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mostlysignssomeportents · 7 months

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On September 22, I'm (virtually) presenting at the DIG Festival in Modena, Italy. On September 27, I'll be at Chevalier's Books in Los Angeles with Brian Merchant for a joint launch for my new book The Internet Con and his new book, Blood in the Machine.

It's been 21 years since Bill Willingham launched Fables, his 110-issue, wide-ranging, delightful and brilliantly crafted author-owned comic series that imagines that the folkloric figures of the world's fairytales are real people, who live in a secret society whose internal struggles and intersections with the mundane world are the source of endless drama.

Fables is a DC Comics title; DC is division of the massive entertainment conglomerate Warners, which is, in turn, part of the Warner/Discovery empire, a rapacious corporate behemoth whose screenwriters have been on strike for 137 days (and counting). DC is part of a comics duopoly; its rival, Marvel, is a division of the Disney/Fox juggernaut, whose writers are also on strike.

The DC that Willingham bargained with at the turn of the century isn't the DC that he bargains with now. Back then, DC was still subject to a modicum of discipline from competition; its corporate owner's shareholders had not yet acquired today's appetite for meteoric returns on investment of the sort that can only be achieved through wage-theft and price-gouging.

In the years since, DC – like so many other corporations – participated in an orgy of mergers as its sector devoured itself. The collapse of comics into a duopoly owned by studios from an oligopoly had profound implications for the entire sector, from comic shops to comic cons. Monopoly breeds monopoly, and the capture of the entire comics distribution system by a single company – Diamond – was attended by the capture of the entire digital comics market by a single company, Amazon, who enshittified its Comixology division, driving creators and publishers into Kindle Direct Publishing, a gig-work platform that replicates the company's notoriously exploitative labor practices for creative workers. Today, Comixology is a ghost-town, its former employees axed in a mass layoff earlier this year:

https://gizmodo.com/amazon-layoffs-comixology-1850007216

When giant corporations effect these mergers, they do so with a kind of procedural kabuki, insisting that they are dotting every i and crossing every t, creating a new legal entity whose fictional backstory is a perfect, airtight bubble, a canon with not a single continuity bug. This performance of seriousness is belied by the behind-the-scenes chaos that these corporate shifts entail – think of the way that the banks that bought and sold our mortgages in the run-up to the 2008 crisis eventually lost the deeds to our houses, and then just pretended they were legally entitled to collect money from us every month – and steal our houses if we refused to pay:

https://www.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-58325420110720

Or think of the debt collection industry, which maintains a pretense of careful record-keeping as the basis for hounding and threatening people, but which is, in reality, a barely coherent trade in spreadsheets whose claims to our money are matters of faith:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/12/do-not-pay/#fair-debt-collection-practices-act

For usury, the chaos is a feature, not a bug. Their corporate strategists take the position that any ambiguity should be automatically resolved in their favor, with the burden of proof on accused debtors, not the debt collectors. The scumbags who lost your deed and stole your house say that it's up to you to prove that you own it. And since you've just been rendered homeless, you don't even have a house to secure a loan you might use to pay a lawyer to go to court.

It's not solely that the usurers want to cheat you – it's that they can make more money if they don't pay for meticulous record-keeping, and if that means that they sometimes cheat us, that's our problem, not theirs.

While this is very obvious in the usury sector, it's also true of other kinds of massive mergers that create unfathomnably vast conglomerates. The "curse of bigness" is real, but who gets cursed is a matter of power, and big companies have a lot more power.

The chaos, in other words, is a feature and not a bug. It provides cover for contract-violating conduct, up to and including wage-theft. Remember when Disney/Marvel stole money from beloved science fiction giant Alan Dean Foster, whose original Star Wars novelization was hugely influential on George Lucas, who changed the movie to match Foster's ideas?

Disney claimed that when it acquired Lucasfilm, it only acquired its assets, but not its liabilities. That meant that while it continued to hold Foster's license to publish his novel, they were not bound by an obligation to pay Foster for this license, since that liability was retained by the (now defunct) original company:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/30/disney-still-must-pay/#pay-the-writer

For Disney, this wage-theft (and many others like it, affecting writers with less fame and clout than Foster) was greatly assisted by the chaos of scale. The chimera of Lucas/Disney had no definitive responsible party who could be dragged into a discussion. The endless corporate shuffling that is normal in giant companies meant that anyone who might credibly called to account for the theft could be transfered or laid off overnight, with no obvious successor. The actual paperwork itself was hard for anyone to lay hands on, since the relevant records had been physically transported and re-stored subsequent to the merger. And, of course, the company itself was so big and powerful that it was hard for Foster and his agent to raise a credible threat.

I've experienced versions of this myself: every book contract I've ever signed stipulated that my ebooks could not be published with DRM. But one of my publishers – a boutique press that published my collection Overclocked – collapsed along with most of its competitors, the same week my book was published (its distributor, Publishers Group West, went bankrupt after its parent company, Advanced Marketing Services, imploded in a shower of fraud and criminality).

