Technology

  • OTW Fannews: Numbers of fanworks

    By Claudia Rebaza on Sunday, 26 January 2014 - 8:42pm
    Message type:
    News of Note
    Tags:
    Studies, DMCA, Gaming, Books, Fannish Practices, Fanfiction , Technology

    Banner by Erin of a close up of Harry Potter with his lightning scar turned into a rising line on a graph

    • A study of primarily gaming-related fanworks was posted on Gamasutra. The study "used empirical methods to investigate how contemporary user-generated content ('UGC') platforms and practices related to United States copyright law. The motivation for the project was the relative absence of data about the copyright status of most UGC and competing claims about UGC’s predominant nature."
    • The researchers interviewed both fans and game creators and found that "There is, apparently, not very much 'groupthink' among our industry respondents about questions of IP, fair use, and user-generated content." Many also really enjoyed User Generated Content. However, industry pros creating fanworks prior to becoming paid assumed that most game players are not like them. "25% agreed that 'UGC is appealing only to a minority of gamers.'" In fact, when gamers were asked "if they had ever created new content related to video games...70% stated that they had. They reported that they spent, on average, about 5 hours per week creating content related to video games."
    • The researchers compared activity by gamers to that of fans of other mediums, specifically Harry Potter story activity on Mugglenet and Fanfiction.net. "Though we were tempted to code for works that were parodies or that somehow altered the meaning of Harry Potter, we doubted that there would or should be a clear dividing line between infringing and non-infringing fan fiction practices."
    • Researchers also "asked respondents about the fair use doctrine in the United States. 91% were aware of the doctrine. We asked those respondents if they thought fair use rights should be broaden[sic], narrowed, or if they should remain the same...64% thought it should be broadened, 26% said it should be narrowed, and 10% had no opinion."
    • Wattpad also released numbers about fan activity. "The Wattpad community spent 87 million minutes each day reading and sharing stories from their phones and tablets last year. Readers also created more than 4.4 million story covers and YouTube trailers to support their favorite stories and writers on Wattpad." The site considers mobile access vital to their success, as "85 percent of time spent on Wattpad is via a phone or tablet. Half of the writers on Wattpad have written a story from a phone or tablet."

    What fandom studies have you seen? Write about them on 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.

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  • OTW Fannews: Takedowns from all sides

    By Claudia Rebaza on Tuesday, 21 January 2014 - 7:39pm
    Message type:
    News of Note
    Tags:
    Intellectual Property, Takedowns, Commercial Works Authors, Gaming, Books, Fanfiction , Technology, YouTube

    Banner by Bremo of the post title curving as if it's sliding down a wall.

    • Forbes was one of many sites discussing YouTube's crackdown on fans who use video game footage to review or discuss games. "So at the same time as two major console makers are integrating video sharing into their systems, YouTube is cracking down on the video game community. Of course, YouTube’s response to this is vague and unhelpful...Now a number of video game publishers such as Ubisoft, Paradox Interactive and Capcom have stated publicly that people should fight the copyright claims, understanding full well the win-win situation for all involved."
    • On another front, booksellers are censoring erotica writers. "Some U.K.-based ebook retailers responded with public apologies, and WHSmith went so far as to shut down its website altogether, releasing a statement saying that it would reopen 'once all self-published eBooks have been removed and we are totally sure that there are no offending titles available.' The response in the U.S. was somewhat more muted, but most of the retailers mentioned in the piece, including Amazon and Barnes & Noble, began quietly pulling hundreds of titles from their online shelves." The reasons why were never stated. "'I'd get an email from them saying, 'We found the following books in violation of our content guidelines,' she recalls. 'But they wouldn't tell me why. There were no specifics.'"
    • If copyright or censorship fears weren't enough, apparently the study of erotic fiction is being targeted by some government cost-cutters. "The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded $914,000 to help fund The Popular Romance Project since 2010, an ongoing study that explores 'the fascinating, often contradictory origins and influences of popular romance as told in novels, films, comics, advice books, songs, and internet fan fiction.'...The grants are highlighted in the 2013 'Wastebook,' an annual report ...that highlights taxpayer-subsidized programs that...are questionable or unnecessary, especially during a time when lawmakers are viciously debating spending levels and how to trim the nation’s $17 trillion debt."
    • Meanwhile Slate's Future Tense blog looked at How Artificial Intelligence Might Monetize Fan Fiction. "A fan fiction writer e-publishes a story he wrote using the main characters, a vegan vampire who runs a butcher shop and a werewolf who turns into a plumber at full moon. His book sells millions of downloads, too. Did the fan fiction writer do anything prohibited by law? Not necessarily. As U.S. copyright law anticipates only human authors, it is reasonable to read it as providing no copyright protection to authors that are not human. The fan fiction writer can use the Super Potter Brothers characters as much as he wants; they’re in the public domain. Anyone can use them and make money from them, including the movie studios."

