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lil_miss_stfu ([info]lil_miss_stfu) wrote in [info]fandom_wank,
@ 2007-10-14 09:06:00


Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Current mood:Goofy
Entry tags:sci-fi people like to fight, writers are often pompous douches

From [info]wank_report
I had this pointed out to me by a buddy who'd spotted it. I know nothing about any of this, so I'm just prettifying it a bit.

More print SF wank. Kind of a followup to this one.


Andrew Burt, VP of SFWA, also runs Critters, an online critique group full of aspiring authors. Well, in our weekly notes, we're encouraged to check it out, boys and girls! Cory Doctorow is the enemy of author's rights, and he's gunning for Ursula K. Le Guin!

Note that Doctorow is Canadian. Blame Canada!

Burt links to Pournelle's polemic.

Pournelle links to LeGuin's story on Boing Boing AND to web.archive.org (kinda fubar, sorry) 'cause that nasty, tricksy Doctorow will surely hide the evidence.

Burt said yesterday, that nasty, tricksy Doctorow was snubbing poor Le Guin. Doctorow has edited his post. (He's HIDING THE EVIDENCE, ZOMG, JUST LIKE POURNELLE SAID HE WOULD!!! Of course, if he didn't he would be SNUBBING LE GUIN ZOMG!!!)

They both made much of the Creative Commons License they say Doctorow placed on Le Guin's work. The default footer of Boing Boing does indeed contain a Creative Commons License statement, but I somehow doubt that's part of an evil conspiracy to take food out of Le Guin's mouth, as that's been part of Boing Boing's footer for years (since at least 2003, according to web.archive.org).

Update!

::Edit::

Another update courtesy of the mousie!

::Edit Jr::

From the comments (thanks [info]cheshyre!)



(Post a new comment)


[info]soupspooks
2007-10-14 02:47 am UTC (link)
Man, what?

Poor Ms. LeGuin. Her work is freaking awesome.

(Reply to this)(Thread)


[info]pandabonzai
2007-10-14 09:11 am UTC (link)
Seriously. First a horrible SciFi channel mini-series, then a Studio Ghibli film that isn't much like her books at all, and now this.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]chaimonkey
2007-10-14 03:52 pm UTC (link)
Wait, she had a Studio Ghibli film?

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]baskinglizard
2007-10-14 04:39 pm UTC (link)
She did! It was based on the first Earthsea book, and although I haven't seen it I understand that although it's not really a very faithful adaptation it sure is pretty to look at. (Also the voice casting made some interesting choices.)

The SciFi channel thing, however, was an unmitigated disaster. I remember how excited I was to hear about it, and how crushed I was when it turned out to be, well, magical blond guy fights evil. :P Haven't watched it, not planning to.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]baskinglizard
2007-10-14 04:44 pm UTC (link)
Correction: Gedo Senki (Tales of Earthsea in English) is based on the last two books.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]plazmah
2007-10-14 04:53 pm UTC (link)
There's an animated version of Tales of Earthsea for the 3rd and 4th books done by Studio Ghibli back in 2005. Le Guin was not all that pleased with the results, apparently.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]jaseroque
2007-10-15 05:58 am UTC (link)
Nor was Hayao Miyazaki, mind you.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]onaga
2007-10-15 02:24 am UTC (link)
I really don't think a single blog post is going to bring her down.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]cmdr_zoom
2007-10-17 11:59 am UTC (link)
"They made Ged a honky, didn't they? God damnit."

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]brennalarose
2007-10-14 03:01 am UTC (link)
Oh my god...

Between Nicky and this, I'm starting to fear the writing world.

(Reply to this)(Thread)


[info]dechant
2007-10-14 03:40 am UTC (link)
Having caught a glimpse of even a (relatively hoppin') local scene here in Rochester: be afraid. Be very afraid.

