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Caito Potato ([info]caito) wrote in [info]fandom_wank,
@ 2009-03-24 13:40:00


Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Current mood:Fan-Fucking-tastic
Entry tags:awesome writeup is awesome, doesn't mean what you think it means, fandom: twilight, fanfic, i don't know my rights, internet lawyers, plucky girl detective, self-publishing, writers are often pompous douches

The Russet Doom Saga, Part I
 IBecause I, [info]caito    , could not stand the heat, I decide to step out of the kitchen. The previous incarnation of this post was getting more negative attention than I could possibly cope with, so I have rewritten the content to remove any false or libelous accusations against anyone's websites or personal character (before someone files a complaint against me or contacts an administrator). Please enjoy the following tutorial; I hope that you find it instructive.

If you were one of those who were giving me gruff, you can expect an email shortly, in which I accuse you of stalking me, make a vague and passive aggressive threat, and link you to my most recent blog comments. Thank you.


How to Wank Like Lady Syb Uh, Lordy Syb-Basuko, Who Is a Completely Fictional Character I Just Made Up

And I drew a picture of him:
Lordy Syb-Basuko, to you
That means he's copyrighted, so there.

Step One:
Write a "tribute sequel" to a popular young adult fantasy series, featuring an ending you wish the creator had written, i.e. one that conforms to your ship. Try to pick a title that elicits laughter from those more sane than you - a truly good one would be vaguely racist and put people in mind of vegetables.

For greater effect, your "publisher" should not be a publisher at all, but a completely different kind of company that you run yourself. Like maybe a paranormal investigations media company, whose videos you post to your own Youtube account. Lordy Syb-Basuko would surely approve.

Step Two:
Completely misconstrue copyright law. As my friend Lordy Syb-Basuko would have said:
The characters in [redacted]'s novels were not copyrighted because she never drew them or hired an artist to draw them. Today she shares her character copyrights with [redacted]. And, no, Lordy Syb-Basuko does not have direct permission from [redacted] to publish this sequel, which is why the article says that it is a "Tribute" or "Unauthorized" Sequel.
In case someone questions you (and you know someone will), have a Publaw link at hand with which to defend yourself. Ignore evidence that you're wrong.

Step Three:
Start selling your magnus opus online, perhaps through a well-known auction site. (Bonus points for making enough identical listings to drive any wank chronicler crazy.) You should definitely do all this months before you intend to make your product available, even if it violates that auction site's pre-sale policies. Lordy Syb-Basuko cares little for such petty things!

Step Four:
Read the preface of your masterpiece out loud, and share it with Youtube. Lordy Syb-Basuko especially likes sharing lengthy passages in which nothing happens!

Step Five:
Put out casting calls for someone to play the main character in your tribute sequel - which is what I need to do next. If you know a guy who has a mustache and a head shaped like a whale, I'd like for him to depict in the Lordy Syb-Basuko in a graphic novel I'm planning. If you need my contact info, just do a whois search on my personal website, 'kay?

Step Six:
Put out a press release to advertise your tribute sequel! That's at least one step farther than Lori Jareo ever went, after all.

If you're lucky, people are already starting to talk about it!

Step Seven:
Tussle with mods on a popular fandom site. After all, "all comments, positive or netgative, are welcome," as Lordy Syb-Basuko would say, and "the massive amount of non-transformative Twilight fanfics out there are also in violation of copyright laws, especially considering that webmasters are making money off the ads." So you can tell any naysayers to suck it.

Step Eight:
You might want to put out another press release. As Lordy Syb-Basuko might say in this case,
[Redacted] has just as many haters as it does fans. The novel hasn't even hit bookstores yet and it's already the talk of the town, ahem, web. Read on to find out factual information about copyrights.
Then he'd educate everyone about how
When fictional characters become such an intricate part of the popular psyche... legal boundaries become blurred, and copyright laws become increasingly difficult to define. This is especially the case when actual cities... are used as the novel's settings. Such settings are not copyrightable, as they are considered public domain. Similarly, [an entire group, along with its culture] is also not copyrightable, and neither are [boobies] or [boobie] legends. Copyright laws protect writers from unauthorized reproductions of their work, but such reproductions only include verbatim copying. Characters are only copyrightable if their creator draws them or hires an artist to draw them. [The original author] borrowed a great deal from previous works dealing with these mythologies.
Step Nine:
If you're still getting backlash, try putting out another press release. Lordy Syb-Basuko thinks the best way to handle negative attention is to court more!
Is it possible for a fanfic to create such a worldwide scandal in less than a week? Perhaps it has something to do with the hordes of enraged teens working overtime and for free to witness a lawsuit that may never take place..
Perhaps you might poll internet users as to whether you should go ahead with your plans to publish. Decision-making is best left to public opinion, after all!

