Comments | telesilla: Meta/Rant: It's like deja vu all over again!

telesilla

Meta/Rant: It's like deja vu all over again!

May 14, 2007 20:08

Once upon a time--back in the mid 90s--John Ordover, the then Star Trek editor of Pocket Books, posted on alt.startrek.creative advertising a contest for fan writers. If you wrote a fic that fit into their guidelines--which were the same stringent ones tie-in writers had to follow--you could win a cash prize and be published in an anthology. If I ( Read more... )

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fanlib mimbo May 17 2007, 06:46:32 UTC

hey everyone,
I'm Chris one of the founders of FanLib> it's really late and i have been working on the site all day. I'm exhausted but i just realized what was going on here and all of the commentsts are making me sick. we're a small company with 10 emplyees who work 16 hours a day to try and make a great website. we're real people! with feelings and everything! we have been working on this and dreaming about it for a long time and you are just here to shit on it without giving us a chance. i care deeply about what you think but this is crazy. we're good people here and you make us sound like we're an evil corporation or the govt. sending your kids to war or something. we really are all about celebrating fan fiction and fan fiction readers and writers. im sorry this is so short and please excuse the fact that i am cutting and pasting this across a bunch of ljs but i gotta get some sleep.
chris

Re: fanlib darkrosetiger May 17 2007, 06:57:12 UTC

im sorry this is so short and please excuse the fact that i am cutting and pasting this across a bunch of ljs but i gotta get some sleep.

Spamming "a bunch of ljs" in an attempt to make your case certainly isn't convincing me of anything other than the fact that FanLib is something I need to avoid like the plague.

Re: fanlib telesilla May 17 2007, 07:10:40 UTC

Yo, Chris. You gonna pay the writers in cold hard cash? And what about that bit in the TOS that allows you to edit people's fic? What about the part where your writers turn their fic over to you to pretty much do what you like--say maybe sell an anthology--without you having to pay royalties? I have a lot more questions, but nothing in your comment here suggests that you have any interest in actually talking to me.

For your information I was, for me, reasonably polite for a rant in my own LJ. I hardly "shit" on your company.

Finally, if you really DO care about what fandom thinks of you and your company, you might want to stop spamming and actually answer our concerns. I get that you've been working hard, but all you had to do was either comment to the effect that you'd like to open a dialog when you have time, or hold off until you actually do have time and actually answer our concerns.

Re: fanlib mimbo May 17 2007, 07:18:06 UTC

Consider a dialog opened. Seriously I am running on fumes here. I have a 2 1/2 year old that isnt sleeping well and i have been working since 6am. Can you please help me be reading our recently posted FAQ that I think addresses all of your questions in the above post? That's all I ask.
http://www.fanlib.com/cms.do?page=faq.html

Re: fanlib telesilla May 17 2007, 07:25:30 UTC

I'll read the FAQ and get back to you when I've had a chance to organize my thoughts.

Re: fanlib stewardess May 17 2007, 08:17:09 UTC

Chris, your FAQ says "In 2007, the powers that be who once battled fanfic authors are ready to take a new approach." Can you provide facts to back that up? Please list the individuals that make up the "powers that be." I simply do not believe this statement, because there has never been "powers that be" going after fanfiction writers. There have been a few isolated cases [Anne Rice], yes, but there has never been a coordinated effort. The reason is simple: no one profits from fanfic. But now it seems FanLib intends to. Do you understand how this is a concern for the fandom community?

Also, when you answered the question of whether fanfiction is the equivalent of illegally downloading music, you reply, "The legality of pirating and bootlegging is not fuzzy." That implies you are counting on fanfiction to be fuzzily legal. Is it wise to base a company on that assumption ( ... )

Re: fanlib annlarimer May 18 2007, 20:39:56 UTC

HEY! I do not have a cat.

Re: fanlib stewardess May 18 2007, 23:02:53 UTC

Oh noes!!! Does that make me a lying liar who lies??? :p

Re: fanlib gillyp May 17 2007, 10:20:22 UTC

"the powers that be who once battled fanfic authors are ready to take a new approach."
The PTB have, almost entirely, been supportive of fanfic, because it keeps their project alive and kicking while *not attempting to make money from their copyrighted projects*.

Do you really not see the difference between what we do and what you're attempting to do?

Re: fanlib neotoma May 17 2007, 10:22:33 UTC

LiveJournal is for-profit, as is Yahoo!, MySpace, Quizilla, TheForce.net, AtomFilms,

None of those sites listed has archiving fanfiction as their main business. LJ and MySpace are both networking sites; a tiny fraction of their users network over fanfic, but many more network over music, sports, and non-fannish hobbies.

TheForce.net *owns* the copyright to Star Wars. If George Lucas has set up a place for people to post SW fanfic within guidelines, then that covers both him and them as regards to copyright law.

You have implied that you have permission/license from various copyholders of popular properties to host fanfic about those properties, but not actually SAID any such thing.

I am also distrustful of the "if anyone objects, they'll probably come after us". You've got much deeper pockets than any of us -- and if you do provoke a lawsuit, there is no guarantee that you'll cover the poor fool who used FanLib as her archive.

Re: fanlib cofax7 May 17 2007, 13:56:22 UTC

and if you do provoke a lawsuit, there is no guarantee that you'll cover the poor fool who used FanLib as her archive.

In fact, the TOS explicitly states the writers will INDEMNIFY FANLIB if Fanlib is subject to liability for anything associated with the writers' work. So if Fanlib gets sued, they're in no way protecting the writers.

I gotta say, arguing that he's tired and a new dad and a nice guy doesn't answer any of the questions we're asking.

Re: fanlib morgandawn May 17 2007, 16:27:23 UTC

I gotta say that yelling at people who disagree with him also does not answer any of our questions. Nor does the FAQ that swears up and down that you won;t get bothered by IP issues does not fly with what I have observed.

Re: fanlib telesilla May 18 2007, 01:20:24 UTC

He's making a bad impression all around. I offered a place for a debate and even gave a way that he could take his time responding and of course, he played the "too busy" card. Which yeah, of course he's busy, but since part of his company's stated mission is to be an advocate for the fans, he might want to, oh I don't know, talk to some of us?

Re: fanlib telesilla May 17 2007, 22:46:19 UTC

I've looked over your FAQ and still have questions and concerns. I've made a post here which I consider the beginning of a dialog.

I look forward to your replies.

Re: fanlib okelay May 19 2007, 02:02:41 UTC

i was reading the TOS and FAQ

you want to make money. that's great.
what do we, as fic writers, get out of it?
as always, we won't get any money, and that's ok, we never have, but why should be basically work for you?

i don't like how it says you'll have liberty over our fics and how in the event of a lawsuit, we're on our own.

to be honest, it scares me.

that's why i deleted all my fic from your site.

Re: fanlib bkm5191 May 17 2007, 10:30:50 UTC

no you're not ( ... )

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