Pulling fanfics from the internet - your opinions?

Have a challenge you'd like to see written? Have an idea that just won't get out of your head? Want to talk anything and everything fanfic or writer related? This is the place.

Moderators: ISLANDGIRL5, Forum Moderators

User avatar
Eva
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 391
Joined: Wed Jan 28, 2009 5:44 am
Location: Wieze, Belgium

Re: Pulling fanfics from the internet - your opinions?

Post by Eva »

I opened my eyes big time when I started reading this thread. God, what are they thinking at those other fandoms? I just can't picture anything like that.

because there's already a lot said about the topic I'll restrain to some quotes I really agree on.
Behrsgirl77 wrote:Wow! I just stumbled upon this topic, while looking to post a request elsewhere. I have to say I have read all of your comments and with respects to the fact that while I enjoyed "Twilight" I have no desire to run out and read fanfic from that fandom.

I don't know why, maybe I'm just good that there was a happy ending, whereas in Roswell there was but there was also so much unfinished (as someone else pointed out).
Quite right! Roswell had so many open and unfinished stories within the plot, it just invited to write it in another way or to finish it (for example the open ending of season 3)
Roswellian117 wrote:The twi-tards seem to just copy what they read in the books and that isn't creative. A lot of them are children over there and we have to remember that. A lot of us are in our mid-20's, 30's, 40's and so on. If Roswell was brought back as a new show now the younger crowd would love it. Then we would be flooded with pre-teens screaming over team max and team kyle! LOL.
I think that's the mayor reason maybe while writers react so unmature to feedback and plagiarism.
Ok, I would be also pissed when people would steal my story of pieces of it but not a single hair on my head would think on pulling my story off the net. Why write stories when only a select audience can read it?
Which is the complete opposite of the next quote:
Misha wrote:That reminds me of our "holding a fanfic hostage" rule. I'm so used to coming here and knowing no fic will ever be held hostage until certain amount of feedback is given, that when I go to other sites and see the authors blatantly asking for X number of reviews or else no more story, I'm stunned :shock:
God, I was shocked when I read that. It's true, it's nice to see some feedback or to observe that a lot of readers find their way to your story but waiting for a x-number of replies is such a selfish and self-centered thing to do.... What about the readers who do like your story, or the item you handle? And I know what I'm talking about, 'cause my first fic had a handicapped Michael in the leading part. I knew from the beginning it wouldn't attract a lot of readers but I wrote it anyway 'cause the subject mattered to me.
If you put your heart in a fic, you can only go for it.

And that's why I was completely blown away when I found this discussion.
Take a look at Eva's world
User avatar
ladygloria
Enthusiastic Roswellian
Posts: 32
Joined: Sat Apr 17, 2004 6:48 pm
Location: Most likely at PA...
Contact:

Re: Pulling fanfics from the internet - your opinions?

Post by ladygloria »

Interesting topic, but one that is not limited to the Twilight fandom (though I can honestly say I don't understand why people are interested in the books in the first place, so I can't possibly understand the fandom--then again, I'm also a UC'er and rarely see the point of "meant to be" romances if any genre). Speaking as a reader, I can say that I keep many copies of my favorite stories for my own offline amusement and memory and also run a board that archives stories. I've never shared any of them and I wouldn't without the author's consent. Many have allowed me to archive them on PA, but I maintain their rights of refusal as I've been on the other side when things have gone wrong and I believe that respect for readers is just as important as respecting the rights of authors. I don't think keeping your own personal copy of anything is a bad thing to do, but then unfortunately the rules change and levels of trust come into play when you are an author.

While yes, you do take risks posting your work anywhere, it is also a personal labor of love to write anything--even fanfiction, and many authors take ownership of their story concepts (though obviously in fanfic who can say that they own the characters and common plot points). It's hard as an author when people take personal copies of your stories and rewrite them into their own version of the same theme, post them elsewhere without your knowledge (when it's such a personal labor or love to write for you), and in some places believe that your posting on their board suddenly means they own that story. I can understand feelings of frustration when those things happen because I have had them myself. While Twilight authors are responding contrary to what our Roswell rules have dicated for years, I can understand it. They are a new fandom trying to find their way without the safety of a community that they can trust. Having lived through this community in far too many splits that should have never happened, it's hard to find the trust to open yourself up as an artist and truly feel comfortable sharing your work.

