Here's a roundup of legal and technology audio stories that might be of interest to fans:

• The Baker Street Babes Podcast spoke with OTW Legal Committee member Betsy Rosenblatt about legal issues surrounding fanworks, what the OTW's Legal Advocacy project does, and what makes the AO3 different from other online spaces for fanfic (starting 13 minutes in). The podcast also includes more general musings on the nature of fandoms and the reasons fans want to create fanworks. (No transcript available).
• Various segments relating to intellectual property have been airing on On the Media. Key among these were their interview with the author of Year Zero, a science fiction novel which revolved around how U.S. copyright laws would result in the annihilation of the planet (transcript available), and their segment on how advertising agencies support a musical fanfic industry to avoid paying copyright on the originals (transcript available). They also pointed out the alarming lengths to which corporate entities are going to control brand visibility: "Olympic copyright cops stood ready to enforce the sponsors’ marketing deals" in sporting venues and "London organizers gave businesses a list of key words to avoid" in any advertising. "[W]hat’s interesting about this law is it goes beyond [any] kind of copyright law. This actually introduces a criminal offense, so you could technically be criminally prosecuted. It’s really been described as some of the most draconian legislation in this area that’s ever been introduced." (Transcript available at the link.)
• The measure of draconian lengths may have to keep being revised upwards though. In the past month the Scripps News Service instigated a YouTube takedown against NASA for its video of the landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars. (The video was later restored with an apology). But the effort to control Olympics discussion was less effective against Olympic fans online. The effort by fans at circumventing both broadcast network restrictions as well as national viewing restrictions was the subject of an NPR segment on proxy servers. As Electronic Frontier Foundation representative Mike Stoltz explained, this is the "technology that people use to bypass censorship of the Internet in countries like China and Iran. And it's used by people both in the U.S. and in other countries to watch TV on the Internet that they can't get where they are." Asked if the practice was ethical, Stoltz replied "I think doing something like this in order to avoid paying for something is unethical. Doing something like this to get content that you as a person in the U.S. cannot get any other way is not necessarily unethical, it's more practical." (Transcript available at the link.)

Do you have a fannish technology or legal story to tell? Why not contribute it 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. 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 fanfiction stories that might be of interest to fans:

• MTV's recent announcement of a fan fiction contest for Teen Wolf fandom has had some fans contacting the OTW with concerns about the contest rules. While the content restrictions are pretty wide ranging, OTW Legal Chair Rebecca Tushnet notes that the language does not throw up the kind of concerns seen a few months ago in an audio contest hosted by Random House. She writes:

  "Crucially, it specifies that the rules apply to your entry, and don't require you to say that "all my fanworks are done only with permission" the way Random House did, so it has no effect on your ability to create other Teen Wolf fanworks. Here's the relevant language:

  Entrant shall retain all copyright in and to his/her Essay; provided, however that entrant agrees that by entering into this Contest he/she is granting Sponsor (and any and all of Sponsor’s subsidiaries and affiliates and affiliated broadcast stations and networks, successors and assignees and licensees) the non-exclusive, worldwide irrevocable right and license, but not the obligation, to exhibit, broadcast, copy, reproduce, encode, compress, encrypt, incorporate data into, edit, dub, superimpose, rebroadcast, transmit, record, publicly perform and distribute and synchronize in timed relation to visual elements, the Essays and/or any portions or excerpts thereof....

  This language is broad in what it lets MTV do with your entry, because MTV might not be sure exactly how it's going to deal with the winners. But the language is not broad in what it claims: you just gave MTV a license, and you can't take it back, but that's pretty much the minimum that MTV needs to be confident that it can promote the winning entries.

  One possibility is that they might incorporate your story into a later actual script, whether the story wins or not. A far more likely scenario: a submitted story is broadly similar to a storyline they were going to do anyway. In either case, this language prevents someone who submits a story from successfully suing MTV saying "you used my submission in your canon!" But this is probably a fair trade from the fan's side, though if you wrote for TV you might start to worry about what happens to your salary if this becomes common."

  In short, "Random House treated fan fiction like a foreign and risky thing it wanted to control, but there are alternatives even for official producers engaging with fans."

• At least some in the press are not eager to see more fanfiction making its way across professional borders. In The Independent, columnist John Walsh acknowledges "It wouldn't do to be sniffy about works of fiction that feed off others. Literary history is full of important works that are shameless retellings of others." However there is still panic afoot. "But we might begin to wonder what has become of readers. Once they were content to read a book, enjoy the plot and feel warmth or dislike for the characters. Now, increasing numbers are driven to invade the book's pages, wrestle the characters away from their creator and provide their own plot twists. Most, of course, are wholly unequipped to write their own novel or to handle prose with much grace or vividness. But what happens if, in the free-for-all of online publication, a spin-off book starts to eclipse the original from which it derives?"
• Sometimes, though, those original authors are interested when they have inspired others to create, as is the case with poet Sarah Kay whose work inspired a Teen Wolf fanfic hosted at the AO3. "A friend of mine forwarded me this link and it took me a while to figure out what was going on...this particular entry seems to be a piece based on the TV show “Teen Wolf.” The catch? This author finds a connection between some of the characters on the show and my poem “B.”...I have never seen Teen Wolf before, so I don’t know anything about any of the characters referenced, but the general concept of fan fiction fascinates me."