The publisher was merged with several others, and then several more, and then several more – until it ended up a division of the Big Five publisher Hachette, who repeatedly, "accidentally" pushed my book into retail channels with DRM. I don't think Hachette deliberately set out to screw me over, but the fact that Hachette is (by far) the most doctrinaire proponent of DRM meant that when the chaos of its agglomerated state resulted in my being cheated, it was a happy accident.

(The Hachette story has a happy ending; I took the book back from them and sold it to Blackstone Publishing, who brought out a new expanded edition to accompany a DRM-free audiobook and ebook):

https://www.blackstonepublishing.com/overclocked-bvej.html

Willingham, too, has been affected by the curse of bigness. The DC he bargained with at the outset of Fables made a raft of binding promises to him: he would have approval over artists and covers and formats for new collections, and he would own the "IP" for the series, meaning the copyrights vested in the scripts, storylines, characters (he might also have retained rights to some trademarks).

But as DC grew, it made mistakes. Willingham's hard-fought, unique deal with the publisher was atypical. A giant publisher realizes its efficiencies through standardized processes. Willingham's books didn't fit into that standard process, and so, repeatedly, the publisher broke its promises to him.

At first, Willingham's contacts at the publisher were contrite when he caught them at this. In his press-release on the matter, Willingham calls them "honest men and women of integrity [who] interpreted the details of that agreement fairly and above-board":

https://billwillingham.substack.com/p/willingham-sends-fables-into-the

But as the company grew larger, these counterparties were replaced by corporate cogs who were ever-more-distant from his original, creator-friendly deal. What's more, DC's treatment of its other creators grew shabbier at each turn (a dear friend who has written for DC for decades is still getting the same page-rate as they got in the early 2000s), so Willingham's deal grew more exceptional as time went by. That meant that when Willingham got the "default" treatment, it was progressively farther from what his contract entitled him to.

The company repeatedly – and conveniently – forgot that Willingham had the final say over the destiny of his books. They illegally sublicensed a game adapted from his books, and then, when he objected, tried to make renegotiating his deal a condition of being properly compensated for this theft. Even after he won that fight, the company tried to cheat him and then cover it up by binding him to a nondisclosure agreement.

This was the culmination of a string of wage-thefts in which the company misreported his royalties and had to be dragged into paying him his due. When the company "practically dared" Willingham to sue ("knowing it would be a long and debilitating process") he snapped.

Rather than fight Warner, Willingham has embarked on what JWZ calls an act of "absolute table-flip badassery" – he has announced that Fables will hereafter be in the public domain, available for anyone to adapt commercially, in works that compete with whatever DC might be offering.

Now, this is huge, and it's also shrewd. It's the kind of thing that will bring lots of attention on Warner's fraudulent dealings with its creative workforce, at a moment where the company is losing a public relations battle to the workers picketing in front of its gates. It constitutes a poison pill that is eminently satisfying to contemplate. It's delicious.

But it's also muddy. Willingham has since clarified that his public domain dedication means that the public can't reproduce the existing comics. That's not surprising; while Willingham doesn't say so, it's vanishingly unlikely that he owns the copyrights to the artwork created by other artists (Willingham is also a talented illustrator, but collaborated with a who's-who of comics greats for Fables). He may or may not have control over trademarks, from the Fables wordmark to any trademark interests in the character designs. He certainly doesn't have control over the trademarked logos for Warner and DC that adorn the books.

When Willingham says he is releasing the "IP" to his comic, he is using the phrase in its commercial sense, not its legal sense. When business people speak of "owning IP," they mean that they believe they have the legal right to control the conduct of their competitors, critics and customers:

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

The problem is that this doesn't correspond to the legal concept of IP, because IP isn't actually a legal concept. While there are plenty of "IP lawyers" and even "IP law firms," there is no "IP law." There are many laws that are lumped together under "IP," including the big three (trademark, copyright and patent), but also a bestiary of obscure cousins and subspecies – trade dress, trade secrecy, service marks, noncompetes, nondisclosues, anticirumvention rights, sui generis "neighboring rights" and so on.

The job of an "IP lawyer" is to pluck individual doctrines from this incoherent scrapheap of laws and regulations and weave them together into a spider's web of tripwires that customers and critics and competitors can't avoid, and which confer upon the lawyer's client the right to sue for anything that displeases them.

When Willingham says he's releasing Fables into the public domain, it's not clear what he's releasing – and what is his to release. In the colloquial, business sense of "IP," saying you're "releasing the IP" means something like, "Feel free to create adaptations from this." But these adaptations probably can't draw too closely on the artwork, or the logos. You can probably make novelizations of the comics. Maybe you can make new comics that use the same scripts but different art. You can probably make sequels to, or spinoffs of, the existing comics, provided you come up with your own character designs.

But it's murky. Very murky. Remember, this all started because Willingham didn't have the resources or patience to tangle with the rabid attack-lawyers Warners keeps kenneled on its Burbank lot. Warners can (and may) release those same lawyers on you, even if you are likely to prevail in court, betting that you – like Willingham – won't have the resources to defend yourself.