    What fandom takedown cases have you seen? Write about them on 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.

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  • OTW Fannews: Home of the tech

    By Claudia Rebaza on Wednesday, 8 January 2014 - 8:13pm
    Message type:
    News of Note
    Tags:
    Music, Television, Fannish Practices, Fanfiction , Technology

    Banner by caitie of the OTW logo being lifted by multiple Twitter birds

    • Tech developers are taking note of people's interest in using all sorts of platforms for storytelling. AuthorBee is targeting those using Twitter clients (or AuthorBee's own web interface) "to create, co-create and curate rich, long-form stories with their followers." Targeting both professionals and amateurs the company states "'A story can really be anything...it can be breaking news, fan fiction or poetry. It can also be a travel log, a Haiku, a hip-hop song or a chocolate chip cookie recipe. What matters is the common interest or passion shared by the contributors.'"

    • Kik, on the other hand, took note of its existing users and decided to market to them. Digiday reported "Behold, the power of boyband fans": "'Kik mentioned that "One Direction" was one of the most discussed things on the app, so we brought that opportunity to Sony Music,' said Eytan Oren, director of partnerships at the IPG Media Lab." Noting that marketers need to pay attention to who is using what and how, another IPG spokesman said "You can’t be a professional and ignore where emerging channels are focused."
    • The New Republic explored the effect Netflix is having on television and the lifespan of entertainment products, concluding that it is following a fandom model. "When you meet someone with the same particular passions and sensibility, the sense of connection can be profound. Smaller communities of fans, forged from shared perspectives, offer a more genuine sense of belonging than a national identity born of geographical happenstance. Whether a future based fundamentally on fandom is superior in any objective sense is impossible to say...Certainly, a culture where niche supplants mass hews closer to the original vision of the Americas, of a new continent truly open to whatever diverse and eccentric groups showed up."

    How have you seen technology affecting fandom? Write about it on 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.

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  • OTW Fannews: Social media wins and losses

    By Claudia Rebaza on Wednesday, 18 December 2013 - 5:01pm
    Message type:
    News of Note
    Tags:
    Gaming, Movies, Music, Fannish Practices, Technology

    Banner by Erin of the post title next to an image of Tom Hiddleston leaping from behind the Tumblr logo to nab the Twitter bird

    • With both fans and entertainment projects utilizing social media, it's important to understand the playing field. Mashable cited Dr.Who for knowing "How to Keep Secrets in a Social Media World" while The Guardian looked at Tom Hiddleston's publicity skills. "Hiddleston though doesn't seem to be going through the motions, which is why it works. Like Jennifer Lawrence, his is an unfiltered realness that is fast becoming the ultimate asset in post-Twitter, post-PR Hollywood."

    • Aside from celebrities utilizing social media to go straight to the audience, Mirror Online's use of a One Direction fan to write about 1D day will likely be one of many efforts to connect to fans' by utilizing their voices in published pieces.
    • Not Literally Productions used fandom's practices to create a parody version of Icona Pop's "I Don't Care," titled "I Ship It", and are offering the single for sale, moving from social media to commerce.
    • The Verge discussed how facilitating more connectivity among fans can backfire. Sony PlayStation 4's 'Playroom' allowed users to broadcast themselves to other gamers. "Sony was seen to be rushing to slam its ear to the ground, picking up current video-game trends without truly understanding them." As a result, "[t]he rise, rapid descent, and subsequent banning of The Playroom on Twitch is a lesson for Sony. Racing to be part of the fastest-growing subsection of the largest entertainment medium in the world is more difficult when the people who inhabit that space already are entrenched, and have their own specific ways of doing things. As for the worrying content: it may just be human nature that given a camera and a means to communicate, we'll do so in a way that is by turns ingenious and disturbing."

    What social media fandom trends have you been seeing? Write about them on 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.

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  • OTW Fannews: Fandom in classrooms & history

    By Claudia Rebaza on Sunday, 15 December 2013 - 8:37pm
    Message type:
    News of Note
    Tags:
    Academia, Studies, Education and Curriculum, Comics, Zines, Open Doors Committee, Technology

    Banner by caitie of the post title written in chalk on a green chalkboard

    • A post on the New York Times' Learning Network discussed students confronting 'what ifs' in classwork. "In this lesson, students will discuss how they 'read' their favorite television shows in order to make predictions about what will happen, then apply these skills to speculate about what happens to literary characters after their favorite novels or plays end. Finally, they will use the inferences they gain through close reading to create imagined futures for these characters in comic strips, next chapters, letters, journals or videos."

