Intellectual property

Here's a roundup of stories on the benefits of collective fandom that might be of interest to fans:

• An article targeted at chief information officers cited an Australian study showing that the internet can promote the literacy development of young adults. "Curwood analysed the participation of teenagers in fan-created sites of young adult literature, such as Mockingjay.net, ThePotterGames.net and HungerGamesTrilogy.net. "Young people fall in love with these books and seek out other fans online,” she said. “In their own time they write Hunger Games-inspired fiction, create art, produce videos, compose music, and design role-playing games.""
• Former OTW board member Rachel Barenblat recently wrote about Transformative Work: Midrash and Fanfiction. "Judaism has long been a read/write tradition. We are not expected to be passive recipients of revelation; we are expected to join the conversation." Similarly, "The tradition of derivative works (artistic creations which are rooted in other people’s art) is as old as literature itself. But what makes fanfiction unlike Virgil’s retelling of Homer or Alice Randall’s The Wind Done Gone (which recasts and reframes Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With The Wind) is that fanfiction arises within the context of community."
• The article Excitement builds for pop subculture events throughout the South focused on the positive. "Many conventioneers said attending their first event showed them that, specialized or not, other people shared their interest in niche subjects. The experience, they said, was often revelatory and had a profound impact on them socially." One long-time con-goer concluded "Whatever misconceptions people have, any kind of convention is an opportunity for people to get together and enjoy each other's company."
• Although not solely a fandom issue, back on January 24 we posted about activity surrounding ACTA, an international treaty which has potentially large implications for the current state of copyright and intellectual property enforcement. Over this past weekend, numerous protests took place in Europe to speak out against this treaty, whose negotiations, and indeed exact content, has been kept secret. A German site to protest ACTA counted over 121,000 participants in numerous cities across Germany, and this report of actions in Italy also reveals large turnouts. This site map gives a much clearer view of the range of protest activity, and those interested may want to peruse the numerous videos and photos linked to the protest organization wiki or sign a protest petition. (Thanks to senior_witch for the link collection).

If you are a Hunger Games fan, write fan fiction or attend conventions, why not contribute 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'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.

In a week following widespread Internet protests against proposed legislation in the U.S., there is an effort going on internationally to protest the potential effects of ACTA. The OTW is concerned about this treaty which has potentially large implications but about which there has been very little information. "In October 2007, the United States, the European Community, Switzerland, and Japan simultaneously announced that they would negotiate a new intellectual property enforcement treaty the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement or ACTA. Australia, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Mexico, Jordan, Morocco, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, and Canada have joined the negotiations."

"The main problem with this treaty is that all the negociations are done secretly. Leaked documents show that one of the major goals of the treaty is to force signatory countries into implementing anti file-sharing policies under the form of three-strikes schemes and net filtering practices."

Tell your MEPs and government representatives you want more transparency before this is voted on. Here are some places where you can take action:

• Help sign the Written Declaration about ACTA
• Direct.Gov's UK petition
• Whitehouse.Gov's US petition
• E-petition (Deutsch)
• Suggested guidelines for contacting representatives

Here's a roundup of stories on legal actions that might be of interest to fans:

• Many fans who were not already aware of the proposed SOPA and PIPA bills in the U.S. legislature became aware of them along with much of the rest of the online community after last week's blackout day of protest in which numerous sites, including those of the OTW, either went dark or sported banners in opposition to the bills. Individual fans also blacked out their own sites or, like blogger Serena Wilken at the Huffington Post, wrote about how fandom might suffer if this legislation was enacted.
• Some fans have already been affected by anti-piracy efforts. The Wall Street Journal reported that "The Federal Bureau of Investigation shut down Thursday one of the world's most popular file-sharing websites, MegaUpload.com, and announced the arrest of four of the people behind it in a global crackdown against the suspected online pirates." Online locker services are heavily used by fans engaged in transformative works such as podfic recordings, music videos, collections of artwork, or even single story fan fiction downloads intended for eReaders. The sites targeted by local law enforcement were located in various countries, a demonstration of the international scope of U.S. enforcement efforts.
• Unfortunately, government actions against "piracy" are only part of how fandom may be impacted by legal activity. In a disappointing ruling on January 18, the same day as the Internet blackouts, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that works in the public domain could be put back under copyright. While the change is intended in part to standardize international copyrights, and thus equalize the standing of foreign creators under U.S. law, this change will also affect numerous artists, musicians and other creators utilizing works previously in the public domain.