The strange reality of "IP" rights is that they can be secured without any affirmative step on your part. Copyrights are conjured into existence the instant that a new creative work is fixed in a tangible medium and endure until the creator's has been dead for 70 years. Common-law trademarks gradually come into definition like an image appearing on photo-paper in a chemical soup, growing in definition every time they are used, even if the mark's creator never files a form with the USPTO.

These IP tripwires proliferate in the shadows, wherever doodles are sketched on napkins, wherever kindergartners apply finger-paint to construction-paper. But for all that they are continuously springing into existence, and enduring for a century or more, they are absurdly hard to give away.

This was the key insight behind the Creative Commons project: that while the internet was full of people saying "no copyright" (or just assuming the things they posted were free for others to use), the law was a universe away from their commonsense assumptions. Creative Commons licenses were painstakingly crafted by an army of international IP lawyers who set out to turn the normal IP task on its head – to create a legal document that assured critics, customers and competitors that the licensor had no means to control their conduct.

20 years on, these licenses are pretty robust. The flaws in earlier versions have been discovered and repaired in subsequent revisions. They have been adapted to multiple countries' legal systems, allowing CC users to mix-and-match works from many territories – animating Polish sprites to tell a story by a Canadian, set to music from the UK.

Willingham could clarify his "public domain" dedication by applying a Creative Commons license to Fables, but which license? That's a thorny question. What Willingham really wants here is a sampling license – a license that allows licensees to take some of the elements of his work, combine them with other parts, and make something new.

But no CC license fits that description. Every CC license applies to whole works. If you want to license the bass-line from your song but not the melody, you have to release the bass-line separately and put a CC license on that. You can't just put a CC license on the song with an asterisked footnote that reads "just the bass, though."

CC had a sampling license: the "Sampling Plus 1.0" license. It was a mess. Licensees couldn't figure out what parts of works they were allowed to use, and licensors couldn't figure out how to coney that. It's been "retired."

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/sampling+/1.0/

So maybe Willingham should create his own bespoke license for Fables. That may be what he has to do, in fact. But boy is that a fraught business. Remember the army of top-notch lawyers who created the CC licenses? They missed a crucial bug in the first three versions of the license, and billions of works have been licensed under those earlier versions. This has enabled a mob of crooked copyleft trolls (like Pixsy) to prey on the unwary, raking in a fortune:

https://doctorow.medium.com/a-bug-in-early-creative-commons-licenses-has-enabled-a-new-breed-of-superpredator-5f6360713299

Making a bug-free license is hard. A failure on Willingham's part to correctly enumerate or convey the limitations of such a license – to list which parts of Fables DC might sue you for using – could result in downstream users having their hard work censored out of existence by legal threats. Indeed, that's the best case scenario – defects in a license could result in downstream users, their collaborators, investors, and distributors being sued for millions of dollars, costing them everything they have, up to and including their homes.

Which isn't to say that this is dead on arrival – far from it! Just that there is work to be done. I can't speak for Creative Commons (it's been more than 20 years since I was their EU Director), but I'm positive that there are copyfighting lawyers out there who'd love to work on a project like this.

I think Willingham is onto something here. After all, Fables is built on the public domain. As Willingham writes in his release: "The current laws are a mishmash of unethical backroom deals to keep trademarks and copyrights in the hands of large corporations, who can largely afford to buy the outcomes they want."

Willingham describes how his participation in the entertainment industry has made him more skeptical of IP, not less. He proposes capping copyright at 20 years, with a single, 10-year extension for works that are sold onto third parties. This would be pretty good industrial policy – almost no works are commercially viable after just 14 years:

https://rufuspollock.com/papers/optimal_copyright.pdf

But there are massive structural barriers to realizing such a policy, the biggest being that the US had tied its own hands by insisting that long copyright terms be required in the trade deals it imposed on other countries, thereby binding itself to these farcically long copyright terms.

But there is another policy lever American creators can and should yank on to partially resolve this: Termination. The 1976 Copyright Act established the right for any creator to "terminate" the "transfer" of any copyrighted work after 30 years, by filing papers with the Copyright Office. This process is unduly onerous, and the Authors Alliance (where I'm a volunteer advisor) has created a tool to simplify it:

https://www.authorsalliance.org/resources/rights-reversion-portal/

Termination is deliberately obscure, but it's incredibly powerful. The copyright scholar Rebecca Giblin has studied this extensively, helping to produce the most complete report on how termination has been used by creators of all types:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/04/avoidance-is-evasion/#reverted

Writers, musicians and other artists have used termination to unilaterally cancel the crummy deals they had crammed down their throats 30 years ago and either re-sell their works on better terms or make them available directly to the public. Every George Clinton song, every Sweet Valley High novel, and the early works of Steven King have all be terminated and returned to their creators.