Step Ten:
Keep yo-yoing with the sales of your tribute sequel. Keep people on their toes!

Ignore anyone who says that you've maybe got the attention of the actual copyright owners, unless they also say that the original creator is extremely flattered by your tribute, wishes they wrote the ending your way, and wants to be BFFs.

Step Eleven:
Make sure you make snarky comments to trashtalking bloggers. That'll show 'em!

Pretend your detractors are actually working for you:
After the crepuscular period, the sun comes between the earth and the moon when the moon can't be seen anyway. Then a smashing morn threatens to make physics work right again. But, after the sun leaves the dawn behind to rise to its zenith, wordy words word wordy words. Lordy Syb-Basuko is thriving, and all he had to do was drama-llama a bit. Where are the C&D's and the lawyers?

Lordy Syb-Basuko and his imaginary friends are delighted to see how well established the promotion machine is by now. We don't have to move a finger, and the mob of "killer whales" is really lining up to be meanies. Does life imitate art or what? Fortunately, though, we send love to all the civilized people out there who know better than to judge a book by its cover . . . oops . . . author.
Try to spam franchise fans if you can, to spread the word!

(Quick Aside)
Stealing art is bad, and I would never do it. So if a couple of Japanese schoolgirls tell you that I did not create Lordy Syb-Basuko, and that his name is actually just Basuko and they actually made him to be the mascot of their "whale gang," tell them to STFU. I paid them good hush money M&Ms to use his image and "whale gang" sounds dumb anyway.

Step Twelve:
If you've got any listings left for your novel on that auction site, yank 'em. Even if you defiantly declared (as Lordy Syb-Basuko might have) that:
[Redacted] is a Tribute Sequel to [redacted]'s [redacted]. It is a tribute sequel, which means that the author is NOT [redacted]. Lordy Syb-Basuko's intention is to honor [redacted], to pay tribute to [appropriate gendered pronoun as indirect object]. The only reason this novel is being sold for money is to cover publishing costs. However, buyers BEWARE. There is a massive hate campaign going on against this novel all over the web. You must do research about this campaign before you decide to buy this novel. Get informed. Do not buy this book, unless you are absolutely positive that you want it. There is a chance that we might get sued, censored and silenced. We may only be able to auction a few more pre-orders before we get shut down. Do not bid on this book before doing the research. Please do a google search for "Lordy Syb-Basuko" to find out what is being said before you bid. If you are in disagreement with us selling this book, do not bid on it. These are [redacted]'s characters and this is a fanfic of the [redacted] Saga.
Oh, what the hell, yank your seller blog too. Anyone who's keeping tabs on your theatrics will get whiplash this way. It's a shame that you'll lose your positive feedback, though.

Step Thirteen:
Censor and ban your own promotional site! Lordy Syb-Basuko assures that no one will see this coming.

Step Fourteen:
Email the person you hold responsible for the "massive hate campaign" against you. Lordy Syb-Basuko likes to be equal parts vague and passive-aggressive when doing this. Back up any threats with information gleaned from whois, Google, or just pull stuff out of your butt. It's effective!

Make sure this person also knows how awesomely snarky you can be when putting down those mouthy bloggers!

You might also want to change your promotional site's pretend-banninated message to a Mary Shelley quote. That's so goth!

And above all, never give up. As Sugitchi would say,


Yes, I'm just taking the piss. After drinking one or five Zimas, it seemed like a good idea. For even greater lulz, please see the Russet Doom Supplementary Link Collection. 