    • Fandom scholar Henry Jenkins' hosted an exploration of comics fandom in Poland on his blog. "In the 'Participatory Poland' report a group of Polish aca-fen makes a preliminary attempt towards defining the specificity of an Eastern European country’s participatory culture shaped both in the communist and post-communist periods. By placing the development of selected fan-based activities against a broader socio-historical background, we are trying to capture the interplay between the global and the local context of participatory culture, as well as take preliminary steps towards making its Polish branch available for academic research."
    • Pinboard creator Maciej Cegłowski gave a presentation titled "Fan is a Tool-Using Animal" on fandom communities online and their use of bookmarks. He discussed his interest in having fans come to his site after observing their intriguing use of Del.icio.us, but due to their attachment to the site he had no luck until the site changed enough to drive fans away. He also spoke about the importance of fandom culture and its endurance over time. "Part of the reason our television sucks less than it used to is because people are more sophisticated about the way they watch them...fandom analyzes this stuff to death and deconstructs it...and this percolates back into the culture." (Audio only)
    • The University of Iowa, which houses Open Doors' Fan Culture Preservation Project, released a video about the Doctor Who fanzines in their Special Collections & Archives to celebrate the show's 50th anniversary. Although there is no transcript available, the post description includes a mini guide to the collection.

    What academic explorations of fandom have you come across? Write about them on 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.

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  • OTW Fannews: Legal stands

    By Claudia Rebaza on Saturday, 14 December 2013 - 10:55pm
    Message type:
    News of Note
    Tags:
    Education and Curriculum, Intellectual Property, Takedowns, Movies, Technology
    • Online platform WordPress recently took a stand against abuse of DMCA takedown notices. They decided to join with journalists using the site in a suit "for damages under Section 512(f) of the DMCA, which allows for suits against those who 'knowingly materially misrepresent' a case of copyright infringement. Until there are some teeth to the copyright laws, it’s up to us — websites and users, together — to stand up to DMCA fraud and protect freedom of expression...We’ll also be actively involved, on behalf of our users, in trying to change the law — both through court cases and in Congress — to make sure that everyone has the right to share their voice on the internet without threat of censorship."

    • The University of New Hampshire's student newspaper reported on a challenge to courses using pop culture texts. "Over the summer, UNH offered an online class to children grades four through eight using Harry Potter to teach the kids grammar and literature tools. Warner Brothers, however, sent the university a cease and desist letter regarding some of its copyrighted material." The "cease and desist letter asked UNH to change the class so that those interested in it did not think Warner Brothers sponsored the course."
    • Fans interested in learning more about copyright can take a free non-credit online course. "CopyrightX is a twelve-week networked course, offered each Spring under the auspices of Harvard Law School, the HarvardX distance-learning initiative, and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. The course explores the current law of copyright and the ongoing debates concerning how that law should be reformed. Through a combination of pre-recorded lectures, weekly seminars, live webcasts, and online discussions, participants in the course examine and assess the ways in which law seeks to stimulate and regulate creative expression." Registration begins December 13.

    What legal fandom issues have you become aware of? Write about them on 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.

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  • OTW Fannews: Troubling tech issues

    By Claudia Rebaza on Saturday, 7 December 2013 - 9:12pm
    Message type:
    News of Note
    Tags:
    Public and Private Identities, Business Models, Gaming, Fanfiction , Technology, YouTube

    Banner by Diane of the post title and OTW logo in striated colors as if they were going through interference.

    • Attack of the Fanboy wrote about various troubling issues affecting gaming fandom. One of the most recent involves the data Sony is gathering from users. "Sony’s updated Terms of Service reserved their right to prohibit the sale of used software, but tucked away in the updated version, the company also reserves the right to monitor users voice and text communication on the PlayStation Network."

