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syncope at 03:07pm on 17/07/2008
syncope at 03:07pm on 17/07/2008I'm sort of surprised I didn't check my email last night and have a bunch of defriendings over the OTW thing yesterday. I guess people just filter me out. I'm fine w/ that, since I have further remarks--
I think to some extent that the issue for me in the OTW thing (aside from fandom politics which just does not get addressed in this whole brouhaha) that bothers me about the aim to have fanworks respected as owned in some way by the fans who generate them is that it's just naive and likely to bring a shitstorm down on *all of us* and not just the naive people who advocate for it.
The reason fandom has been heretofore tolerated by the vast majority of copyright holders is that we provide a web 2.0 service to them FOR FREE. We market their product to superconsumers who synergeticly spread their product virally. For free. We're not being benignly tolerated but actively watched by people whose job it is to seed their product. This is a simple fact--you are being used by media providers to market their products. You enjoy doing it, so it's not a big deal.
The minute this system is disturbed by people claiming to "own" anything that can be even marginally covered by copyright, people who sit around doing nothing but taking meetings and getting riled up over there being no low-carb lunch options will start taking meetings about how web 2.0 is no longer a viable option and measures have to be taken. The bottom line is that you *don't* own that vid or fanfic. You created materials based on licensed media. Right this minute, you're golden because the people taking meetings are a couple steps behind and don't realize that there's an organization who wants to claim ownership over these products. These people are irrational and illogical. You might think "but we're still virally marketing their product and we're not going to make money off of this, so what's the problem?" The problem is that Mr. Irrational in the marketing department is going to have Mr. Illogical from legal riding his ass to find a new way to market "Bubbles and Betty Buy Bikinis" because now the crazy web 2.0 content providers are claiming RIGHTS to licensed material. That's all there is to it. It's not whether you're making money off your fan art, it's the claim to *rights* that are an issue.
The issue here isn't should we be proud of our wacky subculture that brought us such amazing works of art as mpreg and wingfic. Who cares. If you want your neighbors and cousins to know you write porn about Justin Timberlake, frankly sweetie, I'm not the boss of you, so wear that Mrs. Timberlake shirt to the family reunion! The issue also is not, is there a lot of fandom politics going on behind the scenes with OTW. Of course there is! We're girls, we get our ill-founded hate on with sass and a lot of glitter and catmacros! The issue here is whether or not we want to bring this entire venture we've all been building together as a community out of love, obsession, and camaraderie to come crashing down around us because legal at Warners gets spooked that fans writing Superman porn are going to infringe on their ironclad copyright.
This copyright issue is one that is about to escalate into an all out war pretty soon, and I know fandom will rise like cockroaches no matter what happens, but I like the status quo (who knew I'd EVER be conservative about anything, something I've been pondering the last 24 hrs) and I do not think this whole venture is being thought out in a rational, well-informed way. I think that some people had an idea that wasn't horrible, it went to committee and group-think took over and when it did, logical thinking went out the window with the baby.
Will fandom necessarily be crushed because of OTW? I'm not Nostradamus, but you can paypal me to read your fortune if you so desire. I do think that OTW has the *potential* to be the catalyst for a gross recalculation of toleration and utilization of fandom as marketing tools which could lead to internal scaremongering at studios, which could be disastrous.
Whatever, I know it's all pointless for me to even bring this up.
eta I just removed all the links to my journal that I saw on the fanwiki entry about OTW. Please respect me and do not relink. I find the owner of the wiki to be of questionable ethics regarding the OTW and it's board members. I have no personal grudge against anyone associated w/ the OTW and do not want to be associated with those I think have such a grudge. We're a small community, please respect me and I will respect you.
I think to some extent that the issue for me in the OTW thing (aside from fandom politics which just does not get addressed in this whole brouhaha) that bothers me about the aim to have fanworks respected as owned in some way by the fans who generate them is that it's just naive and likely to bring a shitstorm down on *all of us* and not just the naive people who advocate for it.
The reason fandom has been heretofore tolerated by the vast majority of copyright holders is that we provide a web 2.0 service to them FOR FREE. We market their product to superconsumers who synergeticly spread their product virally. For free. We're not being benignly tolerated but actively watched by people whose job it is to seed their product. This is a simple fact--you are being used by media providers to market their products. You enjoy doing it, so it's not a big deal.
The minute this system is disturbed by people claiming to "own" anything that can be even marginally covered by copyright, people who sit around doing nothing but taking meetings and getting riled up over there being no low-carb lunch options will start taking meetings about how web 2.0 is no longer a viable option and measures have to be taken. The bottom line is that you *don't* own that vid or fanfic. You created materials based on licensed media. Right this minute, you're golden because the people taking meetings are a couple steps behind and don't realize that there's an organization who wants to claim ownership over these products. These people are irrational and illogical. You might think "but we're still virally marketing their product and we're not going to make money off of this, so what's the problem?" The problem is that Mr. Irrational in the marketing department is going to have Mr. Illogical from legal riding his ass to find a new way to market "Bubbles and Betty Buy Bikinis" because now the crazy web 2.0 content providers are claiming RIGHTS to licensed material. That's all there is to it. It's not whether you're making money off your fan art, it's the claim to *rights* that are an issue.
The issue here isn't should we be proud of our wacky subculture that brought us such amazing works of art as mpreg and wingfic. Who cares. If you want your neighbors and cousins to know you write porn about Justin Timberlake, frankly sweetie, I'm not the boss of you, so wear that Mrs. Timberlake shirt to the family reunion! The issue also is not, is there a lot of fandom politics going on behind the scenes with OTW. Of course there is! We're girls, we get our ill-founded hate on with sass and a lot of glitter and catmacros! The issue here is whether or not we want to bring this entire venture we've all been building together as a community out of love, obsession, and camaraderie to come crashing down around us because legal at Warners gets spooked that fans writing Superman porn are going to infringe on their ironclad copyright.
This copyright issue is one that is about to escalate into an all out war pretty soon, and I know fandom will rise like cockroaches no matter what happens, but I like the status quo (who knew I'd EVER be conservative about anything, something I've been pondering the last 24 hrs) and I do not think this whole venture is being thought out in a rational, well-informed way. I think that some people had an idea that wasn't horrible, it went to committee and group-think took over and when it did, logical thinking went out the window with the baby.
Will fandom necessarily be crushed because of OTW? I'm not Nostradamus, but you can paypal me to read your fortune if you so desire. I do think that OTW has the *potential* to be the catalyst for a gross recalculation of toleration and utilization of fandom as marketing tools which could lead to internal scaremongering at studios, which could be disastrous.
Whatever, I know it's all pointless for me to even bring this up.
eta I just removed all the links to my journal that I saw on the fanwiki entry about OTW. Please respect me and do not relink. I find the owner of the wiki to be of questionable ethics regarding the OTW and it's board members. I have no personal grudge against anyone associated w/ the OTW and do not want to be associated with those I think have such a grudge. We're a small community, please respect me and I will respect you.
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