If you are concerned about copyright or use file sharing services, why not contribute your experiences 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's a roundup of stories on intellectual property issues that might be of interest to fans:

• Last month Crunchyroll.com reported that in a countrywide effort, police in Japan "arrested 30 people on suspicion of using file-sharing software" calling it "the largest simultaneous enforcement by the Japanese police against illegal uploaders ever." Tech entrepreneur Andy Baio concluded that young voters may be key to changing the criminalization of remix culture, and dubbed the current efforts against "piracy" as a new Prohibition. Certainly industries that have a stranglehold on entertainment distribution are able to keep increasing costs to fans and the effects are not limited to the young. A pop music critic writing about the rising cost of rock fandom noted "I’d love to continue the path I’ve been following since early adolescence, when my full membership in the rock-lover’s club began. But I’m just not sure I can afford it anymore."
• The Electronic Frontier Foundation recently filed exemption requests to the DMCA which "asked for legal protections for artists and critics who use excerpts from DVDs or downloading services to create new, remixed works." These exemptions build on and expand exemptions that EFF won last year. "In drafting the requests, EFF had the invaluable assistance of the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Organization for Transformative Works."
• A post at TorrentFreak discovered illegal downloading being done by employees at major studios such as Sony, Universal, and FOX. "We aren’t the only ones to come up with the idea of revealing the BitTorrent habits of copyright advocates. Yesterday, the Dutch blog Geenstijl exposed how someone at the local music royalty collecting agency Buma/Stemra downloaded a copy of the TV-show Entourage and video game Battlefield 3." The company's response suggested that their IP-addresses were spoofed, an unlikely but welcome explanation since "if it’s so easy to spoof an IP-address, then accused file-sharers can use this same defense against copyright holders."
• To those interested in learning more about these issues some recent book reviews noted fans' stake in the discussion. The Times Higher Education in the UK discussed Fan Fiction and Copyright: Outsider Works and Intellectual Property Protection (citing the OTW's Rebecca Tushnet) and The Learned Fangirl reviewed Free Ride: How Digital Parasites are Destroying the Culture Business, and How the Culture Business Can Fight Back.

If you are interested in intellectual property issues such as fair use and the DMCA why not contribute 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.

The OTW alerted fans back in October to the introduction of bills in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives that threatened fair use and fan practices on online sites, and later urged fans to make their voices heard regarding this alarming legislation.

There is now information about the OPEN act, an alternative to SOPA. This draft bill not only addresses some of the problems raised by SOPA and the Protect-IP Act, but "the proponents of the Open Act (Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.) aren't afraid (and, in fact, are anxious) to hear from the many folks who care about the future of the Internet. So, they have opened up the entire law-writing process. Right now, you can go to KeepTheWebOpen.com and read the draft bill for yourself (which we encourage you to do) and make comments and suggestions to improve the draft language."

Besides contributing your input you can also learn more about the differences in the bills from a handy chart on the site, as well as their FAQ.

For those interested in continuing to express opposition to SOPA, the EFF has suggestions on activities for bloggers and artists, as well as continuing to urge people to contact their elected representatives.

Here's a roundup of stories on art and entertainment business models that might be of interest to fans:

• In a series of posts, media scholar Henry Jenkins featured transmedia designer and theorist Brian Clark's discussion about business models for entertainment including "Fan Incubation" and "Fan Funding." "In the past, fan development was slow (for example, the way fan correspondence saved H.P. Lovecraft's works from disappearing) or physical (like the "make record and tour college towns" model of independent musicians like John Vanderslice). The age of the Internet has revolutionized the ability for creators and fans to have rich, meaningful interactions that have led to successes."
• Many fans have embraced the idea of Creative Commons licenses for their work, but as this article points out, its terms are often misunderstood and misused. "Creative Commons has been a force for good on the web, letting people share their work with others and making it easier to let them define the terms of that sharing." However, "what does “noncommercial” mean? Creative Commons isn’t very helpful here. Their definition of “commercial” is “in any manner that is primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or private monetary compensation.”...Selling the photo would certainly seem to count as “commercial.” But is using the photo on a web page that also has ads on it — is that commercial?"
• Another post points out "Wired isn’t the only for-profit publisher using noncommercial CC images." Confusion exists over the purpose of a business and the use of a particular work. "[T]he question is whether noncommercial means the same thing as nonprofit. A nonprofit institution can still buy and sell things; a for-profit institution can engage in lots of behavior that isn’t explicitly commercial." As one science photographer pointed out "Creative Commons only functions properly when both content creators and content users have the same understanding of the simplified CC contract." This certainly calls into question how useful YouTube's move in June was to allow users to embed Creative Commons licenses, even beyond the fact that they only enabled one form of the license, which allows commercial re-use of the work.