What I can't help but wonder though, is if this weren't fanfiction, would we respond the same way? If I, for example, wrote an original short story and shared it somewhere, would that give others the right to repost it elsewhere without my knowledge, refuse to delete it if I ask them to, or rewrite the story "in their own words" so that they can claim ownership? If I decided to limit access to my original work because of issues with plagairism and trust, would I have this right? I'm curious if our responses would be different.

Anyway, I apologize if this has all already been said, having admittedly not read through everyone's responses. I hope that we all can create a better culture of understanding for both our readers and our writers because as somone said in their post...this is all for fun, right? AT some point we have to stop taking this so seriously and I hope we're finally getting there (but look at how long it has taken).
Polarattraction.net: Where there are 820 reasons and counting to envy Michael Guerin....
Image
User avatar
trulov
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 200
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2005 12:26 pm
Location: New Jersey

Re: Pulling fanfics from the internet - your opinions?

Post by trulov »

And another one bites the dust.
Last edited by trulov on Mon Oct 15, 2012 4:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Misha
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 425
Joined: Thu Jun 20, 2002 10:44 am
Location: Guatemala City, Guatemala

Re: Pulling fanfics from the internet - your opinions?

Post by Misha »

oooooorrrr... just read the ones that are completed and you can download to your computer :lol:

That entire fanfic fandom is insane...
"There's addiction, and there's Roswell!"
User avatar
Heavenli24
Obsessed Roswellian
Posts: 587
Joined: Tue Feb 22, 2005 9:41 am

Re: Pulling fanfics from the internet - your opinions?

Post by Heavenli24 »

trulov wrote:Anyway, according to the A/N, the author discovered that some fics in the fandom were being posted by a group of fans in some type of database, without the auhor's permission, for all to read.
I heard about that, it happened a few weeks ago - I think there was a torrent file you could download that had lots of stories in it, but the person who put the torrent up didn't ask permission from the authors beforehand.

Anyway, I think the fandom lost a few stories because of that... people just pulled them off the internet, even if their stories weren't included in it! The thing is, I don't think the file even worked anyway, so no one would have been able to read the stories in it :P.

Around the same time, another author pulled all of her fics, which was really disappointing because I'd only read one of them and wanted to read more, but her reasoning was because she was leaving the fandom and wouldn't be able to really get out of it completely if she left her fics up... which is fair enough. It's annoying, but it was her decision and I can't really complain about it.

However, there was another story that was pulled, but then reposted on fanfiction.net. However, as soon as they posted the Epilogue, they pulled the story again and deleted their account... which makes it so obvious that they were only reposting to get lots of reviews! The whole thing is kind of like saying, "Well, we've released the DVD box set of a TV series, but now we're recalling it again... but we will show it once more on TV so you can have the pleasure of watching it once last time, because you will never be allowed to own it for yourself ever again" :P.
User avatar
Heavenli24
Obsessed Roswellian
Posts: 587
Joined: Tue Feb 22, 2005 9:41 am

Re: Pulling fanfics from the internet - your opinions?

Post by Heavenli24 »

Misha wrote:That entire fanfic fandom is insane...
I've been trying to ignore the craziness for the last few months (mostly because RL has been too busy to worry about it), but I just had to post today. I mentioned about this in the first post: about 15 months ago one of the massive fics in the Twilight fandom was pulled (apparently due to flames and plagiarism issues) and when I emailed the author to ask if I might be able to get a copy to read, she refused, telling me if I wanted to read it I would just had to wait and see if she posted it again in the future(!). Anyway, I just read on a forum this morning that a few months ago, someone publically requested a copy of the story in a discussion thread and the author contacted a lawyer and got them to serve Cease and Desist letters to all the readers who were sharing the fic, or were even just discussing it on the forums (because the author had 'copyrighted' her fanfiction by registering it with the US Copyright Office - which I don't think is actually legal anyway, since fanfic is a derivative work)!!

How absolutely insane is that? Apparently the C&D letter was withdrawn eventually because it was pointed out that the lawyer didn't have a leg to stand on, but I just don't understand the logic involved when stuff like this happens. It's just fanfic, FFS; it's not like they're top-secret government documents or something :roll:!