If you're writing for yourself, others, or fanfic contests, why not include yourself in 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. 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 legal and technology stories that may be of interest to fans.

• While bills such as SOPA and PIPA disappeared from the U.S. legislative landscape earlier this year, they were only the first of many volleys targeting Internet users and companies. There is S.2151 sponsored by Senator John McCain, and the Lieberman-Collins Cyber Security Act or S.3414 which will likely be coming up for a vote soon. A recently proposed amendment to S.3414 would strike all of its section 701 "which provides companies with the explicit right to monitor private user communications and engage in countermeasures." Organizations such as the EFF and the Center for Democracy & Technology oppose these bills as they feel the language is overly broad and that current laws already enable online service providers to protect their networks.
• Speaking of SOPA and PIPA, the coalition of online companies, websites, users and activist organizations who fought those bills realized after that fight that they should enable quick mobilization of their group when future threats arise. As such, they formed the Internet Defense League, which will help spread information around the web through participants hosting a form of bat signal. Anyone with a website can sign up to take part. Online users can take various steps to defend their Internet rights from signing documents to donating to PACs.
• One thing central to Internet freedoms is keeping the means of production in the hands of as many people as possible. To that end, things like Google's video production workshops are a plus for fans and general online users alike as is the availability of the Creative Commons content on YouTube. Cathy Casserly, CEO of Creative Commons (CC) urged those with content on the site to "select 'Creative Commons Attribution license' from the 'License and rights ownership. menu." You can now also choose to "license your future videos under CC BY as a default."
• One example of the extent of transmedia, or stories created across multiple formats, is discussed by Jan Bozarth, whose Fairy Godmother Academy began as an eight book series for Random House, but quickly expanded into live events, music, and even its own dance movement. Her projects seek to enable girls to utilize technology for their own storytelling. "We all agree that we are not our iPods, iPads, Dr. Drea’s, or Thom’s. They are US. We live in the real world, but it’s got to be a world of our making and those tools help." Her project goal was "to deliver a multi dimensional story, in multiple forms, to a multi-tasking audience, who really just wants to write their own movie and star in it." She also realizes the story is only hers to start, not finish. "I can’t really own [the stories] once they are assimilated into a culture that consumes ideas only to transform, transmute and re-create. My biggest audience may or may not be born yet but my hope is that they will someday dance, sing and write some version of my story and send it back to me in another form that hasn’t even been invented yet. What lives on is the re-creation."

If you have things to discuss about fandom and the internet or transformational fandom, why not write about it in 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 at transformativeworks.org. 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.

There are a number of discussions in fan circles right now regarding the Random House Audio Fan Fiction Contest being held at this year's San Diego Comic-Con International. The publisher is offering fan fiction authors the opportunity to record their own original work of fan fiction during Comic-Con for a chance to have their work published as a downloadable audio book on their website or featured in a Random House podcast.

The Organization for Transformative Works was initially contacted by Random House in May asking if the OTW could help promote the contest through its various news outlets. At that time, we asked for additional details - including the terms of the contest and a copy of the participant agreement. Random House responded indicating that the details were not yet complete, but that it would forward the requested information once it was available. That was the last direct communication we received from the publisher two months ago.

Over the past few days, the OTW has received inquiries from fans regarding the terms of the contest, particularly the Submission Form/Release participants are being asked to sign. We suggest that participants should carefully read and consider the terms before signing the agreement. The form asks participants to acknowledge that they have no right to create their fan fiction--even fan fiction they're not submitting to the contest--without permission from the author of the original work (for example, "I acknowledge and agree that I may not use the Underlying Copyrighted Work, in any other manner or for any other purpose."). We think that's not accurate, and we think it's unfortunate that Random House isn't fully supporting the freedom of fans to create noncommercial transformative works. Language like this, though it doesn't bind people who don't participate, also has the potential to increase confusion over fair use. In the future, it would be much more fan-friendly to use principles like those of Creative Commons licenses, which specifically provide that they don't attempt to restrict fair use.

The form also says that submissions are "works made for hire," which is a specific category in U.S. law: the creator of a "work for hire" is never considered an author; the person or entity for whom the work was created is deemed to be the author. While we aren't convinced that it's possible to call a submission like this a work for hire, that's not really the issue; the form provides that even if the submission isn't really a work for hire the fan author still gives up all her rights. The overall terms reflect the view of some authors and publishers that all transformative works inherently 'belong' to the publisher who bought rights to the original work. Of course even standard publishing contracts involve trading away many rights of authorship, but signing over all rights to one's creative work is not a decision that should be entered into lightly.

The Organization for Transformative Works is always excited to see recognition of talented fans involved in the creation of transformative works. At the same time, however, it is important that fans be well-informed, especially as publishers experiment with new models and sometimes try to assert greater control over fan activities. We would suggest that interested fans read the agreement carefully and consider their level of comfort in complying with its terms.