Copyright termination should and could be improved. Giblin and I wrote a whole-ass book about this and related subjects, Chokepoint Capitalism, which not only details the scams that writers like Willingham are subject to, but also devotes fully half its length to presenting detailed, technical, shovel-ready proposals for making life better for creators:

https://chokepointcapitalism.com/

Willingham is doing something important here. Larger and larger entertainment firms offer shabbier and shabbier treatment to creative workers, as striking members of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA can attest. Over the past year, I've seen a sharp increase in the presence of absolutely unconscionable clauses in the contracts I'm offered by publishers:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/27/reps-and-warranties/#i-agree

I'm six months into negotiating a contract for a 300 word piece I wrote for a magazine I started contributing to in 1992. At issue is that they insist that I assign film rights and patent rights from my work as a condition of publication. Needless to say, there are no patentable inventions nor film ideas in this article, but they refuse to vary the contract, to the obvious chagrin of the editor who commissioned me.

Why won't they grant a variance? Why, they are so large – the magazine is part of a global conglomerate – that it would be impractical for them to track exceptions to this completely fucking batshit clause. In other words: we can't strike this batshit clause because we decided that from now on, all out contracts will have batshit clauses.

The performance of administrative competence – and the tactical deployment of administrative chaos – among giant entertainment companies is grotesque, but every now and again, it backfires.

That's what's happening at Marvel right now. The estates of Marvel founder Stan Lee and its seminal creator Steve Ditko are suing Marvel to terminate the transfer of both creators' characters to Marvel. If they succeed, Marvel will lose most of its most profitable characters, including Iron Man:

https://www.reuters.com/legal/marvel-artists-estate-ask-pre-trial-wins-superhero-copyright-fight-2023-05-22/

They're following in the trail of the Jack Kirby estate, whom Marvel paid millions to rather than taking their chances with the Supreme Court.

Marvel was always an administrative mess, repeatedly going bankrupt. Its deals with its creators were indifferently papered over, and then Marvel lost a lot of the paperwork. I'd bet anything that many of the key documents Disney (Marvel's owner) needs to prevail over Lee and Ditko are either unlocatable or destroyed – or never existed in the first place.

A more muscular termination right – say, one that kicks in after 20 years, and is automatic – would turn circuses like Marvel-Lee/Ditko into real class struggles. Rather than having the heirs of creators reaping the benefit of termination, we could make termination into a system for getting creators themselves paid.

In the meantime, there's Willingham's "absolute table-flip badassery."

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/15/fairy-use-tales/#sampling-license

Image: Tom Mrazek (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:An_Open_Field_%2827220830251%29.jpg

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

Penguin Random House (modified) https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/707161/fables-20th-anniversary-box-set-by-bill-willingham/

Fair use https://www.eff.org/issues/intellectual-property

#pluralistic #fables #comics #graphic novels #dc #warner #monopoly #publishing #chokepoint capitalism #poison pills #ip #bill willingham #public domain #copyright #copyfight #creative commons #licenses #copyleft trolls

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mikuni14 · 2 months

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Why I think the way the final episode of The Sign was distributed is wrong, offensive and unfair to fans. And how disappointing I am with this approach, because I sincerely supported Idol Factory and Saint.

Personally, I pay for Gaga, Viki and IQIYI, plus a VPN to watch shows that are not available in my country (like Pit Babe), which, you know, I already paid for 🙄 Additionally, I pay for Netflix, I have combined subscriptions with other people for Disney, HBO, Skyshowtime, Prime, last year we paid for Apple to watch Silo and Severance (I recommend both series btw 👌). I also don't mind paying one-time for a film on the platform, which is how I recently watched Oppenheimer.

Money is not an issue (<- lol), apart from the fact that I support myself and I have to work, and I have to carefully manage my budget in order to feed myself and my cat, clothe myself, pay my bills, and my loss of job will mean obviously giving up access to all these media. I say that money is not a problem in the sense that I WILL SPEND MONEY on something I like. I will save, I will give up something else, but I will spend this money on stuff I love.

The Sign has chosen a certain distribution method for international fans. They chose YouTube and chose a set airing hour. They could have chosen to distribute only in Thailand like Cherry Magic, or they could have chosen any other platform with paid subscriptions. But they chose YouTube. And they released 11 episodes for free and at a set time. And now they CHOSE to make the last ep paid and to create a complete chaos related to the distribution of the finale, because I honestly don't know at this point whether it is paid or not, what is paid and what is not, whether it is on Saturday or Sunday or it's for a ticket or for free on channel3 and apparently they have two endings????, which is always an alarming sign for me, because it's very Game of Thrones/Marvel style shit.

Besides, people have their own lives, their obligations, their schedules. Sometimes you just can't get around certain things and you can't watch a series in the available time, no matter how much you want. Secondly, releasing a product for free in order to limit access to it in the final phase is the worst manifestation of toxic capitalism. This is preying on the desperation and devotion of fans. The third thing is the selection of viewers into those who can afford it, have the time, have the resources and those who do not. And yes, sometimes even just $15 of an unexpected expense makes a huge difference in a person's budget. It's telling some of the fans that you are VIP and can sit in the front row, and the rest of the peasants should wait outside for two weeks 😄

tl;dr personally I want and can pay for: 1) the entire series on a legal platform 2) ADDITIONAL things, like specials, fan stuff, etc. I consider paying for access to the series finale, which until now was free, immoral.