*sidles away from most of the rest of the writers*

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]brennalarose
2007-10-14 04:10 pm UTC (link)
Conform, go crazy, or write. More people choose the second option every day.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]dechant
2007-10-14 05:00 pm UTC (link)
In a feat of physics as yet unparalleled, I walked through both doors two and three at the same time. ;-)

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]brennalarose
2007-10-14 11:12 pm UTC (link)
Well, it's possible to walk through all three at the same time. But it's not pretty. Gore everywhere, and door three has a pair of arms that grab you by the ankles and shake you down like a schoolyard punk demanding your lunch money.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]cmdr_zoom
2007-10-17 12:00 pm UTC (link)
Conducting the two-door interference experiment, were you?

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]sunqist
2007-10-14 03:59 am UTC (link)
I still find it unnerving that all these people have LJs.

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ealusaid
2007-10-14 05:33 am UTC (link)
For a moment I thought one of the links was to Le Guin's LJ, and nearly died of squee. No such luck, alas.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]jat_sapphire
2007-10-15 06:44 am UTC (link)
She does have one, however.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]youngcurmudgeon
2007-10-14 04:10 am UTC (link)
I see Ursula LeGuin describing the need for an "e-piracy" committee and I want to join it. Not to stamp out unauthorized copies of works online, mind you; just to wear an e-eyepatch and drink e-grog. And to possibly have an e-parrot.

(Reply to this)(Thread)


[info]isntitironic
2007-10-14 04:32 am UTC (link)
I think your icon will suffice nicely.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]youngcurmudgeon
2007-10-14 07:06 am UTC (link)
Thanks! It suffices for many things, I've found.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]hitchhiker42
2007-10-14 04:38 am UTC (link)
BAH! If only I could spell...

Is your icon gankable?

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]youngcurmudgeon
2007-10-14 07:07 am UTC (link)
Indeed! Made by xonlyashesx on LJ.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

Reposted, sigh
[info]cleolinda
2007-10-14 06:38 am UTC (link)
just to wear an e-eyepatch

An iPatch, as it were?

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: Reposted, sigh
[info]youngcurmudgeon
2007-10-14 07:08 am UTC (link)
But it would only play hornpipes and reels. And drinking songs.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]cheshyre
2007-10-14 06:09 am UTC (link)
Add to the wank a complaint of spreading the wank in inappropriate places:

Despite his botched handling of the SFWA / Scribed episode, I gave Dr. Andrew Burt credit for not making partisan attacks on Cory Doctorow on the Critters list that he administrates.

So much for that.


BTW, the poster of this comment ran one of the zines that was inappropriately pulled on Burt's original DMCA list.

(Reply to this)


[info]cmdr_zoom
2007-10-14 10:38 am UTC (link)
They're stealing my precious bodily fluids words!

(Reply to this)


[info]ionlylurkhere
2007-10-14 11:37 am UTC (link)
I think it's worth pointing out that the "story" "stolen" from Le Guin was a sarcastic single paragraph written in response to a particular situation. It's the sort of thing people post on their LJs all the time without thinking "OMG my precious words, the copyright, the copyright!!" It's not, y'know, an actual story as most people would understand it. It definitely looks to me like it's being deliberately blown out of proportion to get at Doctorow for his part in the sinking of the SFWA Coast Guard cutter.

(Reply to this)(Thread)


[info]kosaginolegion
2007-10-14 05:26 pm UTC (link)
Well, on one hand it may well be. On the other, even if the entire thing is only one paragraph, if Doctorow really did post it in its entirety he's not really in the right here. Especially if he put a Creative Commons licensing on it. The only person who ought to be allowed to do that is the person who posted it.

And, honestly, if you want to draw attention to someone's single paragraph post on-line, there's such a thing as a link.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]ionlylurkhere
2007-10-14 08:10 pm UTC (link)
Doctorow is certainly legally in the wrong, definitely should have known better given his long history of deep involvement with copyright issues, and could have avoided the whole situation by the simple expedient of using a link, as you point out.