    • Attack of the Fanboy also ran an article on forced labor used to build PS4 consoles. "Students in the programme have fainted from fatigue. The Yantai factory has already come under fire for a 300+ worker brawl at the factory in September, and denied previous speculation that people were left dead after the event, and rumours of rape around the factory are also being heard across news outlets...Despite such a bad reputation, Sony are using this facility to build PS4′s, and it certainly casts a small shadow over the companies brand identity as the PS4 launch draws closer."
    • Google's decision to force people commenting at YouTube to create or use their Google+ accounts is meeting resistance due to Google+'s insistence on real name usage. X-box players are off the hook for now. "Microsoft has made some talk about the ability for someone to use their real name for their gamertag. This, according to Microsoft, may prevent actions that some deal as unsavory or trollish...and to help identify yourself to your friends." However "[u]nlike Blizzard’s short foray with Blizzard Real ID that forced users to use their real names and subsequently backfired, Microsft will only offer it as a choice."
    • TeleRead posted about problems in reading content away from Fanfiction.net. "It’s worth mentioning that Fanfiction.net has also removed the ability to select text from its stories for copying and pasting. It is no longer possible to highlight or mark text with the mouse on its stories. And some users have complained that Fanfiction.net has upped the amount of advertising on its pages as well." Demand for downloads is high. "The author of the Fanfiction Downloader app noted that he had to disable the email-based interface of his app, except for emailing directly to Kindles, because after FLAG was blocked its load went from about 100 requests per day to more than 5,000 per hour. It seems there are a lot of people out there who would rather read fanfiction on their e-readers or mobile e-reader apps than from a web browser."

    What tech-related fandom issues have you come across? Write about it on 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.

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  • OTW Fannews: Playfulness and IP

    By Claudia Rebaza on Thursday, 14 November 2013 - 5:28pm
    Message type:
    News of Note
    Tags:
    Academia, Intellectual Property, DMCA, Takedowns, Music, Fanfilms, Fan Videos, Technology

    Banner by Erin of Lawrence Lessig holding a light saber by the logo for the EFF, facing off against the logo of Liberation holding up cash and a DMCA notice.

    • The University of Buffalo hosted a lecture by intellectual property scholar Madhavi Sunder titled Learning by Doing. Sunder says. “'Copyright owners have tolerated much fan activity on the theory that lawsuits can turn fans’ love to hate. But the emergence of an ‘experience economy’ may lead some owners of cultural property to reconsider their laissez-faire attitude toward play'...But, Sunder says, that impulse raises caution flags about 'the commoditization of fundamental human experiences and play.'...And because IP law is 'fundamentally about promoting knowledge and learning,' Sunder says, lawyers need to be careful to protect that goal, even when they are asked to help corporations turn such play into a commodity to be bought and sold.'"

    • One place rife with automated takedowns, which are particularly likely to be issued indiscriminately, is YouTube. Fortunately, as NPR put in its story title Record Label Picks Copyright Fight — With The Wrong Guy, IP scholar Lawrence Lessig had a video of a lecture taken down due to a small music clip within it. "At first, YouTube took it down. But being a copyright attorney, Lessig knew his rights. He was entitled to use these clips in a lecture under a legal doctrine known as fair use...Liberation Music eventually backed down. But Lessig decided to invoke another part of the copyright law, 'which basically polices bad-faith lawsuits,' he says — threats made fraudulently or without proper basis. Lessig is suing Liberation Music because he wants labels to stop relying on automated systems to send out takedown notices."
    • As vidders well know, hosting sites for their fanworks tend to be more limited than those for other media, and they have often booted fan content entirely when the sites changes their marketing focus. The latest site to evict fan videos is Blip.tv, which deleted content within the past week. The OTW has some tips about alternatives for video makers and the top pick is Critical Commons. Though academic in nature, they welcome fanworks, support fair use, and provide a good alternative to commercial sites such as Vimeo and YouTube. The site already hosts some key works that are part of vidding history.
    • A new software program, Plotagon, offers a way to create a paint-by-numbers fanwork. "Available for Mac and PC, the basic 'city' version of Plotagon software is free and includes five actors and six environments. To create a Plotagon movie, users simply choose characters and an environment, type a script, add a few stage directions and press 'play.' Plotagon movies can be shared online and viewed at Plotagon.com/movies." Properties include Alice in Wonderland and Pride and Prejudice.

    What fanwork and intellectual property stories have you seen? Write about it on 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.

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  • OTW Fannews: Multiple takes of the same thing

    By Claudia Rebaza on Friday, 8 November 2013 - 10:27pm
    Message type:
    News of Note
    Tags:
    Commercialization of Fans, Comics, Books, Fanfiction , Technology

    Banner by Bremo with the post title and images of three different actors portraying Sherlock Holmes

    • The romance publishing industry was among the first to start bringing in self-published writers and first time novelists, which they are now doing through Wattpad. The site has been active internationally, both promoting its site and now partnering with publishers to create a print imprint. Allen Lau, CEO of Wattpad, said “A lot of writers are afraid of sharing their work...And if you hide your work, you miss the opportunity to let other people appreciate your writing, and also missing some big opportunities in the process—your story might even become a movie, for example.”

