Can Fandom Tropes Be Copyrighted? The NY Times Covers a Lawsuit Involving Omegaverse Fiction

[zodgory]

A lawsuit involving online erotica raises a new question: can tropes from a fan-generated genre like the Omegaverse be copyrighted? @xanalter reports on a strange intellectual property dispute. https://t.co/yliBGeYpqL
- The New York Times (@nytimes) May 23, 2020
-Omegaverse (or A/B/O) as a concept originated as a fanfic trope from a prompt on the

Comments

[melancolour]

i may have switched tabs from an omegaverse to check ontd

tropes cannot be copywritten for sure, even the fact they'd have to go after thousands of anonymous authors online to protect the copyright makes this insane.

all this said, most abo fics (including the one im currently reading) uphold gender norms as biological imperatives and are trash. judge me ontd!

[aeipathy]

i hate abo and omegaverse stuff but i will give you kudos for being brave enough to admit you read it in this post lmao

edit: also at least you're self aware it's trashy, i have my trashy fav fanfic tropes too (but i'm not admitting them here lol)

[lozbabie]

Where’s the lie?

I hate them and had no idea where the trope was from. I’ve read it in the most bizzare fandoms, such as Parks and Rec and The Office.

I’ve seen it in HP where it at least makes some sense.

[fried_twinkie]

I read them occasionally as well. Good enough for a late night wank, but I never dreamt I'd see the day NYT reported on omegaverse lol

[verschreibsel]

I can see the appeal it’s mostly dom/sub only with the explanation of biology. We all have guilty pleasures.

That said ABO isn’t really my thing and I wish other tropes were as popular.

[vvitchbaby]

> uphold gender norms as biological imperatives

it's interesting you say this bc i was just talking with friends about how a/b/o is like very inclusive bc you can have female alphas with penises, male omegas that get pregnant, betas are basically ace, etc. is it the piv sex as the basis that is gender normative?

[melancolour]

no its the omega = submissive, emotional, needs an alpha, rape excusing nonsense

[vvitchbaby]

i feel like that's just badly written a/b/o but yeah that is a problem within the trope

[packsofreasons]

I agree, I read one that used the trope to explore transexual identities, and it was really fascinating. It completely changed my perspective, I was able to finally see the perspectives without my existing prejudices.

[booksforlunch]

Same