It's Kindle Worlds, We're Just Living In It?

[heidi8]

Crossposted from Tumblr.

Amazon is working with WB to publish (read: sell) fanfiction from the Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars and Vampire Diaries 'verses. And they said that more "worlds" will be announced soon.

Basically, fanfic writers will be able to sell their fics - formatted for Kindle - via Amazon, and the restrictions are not as

Comments

[thistle_chaser]

That's interesting and I'm not sure how I feel about it.

If I didn't know the author, there's very little chance I'd pay money to sample their fic. If I knew and loved the author, I might buy it. Very big "might". There's so much good free fanfic out there, I'm not sure I'd be willing to pay for some.

Also, I wonder how Amazon will confirm who the author of a fic is. If I went and downloaded a bunch of Pretty Little Liars fics and submitted them as my own, how would they know otherwise? The real authors might find out and protest, but someone who isn't the real author could protest and claim it's there's as well, so what would Amazon do?

Either way, it's interesting.

[chinawolf]

Also, I wonder how Amazon will confirm who the author of a fic is.

I didn't immediately think of that. I wonder if Amazon thought of that. Imagining just how many problems they're going to have with this makes me *smile*.

[snacky]

I was wondering, would this give Amazon/Alloy Entertainment a reason/cause to go after people who write fanfic of the licensed properties and publish it online elsewhere, like ff.net or AO3?

[heidi8]

It actually shouldn't because (a) the laches defense which basically means that if an IP owner has ignored infringement for years they cannot later be heard to complain, (b) the fact that most noncommercialized fanfic (aka ffn or AO3 or FictionAlley, etc.) is a transformative work and fair use (even if there are ads on the site, or it doesn't comment or criticize the underlying work).
There are other reasons, too, but I have to drive carpool and can't answer them until later....

[belleweather]

I hate this like an enormous hatey thing. I'm still not entirely sure that I can articulate why and I know it has a lot to do with gift-culture and working so hard as a community to create a fandom and a culture and then having some enormous corporation decide to monitize it. I'm also not in love with the idea of pay-to-play revenue splitting. I'll probably say something more intelligent later, especially about where this intersects with RPF and amazon's not-too-great track-record with erotica/porn and things like incest, but I've got to get over my general wrathfulness first. First the X-Box announcement and then this, it is SO not my media-geek week... *grumble*

[ellid]

There are some real problems with this, per John Scalzi (current SFWA president); evidently Amazon and Alloy Entertainment have structured it so that it's basically work-made-for-hire, which means that a) they can use any and all characters/plots/incidents/quotes in their work, without future compensation, pretty much in perpetuity, b) if you try to file off the serial numbers, reuse a character/plot twist/quote/concept *you* could sued for plagiarizing your own work, and c) if they used any of the characters/plots/incidents/quotes and it hits big, you get zero compensation, royalties, or anything else.

In short, it's not a good idea for anyone who actually has aspirations to professional sales. I wouldn't take it on a bet.

[dreamlittleyo]

I've been thinking about this all day - and the thing that kills the entire concept for me is the blatant bait-and-switch over copyright and original elements in these works.

It's at best disingenuous of Amazon (and at worst outright devious) to claim that the writer will retain a copyright to the original elements they create, and then simultaneously call dibs on every single stick in the copyright bundle for all time. They seem to be very deliberately claiming every right they can get their hands on (derivative and original elements alike) while pretending exactly the opposite.

There's just something about this whole deal that feels weirdly predatory. The whole deal makes me uncomfortable, and glad it's not available in any fandoms I'm emotionally vested in.