But tbh I really have no idea what's going on, I go with the flow 🤡Whenever I check The Sign tag, I read more and more new information related to the possibility of watching the finale, and it's different every day. And if it turns out that the cut version of the series will be available for free on Channel 3, and the uncut version with subs will be available tomorrow with a ticket, it will be the funniest thing ever. Because that would mean that people paid $15 to watch, I don't know what, a sex scene? 😄

Idk, guys, instead of enjoying the finale, people are wondering how to watch it at all. And if IF starts doing this, won't others follow suit? 11 episodes for free, oh you want to watch the finale, well you have to pay or wait and dodge the spoilers 😈

And one last thing for potential defenders of this system, like "what's your problem, it will be available in 2 weeks, just wait": so you accept that not ALL fans will have a chance to experience the final ep together, which is the basis of the fan community? That some fans will experience and analyze the episodes this weekend, and the rest will wait?

#the sign the series #bl drama #thai bl

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obrienpolycule · 5 months

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Okay, I said some of this in tags of another post but that post doesn't actually have to do with this issue so I'm making another post.

Disney is not part of the production and writing of the new episodes and season of Doctor Who. Doctor Who is currently being produced by Bad Wolf and BBC Studios Production. Disney+ has exclusive streaming rights to new Doctor Who episodes for audiences outside the UK and Ireland. This is to make the show more accessible to international audiences (whether it's doing that is definitely debatable). They have streaming rights in the same way that Max (formerly HBOMax) has streaming rights to S1-Flux of NuWho. Disney doesn't have control over the content of the show, just what they stream on their platform. (Considering HBO used to have a minority stake of shares in Bad Wolf before their shares got bought by Sony in December of 2021, a year before they started producing the 60th anniversary specials, I don't think they had any influence on the production of the RTD2 episodes.)

I'm clarifying this because a lot of people are complaining that Disney is affecting the show even though both BBC and Disney, in their announcements of the streaming deal have paragraphs where they specify exactly who the producers, studios, and writers are for the new specials and season.

Whether or not you liked the writing and subject matter of the 60th specials, you should know who is actually making the show. (In my personal opinion, I don't think Disney should get credit for RTD genuinely trying to have good trans and bi rep in Doctor Who when they can barely give us crumbs in their media. Whether or not y'all think he's successful at that is your opinion.)

I also want to address Whoniverse. Whoniverse is the BBC giving the overall Doctor Who Franchise an official name and logo. If you access BBC iPlayer, you can now find all the episodes (NuWho and Classic), behind the scenes videos, spin-offs, specials, and commentaries in one place.

That's kind of it. Whoniverse is just the same stuff we've been watching and talking about and interacting with for decades but now they're all on the same page on an official website. And they have a new logo.

TLDR: BBC makes Doctor Who. Disney Branded Television distributes it internationally. Whoniverse is basically a logo.

#doctor who #dw #dr who #russel t davies #rtd #whoniverse #disney #disney+#bbc

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lurkingshan · 7 months

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I feel like I am watching everything BL that has been out but do you think there is a show that is not being talked about as much?

Oh, for sure. There are always shows that go relatively under the radar. In bl, there’s a clear hierarchy for what gets most eyeballs, discussion, and attention on tumblr, and a lot of it has to do with platforms and their different levels of international access. Basically:

Anything on YouTube for free, and especially on the GMMTV channel, gets outsized attention, whether it’s good or not. @bengiyo was not wrong when he called GMMTV the Disney of bl. This is where most Thai bl lives and why it tends to dominate discourse.

Shows on Viki or Gaga are next in line, as these platforms are fairly accessible and cheap. This is where most Korean, Japanese, and Taiwanese bl lives. There’s a steep drop off in engagement on here for these compared to YT shows, but they still get some attention and occasionally one will break through and become hella popular (like The Eighth Sense or Old Fashion Cupcake).

Anything on iQIYI only gets even fewer eyeballs, because you gotta pay for this one and it actually has a terrible UI. It’s extra frustrating because a lot of shows are going here now and people are just not seeing them. Kinnporsche is an example of an iQIYI show that managed to go viral despite this constraint, but it’s a mega outlier.

Everything else in the great grey beyond. There are still bls produced that get no international distribution at all, though this is thankfully becoming less common. One of my great frustrations about I Feel You Linger in the Air is that it’s not actually available in a lot of places internationally, and this is keeping its audience small despite it being one of the best things airing right now. You need a VPN and a can do attitude to make it work, and with so much content folks just aren’t inspired to hunt down the shows that aren’t coming to them.

In addition to IFYL, recent shows that come to mind as flying relatively under the radar despite being top tier include La Pluie, Sing My Crush, Wedding Plan, and Love in Translation. There’s also a jbl airing right now called I Cannot Reach You that is unfortunately inaccessible to the international audience; I’m eagerly awaiting a distribution deal for it soon.

#i feel you linger in the air #la pluie #sing my crush #wedding plan #love in translation #i cannot reach you #gmmtv bl #underrated bl #shan answers

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somuchyoudontknow · 11 months

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Hello Sophia,

I’ve been curious about any relationships and linkages between SMA title, Alba and Jinx. Finally, I’ve managed to discover Chris’ influencer profile on one marketing platform (note: Carbons Dating The Web estimated creation date: 2023-06-01).