(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)


[info]seiberwing
2009-03-24 07:28 pm UTC (link)
Ah, I see. Buddy in the trenchcoat also sounds like an easy thing to copy by mistake if you don't know the original. Edward, less so.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]dez_chan
2009-03-24 07:42 pm UTC (link)
See, this is the part that's confusing me: she makes it sound like Twilight has become so popular and well-known in our culture as a whole that the character is a cultural icon (and thus free to appropriate). Like Dracula is; you've got some guy in a tux with a cape and fangs, he's "Count Dracula." Or Holmes (detective in a deerstalker with a magnifying glass). You don't have to explain these things specifically to the people seeing it, they're that entrenched. My grandma knows who Dracula is. My crazy religious neighbors know who Holmes is. Most of my relatives/neighbors wouldn't recognize Edward or Jacob on sight.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]seiberwing
2009-03-24 07:45 pm UTC (link)
Dracula and Holmes are also in public domain, so they're legal whether or not they're popular.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]dez_chan
2009-03-24 08:01 pm UTC (link)
Yeah that too. And I have to wonder how much is chicken and egg (like it's well-known because it's public domain so lots of people use it as a stock gag). Ugh, my head swims from thinking this soon after waking up.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]seiberwing
2009-03-24 08:07 pm UTC (link)
I'm not sure, actually. Would depend on how popular they were at the time.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]cleolinda
2009-03-24 09:09 pm UTC (link)
Well, part of the issue there is that they're public domain because they predate whichever year it is after which modern copyright law comes into effect. I want to say something like 1927? It doesn't matter how well-known Harry Potter is, and I'd argue that he's a perfect example of a character that would fit this scenario--he's still not public domain. There is a hard and fast boundary for that.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]zanne
2009-03-24 10:01 pm UTC (link)
Anything published prior to 1923 is in the public domain.

Anything after than is subject to different copyright protection depending upon the year of publication.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]snarkhunter
2009-03-24 11:16 pm UTC (link)
Actually, that was an issue for Holmes fans. Sherlock Holmes didn't become public domain until the late 80s, I think.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]cmdr_zoom
2009-03-25 05:58 am UTC (link)
It's easy to check when public domain ends (forever, at this rate). Just look up the release of Steamboat Willie. (1928, says IMDB.)
Disney will never, ever let the mouse become PD.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]the_hierodule
2009-03-25 10:00 am UTC (link)
Not that I'm an internet lawyer or anything (I can't even do armchair) but isn't there a devil in the details about upholding the copyright too?

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]reeve
2009-03-26 05:26 pm UTC (link)
As I understand it, trademarks do have to be enforced by their holders, but copyrights are valid for whatever length of time they're good for. All a copyright holder has to worry about is filing for extensions and such.

In the case of Steamboat Willie, it's not so much that Disney is worried about losing Mickey Mouse (since he's a vigorously enforced registered trademark), but the rights over the film itself, which is historically significant for being the first animated film with synchronized sound and, even more interestingly, continues to be profitable for Disney to this day.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]the_hierodule
2009-03-27 04:01 am UTC (link)
Right, right. I do get my trademarks and my copyright confused.

It'd be interesting to see the legal kerfluffle resulting from a judge refusing an extension to Disney's copyright.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]reeve
2009-03-27 05:07 pm UTC (link)
One could only hope. Every time the earliest Mickey films risk slipping into the public domain, Disney lobbies Congress to pass legal extensions to copyright law (which has generally been seen as a bad thing by historians, especially film historians, for reasons related to preservation. Disney maintains its archives extremely well, but other studios don't). I don't know if things'll be any different now that Michael Eisner's not in charge anymore.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]the_hierodule
2009-03-28 02:13 am UTC (link)
Ah, I misunderstood it to mean that they were snagging individual copyright extensions for separate copyrights. Which would be an extremely large amount of paperwork, I'm suddenly realizing.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]mechanicaljewel
2009-03-25 04:09 pm UTC (link)
Not to mention, both Conan Doyle and Stoker's widow had to keep suing people for writing unauthorized stories featuring their characters before they fell into public domain.

Of course, nowadays it's practically par for the course that an established writer will at some point publish a Holmes story, but that's neither here nor there.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]seiberwing
2009-03-25 10:22 pm UTC (link)
I think Saberhagen actually did a Dracula-meets-Holmes story at one point, although I never read that one.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]isntitironic
2009-03-27 06:38 pm UTC (link)
Dude, throw in Batman and I'm THERE.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]ymfaery
2009-04-04 11:09 am UTC (link)
I don't know if Saberhagen was the writer, but I know there's a Holmes graphic novel (maybe "A Study in Scarlet") that has an additional story where Holmes does meet (and bests) a vampire. Not sure it was Dracula though.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


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