The funny thing is that eventually did get to read the story... and it was really not 'all that' after all - it was quite well-written, but was basically 150,000 words of smut and not all that much else :P!
Last edited by Heavenli24 on Thu Feb 10, 2011 11:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
nibbles2
Obsessed Roswellian
Posts: 754
Joined: Tue Aug 16, 2005 1:01 pm
Contact:

Re: Pulling fanfics from the internet - your opinions?

Post by nibbles2 »

What worries me about these idiots who think that they have legal ownership over fanfiction is that their going to take things a step too far and the real owners of the work will step in with a real cease and desist.

There are a few authors who have taken steps to prevent fanfiction of their work, but most authors and TV show head honchos are happy to turn a blind eye to fanfiction because they know that it's harmless and encourages interest and awareness of their work and fosters dedicated and loyal fanbases. However, if fanfiction authors get too big for their own boots and start throwing their weight around, they'll forget that they are actually doing something that is technically illegal and authors might have to step in to reclaim ownership of their works and put a stop to fanfiction altogether.

It would be a shame to see a couple of people ruin it for everybody
User avatar
Misha
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 425
Joined: Thu Jun 20, 2002 10:44 am
Location: Guatemala City, Guatemala

Re: Pulling fanfics from the internet - your opinions?

Post by Misha »

I think someone should post a legal statement where it clearly says "fanfiction is illegal". Since this people seem so bent on following the rules and going to the law to help them, maybe seeing the fine print will stop them.

Then again, probably not.

I know there are authors who make their job to ban any form of fanfiction of their works, like Anne Rice. I remember reading somewhere that JK Rowling was fine with it except when it got too explicit because she was concerned little kids would find those stories, so I kind of see her point there. I don't think anyone is pulling their M rated fics because of that, and she's not closing sites on that account either, but there certainly are more reasons than just one for an author to want fanfiction out.

I also know an author at the Superman fandom who copyrights her stories. She says although the characters are not hers, the story is. So how exactly does that work? If I publish a story with similar plot lines but different names would she be able to sue me? And in return, would the rightful owners sue her, since she would be gaining money out of a story based on their characters if she wins the lawsuit?

Honestly, we write fanfiction knowing that a) we ain't gonna earn any money and b) they are not our characters. That's the whole point of writing disclaimers. If you don't want to get your work read free and by anyone, don't publish it as fanfiction. Write your own original stories, go through the whole process and make it legal on its own right.

And as Heavenli24 pointed out, it's the internet. Someone is going to have a copy somewhere, and you'll find it sooner or later. All that hard work to prevent reading this author was for nothing :roll:
"There's addiction, and there's Roswell!"
User avatar
Sundae
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 151
Joined: Sun Jun 06, 2010 8:26 pm
Location: Superunknown, FL

Re: Pulling fanfics from the internet - your opinions?

Post by Sundae »

Misha wrote:I think someone should post a legal statement where it clearly says "fanfiction is illegal". Since this people seem so bent on following the rules and going to the law to help them, maybe seeing the fine print will stop them.
That would be impossible, let alone scary. To purse any legal action makes is one step easier to ban all fan fiction all together if someone blatantly disregards the warning or misinterprets and it angers the real author(s).

I think, its whoever runs the posting boards that need to have a clear policy. If people can't follow that, they're welcome to go somewhere else, and watch how many will follow them.

Really have to wonder what goes through these author's minds. This kind of stupidity really turns me off and honestly, I would be be turned off by the author in general. I don't give a crap how good you write, you're too smug about it, its does nothing but leave a distasteful taste in everyone mouth. I've read lots of stories where I've been "wow, that's seriously a great story." But if I were to list my favorites, it wouldn't even hit the top five. Yet, I recognize it's good.
Image
User avatar
Misha
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 425
Joined: Thu Jun 20, 2002 10:44 am
Location: Guatemala City, Guatemala

Re: Pulling fanfics from the internet - your opinions?

Post by Misha »

:lol: Yeah, I was joking, though maybe they really don't know that fanfiction is, by definition, a sort of plagiarism, even if you don't earn money by it.

Now, if I were a published author, would I ban fanfiction? Personally, I wouldn't, but I probably wouldn't read it either. It would be either too depressing to see my characters written so bad, or I might run the risk to come across a really good idea I wouldn't want to use since it's already in a fanfiction work...

So, on the other hand, if I write a fanfic and then see the author running with my idea on his books, do I get to sue too? No wonder fanfic is such a legal minefield...
"There's addiction, and there's Roswell!"
Post Reply