Organisationen för transformativa verk (OTW), Juridiska frågor, Ekonomi, Vårt eget arkiv (Archive of our Own), Öppna Dörrar, Medlemskap, Transformative Works and Cultures (Akademisk tidskrift)

I'm a professional creator. Do I need to avoid reading or acknowledging fanworks based on my own works?

This is essentially a personal decision. If it will upset you to read, view, or watch fanworks based on your works, then don't.

Authors are sometimes advised to avoid reading or acknowledging fanfiction transforming their own work, as it is in theory possible that an author could read a story, go on to write something similar, and face a claim by the fan that they copied the fan's work. There are many reasons to discount this risk, the least of which is that U.S. case law is all in the first author's favor: no court is going to be receptive to a claim that a later work by the first author in the same universe infringes the fanwork. Among other things, when people begin with similar premises, it isn't at all surprising that they will end up with similar ideas — but U.S. copyright law protects the specific expression of an idea, not ideas. Even if a fan work is similar to a later work in the same universe, similarity of ideas (say, how wand magic works in Harry Potter) isn't sufficient for a copyright claim.

However, not being able to win doesn't erase the possibility that someone could threaten to sue. The real issue is that it doesn't take a fanwork to generate a threat! If an author reads fan mail or online reviews, they might encounter a fan's ideas about what should happen with the characters; if they read other books, they might encounter a storyline or character similar to a storyline or character they might later use. In fact, the typical author-versus-author infringement case involves claims that one work copied another, apparently unrelated work.

The OTW's mission includes explaining the difference between ideas and expression. A lot of people may have the same idea about what should happen on the next season of House; but if they each write different stories expressing the idea differently, then those stories don't infringe each other.

I run an archive I'd like to import/back up to the Archive of Our Own. What do I need to do?

Contact Open Doors for access to the archive importer. Please let us know from the outset if you have special needs — for example, if you'd like us to take over maintenance of the old domain, or if your archive contains multimedia content.

How can I stay up-to-date with the progress of the Archive?

We're posting regular Archive updates on the OTW blog, answering frequently asked questions and keeping users informed about how the Archive is progressing. The blog is mirrored on Livejournal, Dreamwidth, Insanejournal, and YahooGroups, and posts are linked on Twitter.

We are now also posting on the Archive itself and a link to the most recent post will appear in 'Updates' on the Archive front page.

How can I get an account on the Archive?

The Archive of Our Own entered open beta in November 2009. To create an account, you need an invitation. We're using the invitation code system so that the Archive can grow in a controlled manner. We need to add new users gradually so that our account numbers don't grow beyond what our hardware, bandwidth, help and support can cope with. This helps us ensure that everyone using the Archive gets the best possible experience. Once you receive an invitation email, click the link provided in the email to go to the account creation page. If you've been provided with an invitation link by another user, clicking this link should take you to the right place.

Why doesn’t the academic journal provide PDFs of its articles?

Because Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC) is a multimedia journal that publishes screen shots, embeds videos, and uses hyperlinks, the journal must appear online. PDFs are unable to adequately duplicate the interactive experience of the journal.

Further, because TWC copyrights under under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License, fans may wish to transform the journal by creating PDFs of content and making it generally available. As long as the document provides the URLs of the original source, and as long as the poster does not charge money, this activity is perfectly acceptable under the terms of the CC license. In fact, TWC encourages such transformative fan activity.

Finally, TWC is bucking the importance the academy places on print media. If we created official PDFs, these documents, not the online versions, would be treated as authoritative merely because of the privilege print is provided in the academic publishing industry—and yet the PDF will always be a second-rate static snapshot of an interactive document.

Why does the academic journal retain copyright, not the author?

The journal retaining copyright is standard in academic journal publishing. Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC) is thus in line with general practice.

Production editors at presses seeking reprint permission will automatically come to TWC, not the author. Requesting payment for reprints is one way that academic journals make money. However, TWC, because it is associated with the Organization for Transformative Works, a nonprofit organization, and because we want to retain the spirit of open access, will never ask for money to reprint articles.

Our main reason is a purely practical one: TWC retains copyright to protect its ability to grant reprint permission in case the author disappears.

Further, we are committed to open access. If we released copyright to the author, the author could choose to abrogate that by refusing to grant reprint permission. This is not in line with TWC’s mission and goals, which are focused on the free dissemination of ideas.

What copyright is the academic journal using?

Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC) copyrights under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License.

Anyone is free to reprint or remix, with attribution, anything in TWC without obtaining specific permission, as long as the original publication information is attributed and/or hyperlinked back. This means that anybody can post full text of the articles, with attribution, as long as no money is made. Authors may therefore repost full content to their blog or Web site after TWC has been published. Likewise, random people can repost full text without restriction. As long as they attribute it properly, such duplication is fine.

If people want to make money off the text, perhaps by anthologizing the essay in an edited volume, then they must ask. This includes the author, because once an article appears in TWC, TWC owns the copyright.

TWC grants permission to anyone who requests reprint, regardless of who they are (the author or not), without asking for money. We do this in the spirit of open access. We require that the editors be asked for for-profit reprinting because we will take the responsibility of tracking down and informing the author.

What sorts of things does the academic journal print?

Transformative Works and Cultures prints peer-reviewed academic articles about transformation, broadly conceived, about fan engagement with various sorts of texts, and about fan communities; editorially reviewed meta articles and personal essays; book reviews; and interviews.

How can I submit to the academic journal? Can I contribute even if I am not an academic?

Detailed online submission guidelines are available at the Transformative Works and Cultures website.

We welcome submissions from everyone as long as the contribution complies with Transformative Works and Cultures's focus and scope.

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