continuing cheerful adventures of girls who write porn and the ip that hates them

In my continuing quest to be lazy....

Part A

You were all waiting for it; anti-fanfic bingo!

The AntiFanfic Bingo Card by ithiliana.

But wait! There's more!

The Anti-AntiFanfic Bingo Card by entropy_house

Next argument, everyone meet her with their cards and pens; winner gets the deep satisfaction of worrying about the state of humanity! Whee!

Oh, but it doesn't end there...

ithiliana, being of stronger stomach than many of us, has also quoted us this from Scalzi's blog:

i, all. I’ve been following this discussion for four hundred comments or so, and I just have to say your talents at writing analogies have really kept up my fascination. Fanfic is like using the neighbour’s pool! Like painting with watercolours instead of oils! Like decorating someone else’s sandcastle!

Has it occurred to anyone here that what you are all doing is writing copyright law fanfiction? You’re having so much difficulty communicating about something so huge and blurry that you’re making up your own little stories to explain it to each other. You’re creating a shared community, expressing your opinions, and exploring meaning by telling stories that are based on the original laws–and which acknowledge the source you’re talking about–but which are, in the end, an individual response to a “canon” that someone else (IP lawyers) have written–and you’re sharing your interpretations with the people around you. (You’ll notice, of course, that I’m doing the same.)

It’s IP fandom, and y’all are having a ship war.

Comment 455 by Zulu

Okay, pony up--er, if you want to. Share with me your favoritest quotes from Scalzi's blog. Come on, let's face it; the guy who compared fanfic to rape* deserves his moment in the sun for such a deeply beautiful analogy that totally expresses the relationship between a fanfic writer and her deeply, deeply phallic pen keyboard.

* I didn't see this one, just heard about it.

** To clarify--this statement was (presumably) made in comments to the entry, not by the owner of the blog itself. Clarified in the above comments. I was horrifically unclear in that particular set of sentences.

ETA: Heads-up. Who got banned over at Scalzi's blog? Anyone know?
ETA 2: That was in the Heinlein thread, courtesy of scalzi. My thanks for both correction and clarification, sir.

Comments

[deadlychameleon.livejournal.com]

I repeat the earlier comment about the Sistine Chapel ceiling, almost all Leonardo de Vinci's works, and pretty much most of Renaissance art being based on Biblical stories or mythology. What! They didn't make up their ideas themselves! Not to mention the many incarnations of "A Christmas Carol", the movie Ten Commandments, various books based on various individuals accounts of history, etc.

Intellectual Property is one of those highly abstract things that it is notably difficult to understand. Remixing music is hardly a new idea. Why is it so odd when applied to written works?

It should be noted that many authors DO get terribly attached to their works, and I've seen at least one compare fanfiction to rape. Well, look. You put the story out there. Everyone is at least mentally going to have a different conceptualization of your characters and generate their own backstories to fill in your gaps. If you are so attached to your characters that you cannot handle other people having opinions about them and or rendering opinions about what they wish had happened in the book, don't publish. Keep your stories under your pillow. There are more than enough authors ready and willing to take your place who can handle it.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

So true. It's--I understand the attachment? But geez. If the concept of anyone thinking differnetly is that hard, they need to reality check. They don't have to like or agree to acknowledge the right of existence.