If you use Creative Commons licenses or are interested in fannish business models, why not contribute 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's a roundup of stories on corporate decision making affecting gamers that might be of interest to fans:

• Scottish journalist Rachael Carmen Simpson reported on a video game freebie for the game Assassin’s Creed that was offered only to those using a male avatar. "Essentially this is the online equivalent of [her sister] Eleanor visiting a real life game shop offering free cloaks with a purchase and being told she can’t have one as she is the wrong gender."
• Microsoft has made changes to its X-Box consoles that prevents people from playing pirated games. Microsoft "made the silent update without user consent and without many being aware that it actually took place at all" and there are concerns that Microsoft will follow this with mass bans. "The last time Microsoft had carried out mass ban [sic] was in 2009, when the company had banned Xbox Live accounts playing pirated versions of Halo Reach. The company also does not approve of consoles that have been modded by users."
• A non-profit organization ""dedicated to the appreciation and promotion of video game music as an art form,"" had its YouTube account suspended. While asking their users to protest the decision, the community's manager stated "We're all volunteers, and all of the work we've done since 1999 on OverClocked ReMix is to help promote the art of video game music, as well as the great musicians who create the OC ReMixes, which have always been distributed for free and with the artists' permission.""

If you are part of a gaming fandom or have experienced a YouTube takedown of your fannish work, why not share your experiences on 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's a roundup of stories providing a a look at fan and creator interactions that might be of interest to fans:

• In the KUOW podcast To Be A Fan Is To Be In Love: 3 Films About Fandom, music writer and DJ Hannah Levin spoke about the "tribalism" of Judas Priest fans shown in the documentary "Heavy Metal Parking Lot." She cited how the fans saw the band they follow as the leaders of their community, and thus had very high expectations for them. The expectation of fans is also at the root of "The People vs. George Lucas" in which the storyline of Anakin Skywalker is compared to Lucas' career trajectory. Levin suggests that fans' own age and nostalgia is at the root of much of their disaffection with the first trilogy of the Star Wars franchise. She concludes by discussing "Almost Famous" the semi-autobiographical film by Cameron Crowe and how his ambition to be a rock journalist is at war with his innate fannishness. Levin identifies with Crowe's character, stating she was also determined to protect her inner fangirl when she followed the same career path. (Links to the films, including a full viewing of the heavy metal documentary, are available at the website.)
• Wired magazine also focused on the Lucas documentary by interviewing the creator, who stated "I’ve always been fascinated by the uniquely dysfunctional relationship between George Lucas and his fans." While those in other fandoms might disagree about the uniqueness of the relationship, they might identify with his frustration: "Why would George care, when the message that the fans send him is that they’ll buy anything he releases– even if they don’t like it?"
• A NY Times article looks at the financial exchange between creators and fans on a different front: the California Resale Royalties Act, which requires "anyone reselling a piece of fine art who lives in the state, or who sells the art there for $1,000 or more, to pay the artist 5 percent of the resale price." The law is at the heart of several recent lawsuits, as it is neither well understood nor generally adhered to as it stands in contrast to more common copyright law. A post at Freakonomics noted that the law tended to benefit wealthier artists and like California's law on "“right of publicity” that gives living and dead people alike (in the latter case, through their heirs) the right to control commercial use of his or her likeness, name, image or identity" came about because the most likely beneficiaries resided in the state.

If you are part of Star Wars or music fandom, why not contribute 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's a roundup of stories about community actions on SOPA that might be of interest to fans:

• The OTW first posted about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) last month, and on November 16th there were protests by various groups online against the bill's language. "This is garnering a reaction from across the political spectrum, proving that this is beyond partisan politics — this affects everyone who uses the internet, happens to be a fan of anything, and likes to tell people about it on the internet. It will start with site shutdowns, and maybe no one will go to prison or even pay a fine. But with the passage of this bill, there would be nothing stopping corporations from finding someone with a high-quality, DIY tribute video on YouTube and bringing them to court, where the government will tell that person: “Under PROTECT-IP and SOPA, you are a criminal for using this content without permission."
• November 16th actions occurred on various sites. Tumblr alerted its users by creating censorship bars on user accounts and then asked them to phone Congress. The effort generated nearly 88,000 calls. Reddit, 4chan, and Canvas "blacked out their logos in solidarity with American Censorship Day, a nationwide movement urging people to raise their voices in opposition." Twitter was also active as the hashtag #SOPA was tweeted more than 54,000 times in 24 hours.

If you live in the U.S. and are part of online internet communities, or create fannish works, the OTW urges you to contact your elected representatives in Congress and let them know you oppose the PROTECT-IP Act (Senate version) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) (House of Representatives). There is also a petition at WhiteHouse.gov to "Stop the E-PARASITE Act" that you can sign.

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.