everything about this is a terrible idea

[lirazel]

So what do we think the likelihood is that after this Kindle Worlds thing starts that Amazon/Alloy will start going after all the Vampire Diaries/PLL/etc. fic that's published on sites other than theirs? Because that wouldn't surprise me. I'm not saying they'd have a legal leg to stand on (I don't think they would), but I would be surprised if they sent C&D letters to people who have their TVD fic up on other sites.

Comments

[flake-sake.livejournal.com]

It's hard to tell. I think they would be very stupid to so, shooting on the scene that is their clientel, but you never know with the big companies, they can be surprisingly stupid. And I'm a bit worried for them going after the big archive sites like AO3. It's not that fanfic would disappear but it would have to go more underground and hide behind friends locks and so on.

While I rather like the idea that people can live off their writing I think it might be better to stick with changing the names and calling it original. This way, the writers have far more rights and the fanfic scene stays the fun experimental scene it is.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Yeah, exactly. They can be SO DUMB sometimes, especially when they get greedy.

While I rather like the idea that people can live off their writing I think it might be better to stick with changing the names and calling it original. This way, the writers have far more rights and the fanfic scene stays the fun experimental scene it is.

Agreed. I have a number of friends who've filed off the serial numbers and made money off of stuff that was previously fic, and I support them completely. I think that's definitely the best way of doing it.

[flake-sake.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. Also because they second they started this, they are already messing with some unique key aspects of fanfic, like the fact that there is a female dominated porn scene, that is not hampered by a male dominated publishing industry.
Crossovers are what happens when people let all the stories in their head freely connect. When you find those two characters from completely different universes that would have so much to say to each other.

If fanfic is caged by what you can and cannot write it loses a lot of it's appeal. Hardly any of my favorite stories would be allowed under their rules and in the end we would end with cheap tie in novels, which never could hold a candle to the better fanfics.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes. What makes fanfiction so extraordinary is that it DOESN'T have limits, it isn't controlled by corporations, it's entirely a gift culture, mostly dominated by women, many of whom are queer. By putting it in a corporate context, it destroys all the things that make fanfiction so valuable to so many of us. I'm not saying other people shouldn't take advantage of this--they obviously can if they want to. But it isn't fanfiction in the communal sense once rules and money start coming into play. It's something else altogether.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Hardly any of my favorite stories would be allowed under their rules

Yeah it would be one thing if they were saying any fan fic for those shows are welcome, but by establishing restrictions like no pornography or cross-overs, well it does cut out huge chunks of most of the fan fic that people get really interested in reading. I can read the tie-in novels if I want to read something safe and bland, that's generally not what most readers turn to fan fic for

[silverusagi]

It's not that fanfic would disappear but it would have to go more underground and hide behind friends locks and so on.

Well, then LJ would live again, lol.