There are some interesting facts and figures in the case study:

Premium US dog superfood brand, Jinx is redefining dog nutrition and is sold at Walmart stores across the country. Its audience are 71% female, typically single or married and aged in their thirties. English-speaking, Jinx’s followers are 84% US-based, with India, The Philippines, Indonesia and Brazil as secondary markets. Top cities for its customers include New York, LA, San Francisco and Chicago.

Looking at celebrity influences, Chris Evans does not appear in the list.

Media-wise, Buzzfeed, Betches Media, The New York Times, HGTV, The New Yorker, People Magazine, Vice and Bon Appetit come out on top for consumption.

Chris’ audience is 67% female, typically single and aged 25-34. English-speaking, his followers are typically based in the US, with Brazil, India, Italy and Mexico as other territories. Top cities include São Paulo, New York and LA. On basic demographics, Chris Evans and Jinx are rather well matched, particularly if the brand is hoping to reach a slightly younger customer base.

Diving into likes and interests, Film & TV rank highly, as well as music, dance, sport, college, poetry, Mexican food and spirituality. Pets is present, with 1.5% of the share, which is 1.3x the platform average, putting Chris Evan’s profile in the top 20% of all Instagram accounts for pets.

Looking at media consumption, Buzzfeed, BBC, CNN, 9GAG, New York Times, TIME Magazine, The New Yorker, GQ and Hugo Gloss dominate. Crucially, Jinx isn’t listed as one of Chris Evan’s follower’s main brand affinities. Instead, the likes of Marvel, Disney, NASA, Starbucks, Google, PlayStation and Sephora lead. That being said, no other pet food brand appears.

It is important to note that Chris Evans is one of a few celebrity investors in Jinx. However, he is still quite an organic brand ambassador, being known for his relationship with his dog. Overall, it’s a smart match for brand and talent that taps into authentic interests and with the addition of Evans as creative director for campaigns, it appears to be a more substantial collaboration than a simple awareness-based sponsorship.

November 2020 – Chris followed Alba.

16 November 2021 – Pooch loving celebs Trevor Noah, Chris Evans, NFL star Odell Beckham Jr. and CAA co-founder Michael Ovitz are among the latest high-profile investors in Jinx.

PageSix: Chris Evans and more A-listers invest in healthy dog food brand.

2022

9 March – Pet Age: Walmart Partnership Expands Distribution of Premium Dog Food Brand Jinx.

10 March – Pet Product News: Jinx Pet Food Now Available at Walmart.

21 May – People Mag: Chris Evans celebrates National Rescue Dog Day with adorable photo of himself and pet Dodger.

2 June – Buzzfeed announces Puppy interview.

18 June – Buzzfeed releases Puppy interview.

24 June – Alba’s first like in 2022 (iPhone post).

15 July – Laser focused interview.

16 July – Chris liked Alba’s MHGP post.

17 July – JustJared, Daily Mail and Buzzfeed report Chris Evans is laser focused on finding a partner (no mention of Alba).

18 July – People Mag: Chris Evans Says He's 'Laser-Focused on Finding a Partner' to Spend His Life With.

20 July – Chris’ Dating Poll by Buzzfeed.

27 July – Entertainment Tonight meet Chris Evans' 'Long-Term Partner': His Adorable Dog Dodger!

Forbes: Chris Evans Partners With Jinx Premium Dog Food.

Adweek: Chris is Future Jinx Ad Star.

CNN: Talking dog parenting with Chris Evans.

People: Chris Evans Says His Pet Dodger Is 'a Cut Above the Average Dog,' But Admits 'I'm Probably Biased'.

26 August – People Mag: Chris Evans Celebrates National Dog Day with Pup Dodger: 'In My House, Every Day.

27 August – E! news tweet: When Captain America found his perfect sidekick. ❤️ Happy #InternationalDogDay to Chris Evans & Dodger.

October – Alba deactivated her IG account.

6 October – People mag: the actor and his beloved rescue dog Dodger star in a new ad spot for dog food company Jinx.

11 October – Alba reactivated her account. Chris liked 2 WN posts.

7 November – SMA announcement on Monday's The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.

Chris Evans Is PEOPLE's 2022 Sexiest Man Alive.

Entertainment Tonight: Chris Evans Reacted to Getting 'People' Magazine's 2022 Sexiest Man Alive (editor Julie Jordan: “If he is dating someone he will talk about it or you will see him with the person”.

10 November – People: Chris Evans Is Dating Actress Alba Baptista: 'It's Serious,' Says Source — He's 'Never Been Happier'.

OK! Mag: Chris Evans & Actress Alba Baptista's Relationship Confirmed Months After Packing On The PDA At 'Super Affectionate' Date Night.

PageSix: Chris Evans and girlfriend Alba Baptista hold hands in first PDA photos.

12 November – Daily Mail: 'World's Sexiest Man' Chris Evans, 41, is seen holding hands with Alba Baptista, 25, for the FIRST time on a romantic stroll in Central Park.

