352!)

We also are sorry for those fans who lost their accounts when Blogetery.com, a Wordpress hosting site with over 70,000 blogs, shut down. BurstNet, the web hosting company who own the Blogetery.com servers, say that they shut down the site after receiving 'a notice of a critical nature from law enforcement officials'. The BBC and C-Net report that the shutdown was due to terrorist-related activity on Blogetry involving possible links to al-Qaeda.

While the nature of the material posted on Blogetry makes it understandable that BurstNet shold take immediate action, this has left the great bulk of users not knowing when or if they'll regain access to their accounts.

If you or someone you know hosted fanfic on Blogetry, please consider hosting or backing up your work at the Archive of Our Own; again, most people who join the queue get accounts within 48 hours.