But nobody comes out of it covered in glory.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]darkrose
2007-10-15 05:02 am UTC (link)
The CC license wasn't on that piece specifically--it's boilerplate on every page on BoingBoing.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]kosaginolegion
2007-10-15 05:23 am UTC (link)
Ahhh, okay. On the other hand, one shouldn't post someone else's stuff (without permission) in a place where the act of posting essentially gives the impression that the copyright is now open. I don't care how small and insignificant the piece might be.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]cimorene111
2007-10-15 06:05 pm UTC (link)
Yeah, I doubt that's exactly what he was thinking about when he wanted to comment on it in his blog, though, and since it was one paragraph it's hardly surprising that he'd quote the whole thing. Not that it's surprising or unreasonable of Le Guin to get angry, necessarily, although her response seems out of proportion to me, but the behaviour of Burt is certain ludicrous in the extreme.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]puipui
2007-10-15 11:06 pm UTC (link)
but the behaviour of Burt is certain ludicrous in the extreme

I get the feeling that's pretty much par for the course for Mr. Burt, there.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]vito_excalibur
2007-10-14 08:10 pm UTC (link)
Yeah, but it was a 600-word paragraph: basically a short story not broken up into paragraph breaks. And I'd be more careful about my precious words if I had the chance of selling them to Harper's, like she did.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]ionlylurkhere
2007-10-14 08:20 pm UTC (link)
She'd already sold it to Harper's by the time it got on BoingBoing, hadn't she? Or am I getting the timeline wrong? (It certainly looks she didn't know it was on BoingBoing until after Harper's had bought it, at least.)

(That's one of my least favourite bits of her letter, actually, where she's all happy at having made 200 real life dollars!!11! I know most writers don't make as much as people think, but LeGuin's finances are surely more stable than $200 being a big deal.)

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]vito_excalibur
2007-10-14 08:27 pm UTC (link)
Exactly: LeGuin's writing is the way she makes money, so I'm not surprised she's more careful about control of it than most of us are about what we stick on our LJs.

I got nothing to say about expecting a writer not to care about an extra $200. If you make enough money that an unexpected $200 wouldn't register on your radar, my congratulations to you! I'd like to be there someday myself.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]ionlylurkhere
2007-10-14 08:35 pm UTC (link)
Exactly: LeGuin's writing is the way she makes money, so I'm not surprised she's more careful about control of it than most of us are about what we stick on our LJs.

*nod* But this feels so like an LJ-post type thing to me -- a reaction to a specific transient situation, freely available online (albeit by sending it to Dave Langford rather than publishing it herself) -- that I find it hard to take the later reaction seriously, unless it's really about finding a stick to beat that mean old pirate-enabler Cory Doctorow with. In particular, it doesn't feel like it was written with the intention of making any money (as you say, the money from Harper's was "unexpected") so suddenly getting all precious about it later seems inconsistent.

And I really don't notice money until I've run out of it. I am very bad at Capitalism.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]heddychaa
2007-10-14 12:55 pm UTC (link)
AWWWW, but I like Cory Doctorow!! :(

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[info]aewgliriel
2007-10-14 02:15 pm UTC (link)
I . . . am automatically inclined to disregard anything Jerry Pournelle says. I was on a symposium committee a few years back and he was one of our guests, and I gotta say . . . he was a huge jerk. Rude, would talk over people, openly insulted our committee members . . .

(Reply to this)


[info]ashenmote
2007-10-14 05:53 pm UTC (link)
Re Update: I love the smackdowns administered to Burt there.
*waves a nihilistic_kid flag like mad*

(Reply to this)(Thread)


[info]puipui
2007-10-15 10:24 am UTC (link)
They're all quite impressive in their Burt Beatings, aren't they? But, then, to be fair, Mr. Burt makes it pretty damn easy for them, really.

If I were a science fiction writer, I think verbally beating on Andrew Burt would be one of my favorite hobbies.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]tunxeh
2007-10-15 01:54 am UTC (link)
Your "another update" link has an extra space (or %20) in the url that shouldn't be there.

(Reply to this)


[info]lastscorpion
2007-10-23 06:56 pm UTC (link)
I'm late and slow, but this part's funny:

aburt says Cory gave his side of this kerfuffle in e-mails

which aburt had from him in 2005

lol!

(Reply to this)


 
   
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