E! News: Chris Evans & Alba Baptista Confirm Romance With PDA Stroll.

14 November – E! News tweet: The strongest bond in the universe (Dodger).

10 December – Alba deactivated her IG account.

2023

10 March – Alba reactivated her IG account.

18 April – Alba at Ghosted Premiere in NY.

26 April – People: Jinx to bring "The Dog Dream Box" to dog lovers nationwide.

28 April – Pet Food Processing: To celebrate Pet Month in May, Jinx launched a new limited-edition “The Dog Dream Box” collaboration with celebrity Chris Evans, brand ambassador at Jinx, and his dog Dodger.

J2 June – 40/29 News: 2023 Walmart Associates' Celebration.

#chris evans pr #chris evans #Alba-baptista #Jinx #Pr strategy

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pers-books · 9 months

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The shooting of the new ‘Doctor Who’ spin-off has reportedly begun, most likely in the United Kingdom, the principal location of the series. Denise Welch, who is known for playing Natalie Barnes/Horrocks in ‘Coronation Street’ and Steph Haydock in ‘Waterloo Road,’ was spotted filming the series recently. The production of the original series’ fourteenth season recently wrapped and the fifteenth season’s shooting is slated to begin in December in Cardiff.

The spin-off series revolves around the UNIT, a military organization operating under the United Nations to investigate and combat paranormal and extraterrestrial threats to Earth. UNIT has featured significantly in the original series for the past 50 years. The spin-off will follow UNIT leader Kate Stewart. Jemma Redgrave appears as Stewart in around ten episodes of the original series. Redgrave will be appearing in the series after portraying Stewart in the ‘Doctor Who’ Christmas special later this year, starring alongside the new Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa (‘Sex Education’).

The new spin-off will be a part of an expanded “Whoniverse,” which was born after Disney+ struck a significant international distribution deal with BBC. ‘Doctor Who’ showrunner and executive producer Russell T. Davies revealed that the show is only one of the several spin-offs that will form the “Whoniverse.” “[…] it was time for the next stage for Doctor Who. I thought the streaming platforms are ready, the spin-offs are ready; I always believed in spin-offs,” Davies told British GQ about expanding the ‘Doctor Who’ universe with new shows set in the same.

Redgrave is best known for playing Evie Wilcox in ‘Howards End,’ alongside Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, Lady DeCourcy in Kate Beckinsale and Chloë Sevigny-starrer ‘Love & Friendship,’ MI6 Agent Emily Tuthill in ‘The Grid,’ Rebecca Edmonds in Craig Ferguson’s ‘I’ll Be There,’ etc. Her recent credits include DI Jill Raymond in ‘Silent Witness,’ Amelia Gurney-Clifford/Davenport in ‘Grantchester,’ Bernie Wolfe in ‘Holby City,’ etc.

Welch’s recent credits, on the other hand, includes Angela in ‘Dead Canny,’ Trish Minniver in ‘Hollyoaks,’ Doll Belvedere in ‘Dun Breedin’,’ Linda Bradshaw/Pam McGrath in ‘Holby City,’ etc. BBC has not announced other cast members of the spin-off series yet, which can be expected in the upcoming months.

Along with BBC Studios, Sony-backed Bad Wolf, the production company behind ‘His Dark Materials,’ ‘A Discovery of Witches,’ and ‘Industry,’ is expected to be involved in the production of the series. Bad Wolf has been co-producing ‘Doctor Wolf’ since the fourteenth season of the show.

#TV: UNIT #Doctor Who #Jemma Redgrave #Kate Stewart #News and Speculation

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tomorrowusa · 5 months

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Elon Musk has turned Twitter X into a haven for hate speech as well as bots from Russia and other malevolent countries.

Musk himself promoted an antisemitic tweet – probably to show his far right pals that he's just one of the guys. Because of that, he's losing his few remaining respectable advertisers and is coming under scrutiny by governments in the US, UK, and the EU.

An advertising boycott of social media platform X is gathering pace amid an antisemitism storm on the site formerly known as Twitter. Apple, Disney, Comcast and Warner Brothers Discovery have all halted advertising on X, US media report, following hot on the heels of IBM. The European Commission, TV network Paramount and movie studio Lionsgate have also pulled ad dollars from X. It comes after X owner Elon Musk amplified an antisemitic trope. The corporate boycott has also been picking up steam in the wake of an investigation by a US group which flagged ads appearing next to pro-Nazi posts on X. A spokesperson for X told the BBC on Thursday that the company does not intentionally place brands "next to this kind of content" and the platform is dedicated to combatting antisemitism. Mr Musk came under fire on Wednesday after he replied to a post sharing an antisemitic conspiracy theory, calling it "actual truth".

Yeah, "actual truth" as the type of stuff you'd find on Truth Social. 🙄

The White House denounced Mr Musk's endorsement of the post. "We condemn this abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate in the strongest terms," said spokesperson Andrew Bates.

The Washington Post has a list of major advertisers who have suspended their ads on Musk's platform.

