Into 5,083 posts, some wank must fall

[court1429.livejournal.com]

Well, it's 5,082 posts now... :) Gotta say that today's now-deleted post is the first of its kind that we've ever seen in this community. And dickish as it was, one post out of 5000+ is not even a blip on the meter.

For those who didn't see the post and wonder what's up, someone who rounded up a bunch of fics that are no longer available for sharing in this community, decided she'd create a new username expressly to upload said fics to an individual 4Shared page and then posted the link here in the comm.

As we've said repeatedly, what anybody chooses to save to their own hard drive and share privately is not and cannot be any of our business, but *in this community*, we go by the rules that have been posted. There aren't many, but one rule that is if an author ever notifies the maintainers that they have pulled their fics and they ask specifically that sharing *within the comm* be disallowed, we will abide by that author's request.

So far, the only author who's done so is jans_intentions. niquita_gia is the author who notified us today of this now-deleted post and has made a similar request regarding her fic, which we will honor.

As far as Carly's "That Darn Gus" fic, no such request has been made. Apparently, she posted her fics to bjfic.net and they were made unavailable because that archive has been dead for over 18 months now and the current owner chooses not to release it for someone else to step up and maintain. But if the archive came back online, that fic and many others would be available once more.

This should answer any questions regarding the wee bit of drama that is now over and done with. Carry on reading and searching and being the awesome comm members that you all are!

Comments

[court1429.livejournal.com]

I now feel better that jans intentions stories are safe since they are now in book form.

Well, we have a difference of opinion on that front. Writing fanfiction, which is by definition based on characters you do not own and then removing those fics so the characters can be renamed and the stories then sold as original fiction for which an author is financially compensated seems ethically challenged at best, outright stealing at worst.

I am not saying Jan did this. I don't know because I have only read a couple of her fics and none of her books. But "they've been taken offline and she's asked they not be shared because she's reworking them into original fiction" is the reason everyone cites when anyone asks why her fic is unavailable.

My personal opinion, or anyone's personal opinion, doesn't matter, however, since the original maintainers of this community implemented the rule about not sharing in the community if an author so requests. That rule, and the fact that the original poster was so obviously trying to stir up drama, is why the post was deleted.

[wouldbedorothy.livejournal.com]

I feel the same way. Not so much from an ethical standpoint, maybe, but more that it just makes me sad. If an author wrote a story with Brian and Justin in their mind and heart, I don't understand how they can go and change it to suddenly make it about somebody else. Moreover, I don't get how someone who read and loved a B/J fic would want to read it with B/J surgically removed. But to each his own.

In the case of someone like Jan, her fics were generally extremely AU to start with, so not really much to be stolen from Cowlip. I haven't read her books, but in taking a good look at what she's got on Amazon, I get the impression that she kept a couple of her stories fairly intact, blended multiple fics together in a few of them, and now is branching into more original stuff.

I've only seen one case of a book... think it was an ebook... where someone had "reworked" their fiction and it was still completely ridiculously obviously canon QAF. Can't remember who it was or what it was called now. I would have made an attempt to notify Cowlip so they could sue if I thought the person was going to make any money at all off it, but I really didn't.

[court1429.livejournal.com]

AUs in general don't interest me, so I haven't read very many. Some of my favorite authors have tried their hand at high school or doctor or military or old west cowboy, etc. fics and while they may be very well written, and the characters still recognizable as the Liberty Avenue Regulars, I want to read about them in that Liberty Avenue life. I do enjoy What If? fics or everything's the same but B/J meet a different way/time, but that's about as far afield as I like to wander. I also know many people adore AUs.

I think there can be AUs that are still recognizable as QAF characters, but it's probably more difficult to be aware of it especially if the characters are now renamed as well as being in an AU situation.

I do remember hearing about someone who'd been in several other fandoms and evidently she had a handful of fics and just renamed/re-gendered the characters to whatever current fandom she was interested in and posted them to archives. Someone had read the same fic with Buffy, QAF, LOTR names!

[gaedhal.livejournal.com]

The thing is that these kinds of books don't
make a lot of money -- they are mainly by fans
and for fans. I doubt CowLip give a damn at
this point and I know Russell Davies doesn't
care to pursue this kind of thing (plus he's
got bigger fish to fry right now). Chasing
after "Star Wars" fics and fan art only made
George Lucas look like a dick, so no one bothers
anymore. And some creators even encourage it.

Hey, once the names are changed, it's a different
ballgame. Even if WE know it was Brian and Justin
or whomever, the vast majority will still have
no idea. It's all fair these days and unless you
are Stephen King or John Grisham, you aren't going
to be making any money anyway. Publishing is in
the toilet, which is why people write and read
for free online, fanfiction or not.

[gaedhal.livejournal.com]

Actually, this has been going on in the RW for
a long time. I know at least four published authors
who began by converting their fanfiction (in this
case from "Star Trek" and more recently from
"Brokeback Mountain") into regular fiction. They
were all massively AU, although if you'd read the
original, you could tell. But the vast majority of
readers would not have read the original fics and
would have no way of knowing what they used to be.
Editors/publishers are aware of that and don't care
all that much as long as "the serial numbers are
chiseled off" as they say. Most "original" characters
in popular TV and fiction are not all that original
when it comes down to it. Harry Potter owes tons
to children's characters that came before, while
Roddenberry based "Star Trek" on "Wagon Train" (!?).
And most modern detectives owe their lives to Sherlock
Holmes, who owes his to Poe's Dupin, et al. Once you
start teaching lit you realize how much everything is
completely connected and that "Rebecca" is only "Jane
Eyre" in a different dress.

That said, posting fics that any writer has decided
to delete, for whatever reason, is shit stirring.
I've railed about this in the past and been called
a party pooper. So -- if you're going to do it, at
least have the decency to do it furtively via private
e-mail and not in an open community. Because that's
just not very nice.

[court1429.livejournal.com]

Oh, sure. "No new ideas/plots/etc. under the sun. They're all derivative."

And again, yes. Unless you were a member of a specific fandom, you wouldn't recognize a recycled fic and no, the publishers or producers aren't probably going to take any steps in that author's direction.

Authors can remove whatever they want. They also have to realize that if it was posted online, it's probably still available somewhere somehow. We do want to be responsive to authors who make the request to not share in the comm, but publicizing that request is the most we are willing to do, and really, it's the most we *can* do.