    • Writers wary of sharing their work have a good reason for it though -- theft. The case of Shey Stahl is a good example of many writers feeding one person's career. "Goodreads reviewer Ari Bookzilla posted a word-by-word comparison between excerpts of Stahl's latest novel, For the Summer, and a popular Twilight fanfic known as Dusty...Other Goodreaders claimed that the novel's summary had been lifted from another Twilight fic: another popular offering called Pickup Truck...Even the title, "For the Summer," is the title of another well-known Twilight fic...The question of why Stahl may have stolen so much from Twilight fanfic authors is simple: She was one. Stahl wrote fanfic under the pen name Jaydmommy, and she was plagued by plagiarism allegations then, too."
    • Such cases of plagiarism make cases such as the ongoing lawsuit involving Sherlock Holmes seem as antiquated as the copyright at the center of the battle. As Tech Dirt pointed out, it would seem that the Conan Doyle Estate Is Horrified That The Public Domain Might Create 'Multiple Personalities' Of Sherlock Holmes. The estate's argument "presents a way to make copyright on characters perpetual. You just need to have someone continue to release new works that have some minor change to the character, and they get to pretend you have a new starting point for the public domain ticker" meaning that "so long as you never 'complete' the character creation, they can never go into the public domain."
    • Shadowlocked argued that there not only can be should be multiple takes on a franchise. "Neill Blomkamp's humility in acknowledging the subjective side of fandom and that his take on the franchise wouldn't have been for everyone is admirable, but perhaps fans as well as filmmakers could learn from this approach. As a fan, it's arguably better to look at a film in a franchise made by a particular director as that director's take on the franchise, rather than, 'How dare they ruin my beloved franchise?' Because directors can be fans too, and not all fans appreciate the source material in exactly the same way."

    What stories about fanfiction publishing and legal rights have you seen? Write about them on 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.

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  • OTW Fannews: Legal challenges

    By Claudia Rebaza on Saturday, 19 October 2013 - 6:01pm
    Message type:
    News of Note
    Tags:
    Intellectual Property, Cosplay, Fanfiction , Technology

    Banner by Diane of scales set over an antique desk and bookcase in candlelight

    • Public Knowledge announced its inaugural artist-in-residence, Elisa Kreisinger. She is currently soliciting contributors to her project Fair User(s) which asks "If you know of someone who has experienced any removal or disabling of content due to copyright please direct them to this survey."

    • Copyright attorney Timothy B. McCormack wrote about a recent lawsuit against the show Heroes of Cos-Play. "Cos-play costumes are derivative works because they are recasting the work their costume is based on into a new medium while still representing the original work of authorship. In some cases they might also be 'exact copies' 'strikingly similar' copies or 'substantially similar' copies. This means anyone who makes a costume based on an original work is required to obtain a copyright license from the owner if they do not want to commit copyright infringement. As a practical matter, however, it is unlikely cos-players will be sued unless they are trying to use their infringing costume to make a profit. The recent lawsuits involving NBC and the show 'Heroes of "Cos-Play,"' however, might beg to differ."
    • While most people think of rights holders as those who control creative works, one set of cosplayers ran into legal problems with a commercial carpet company. "Apparently the carpet costumes were so popular that one of the original cosplayers offered a version of the Marriott carpet pattern for the presumably vast number of people who also wanted to dress up in carpet-themed camo gear. Seeing this, carpet designers Couristan Inc. sent cosplay suppliers Volpin Props a Cease & Desist letter."
    • The proposed efforts in the U.K. to restrict online access to porn received worldwide attention, but less of it was paid to protests raised by users. At least one of them expressed fandom concerns about the legislation. "Another activist, Jess Palmer, was cheered by members after saying a pornography filter would have prevented her from discovering fan fiction with some adult themes and finding out about asexuality. Julian Huppert, MP for Cambridge, successfully asked for the motion to be 'referred back' to the party's policy committee for a rethink. He said there are some problems with children accessing internet pornography but this is not the solution."
    • Author Misha Burnett talked about aspects of fanfiction and their legal implications. "Genres are largely influenced by a particular work. One could make the case that Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer was Phillip Marlowe fan fiction. As Charles points out, J R R Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings series has inspired the entire genre of Epic Fantasy." He also cites the many fiction and non-fiction works he has drawn on for his stories. "I don’t think that any author can be entirely free of the influence of other authors–what we read becomes a part of the experience that we draw upon to create our own work. The extent to which we are influenced by any one particular work is a matter of personal taste, however."

    What legal discussions have you seen pertaining to fandom? Write about them 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.

    Read more

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