Here's a roundup of stories on collaborative fan activity that might be of interest to fans:

• Comic Book Movie announced that ""The Batman" will be a FANMADE series released on the internet" and asked for suggestions from fans as to the animated movie's content.
• Soaps.com asks for contributions for fan fiction citing the many stalled storylines of cancelled soap series. "We’ve lost so many of our soap operas in the past few years. Fans are missing the soap characters they’ve grown accustomed to seeing each day over the years. With that in mind, Soaps.com decided to bring your beloved characters, and not so beloved characters back to life via Fan Fiction."
• Unleash the Fanboy announced that a new Star Wars fan film was "groundbreaking" because "a group of Spanish-speaking fanboys made a Star Wars themed flick about two lovers…who happen to be stormtroopers."
• The MarySue posted about how a fan film had topped the annual recommendations made by those in the entertainment industry. "Much like The Black List, the Viewfinder List recognizes short form video content and the up and coming helmers responsible for it.”" The live-action short film, Portal: No Escape, got the most recommendations. "Even if you don’t play the video game it’s based on, it’s a really spectacular thing to watch."
• Lastly, Think Progress took note of collaborative fan action on a different front, that of speaking out against SOPA. "I suspect that as fandom becomes an increasingly important basis for identity or community, we’ll see more work and organizations along these lines where the values that motivate service are drawn less explicitly from political parties or religious faith and more from powerful fictional texts."
  

If you write fan fiction are part of Batman, gaming, or soap opera fandom, or have taken a stand against SOPA, why not contribute your fandom experience to Fanlore? Additions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, event, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent Links Roundup — on transformativeworks.org, LJ, or DW — 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.

Here are a few action alerts that might be of interest to fans:

• Many fans have used bookmarking sites such as del.icio.us to keep track of fan works they want to read, have viewed, or want to return to. Many more fans have also used one another's lists to find new material. However, this functionality and fannish history may soon be lost once Delicious completes its transfer to new ownership. Fans wanting to save their bookmarks for their own use and that of others have until September 23 to authorize migration of their data to the new website or transfer it to another service.
• Last week two authors attempting to publish a novel with a diverse representation of characters encountered a specific response from an agent suggesting that there is no market for gay characters in young adult (YA) literature. Their response was to ask that readers make their voices heard about what they want to see published. YA author Malinda Lo posted a follow-up providing statistics on how much YA literature contains queer representations and who is doing the publishing.

If you use bookmarking sites as part of your fannish habits or are part of YA literature fandoms, why not contribute your experiences to Fanlore? Contributions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, event, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent Links Roundup — on transformativeworks.org, LJ, or DW — 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 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 belatedly joins in celebrating the restoration of Glockgal's Avatar site on Zazzle. As you may remember, Glockgal's store was TOSed ostensibly for violating Viacom's intellectual property rights, even though Glockgal's items were mostly textual expressions of her critique of the all-white casting of the new live-action Avatar film. Viacom was quick to assert that they support fair use and only take things down when they aren't creative or political; they also invited Glockgal to submit a DMCA counternotice. The OTW was happy to help Glockgal formulate and direct that counternotice, and we have been so delighted to see people from all around the internet banding together to take a stand against unfair takedowns. This (relatively speedy!) victory is a victory for all of us and proof that banding together and defending our rights works.

The takeaway? If someone is infringing YOUR free speech or fair use rights, SAY SOMETHING. TELL SOMEONE!