IBM IBM pulled its advertising from X on Nov. 16 after the Media Matters report identified it as one of several blue-chip companies whose ads had appeared next to tweets promoting antisemitism. [ ... ] Apple The maker of iPhones and MacBooks decided to pause all advertising on X on Friday after Musk endorsed an antisemitic post on platform, according to Axios, citing unnamed sources, and the New York Times. Apple was reportedly the platform’s largest advertiser, spending nearly $50 million in the first quarter of 2022. [ ... ] Lionsgate A spokesperson for the entertainment and film distribution company told The Washington Post it suspended advertisements on X on Friday afternoon, saying the decision came after “Elon’s tweet.” [ ... ] Disney The entertainment giant suspended advertising on the social media platform Friday, a company spokesperson said. [ ... ] Paramount The media, streaming and entertainment company is suspending all advertising on the platform, a spokesperson said in an email to The Post on Friday.

[ ... ] Comcast The global media and tech company is pausing ads on X, company spokesperson Jennifer Khoury said in an email on Friday. Philadelphia-based Comcast, with a market cap near $171 billon, provides a range of broadband, wireless and other services.

The European Union has also stopped all advertising at MuskX.

No more ads on Elon’s X, EU Commission tells staff

Truth Social is having HÜGE financial problems. Perhaps the two ought to merge; a lot of people wouldn't notice the difference except for the logo. 😆

Chris Hayes at MSNBC put Elon Musk's antisemitism in historical perspective.

youtube

To people still on Twitter/X: How do you explain to others why you remain on a platform associated with vile hatemongers?

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historyhermann · 1 year

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Booming LGBTQ Representation in Animation in 2021 [Part 1]

Two of the choices for “Fan Favorite Couple” in Autostraddle’s Annual Gay Emmys in September 2021 were in animated series. Both choices are highlighted here by yellow boxes.

In December 2020, I wrote that there is “hope in the future for diverse storylines and expanded representation,” adding that there is “a lot to look forward to in 2021 in terms of animated series…[which] will undoubtedly affect the ongoing war between streaming platforms for more subscribers, profits for themselves, and film distribution itself.” That still rings true, and 2021 has even more representation that I had imagined in December 2020, with continuing series like The Owl House, Disenchantment, Helluva Boss, Star Trek: Lower Decks, the third (and final) season of Final Space, and many others. The representation in 2021 is part of the “whirlwind” of LGBTQ representation which creator Noelle Stevenson described in November 2021.

Reprinted from Pop Culture Maniacs, my History Hermann WordPress blog on Jan. 15, 2023, and Wayback Machine. This was the seventh article I wrote for Pop Culture Maniacs. This post was originally published on January 5, 2022.

When Autostraddle, a digital lesbian culture publication, posted about their annual awards show, the Annual Gay Emmys, in September 2021, the influence of LGBTQ representation in animation was evident. [1] While most of the nominees for the categories were live-action series, there was an entire category dedicated to such series, “Outstanding Animated Series.” Harley Quinn, Blues Clues & You!, the “Obsidian” episode of Adventure Time: Distant Lands, The Owl House, “The Politics Episode” of One Day at a Time, and Magical Girl Friendship Squad were nominees. [2] The Harley Quinn episode “Something Borrowed,” was one of the nominees for the “Best Episode with LGBTQ+ Themes” category, and two couples in animated series were nominated for the “Fan Favorite Couple” question. When the results were announced Harley Quinn won for Outstanding Animated Series, although it was unfortunately the only animated series to win in a category. Of the series nominated, Magical Girl Friendship Squad and One Day at a Time ended in 2020, [3] Distant Lands ended in 2021, while three others are ongoing (Harley Quinn, Blue Clues & You!, and The Owl House).

Keeping this in mind, reviewer Jade King, in a review of The Owl House, said “we shouldn’t look toward giant corporations for continual queer representation.” While that still rings true, many of the shows with LGBTQ representation are produced and broadcast by such companies. For instance, of the over 20 Western animations noted in this article, almost all of them are produced by the subsidiaries of companies like Disney, WarnerMedia, NBCUniversal, ViacomCBS, and Sony, which bring in more than $1 billion a year. [4] The same is the case with many of the Japanese anime series noted in this post, which tend to have more LGBTQ representation, generally, than Western animation, although the instances of representation between Western and Japanese animation is slowly reaching the same level, and Japanese anime often plays into “many problematic aspects” and stereotypes in one way or another. King also pointed out that queer representation is not a competition, but should be a collaboration, rather than putting down one show while elevating another, arguing that “queer representation isn’t a linear path to acceptance. It’s messy and inconsistent.”

In 2021, shows on streaming platforms lead the way when it came to representation. Netflix tops the list in this regard, with shows like Disenchantment, Carmen Sandiego (to a lesser extent), and City of Ghosts. With Disenchantment, the show was described as “queer through and through,” with what some would call queer vibes throughout, had its third part air on Netflix in January of 2021. Recurring characters Odval (voiced by Maurice LaMarche) and Sorcerio (voiced by Billy West) were shown to be a gay couple, while there was an implied gay couple between Big Jo (voiced by LaMarche), and his assistant, Porky. Furthermore, Princess Bean, called a “rebellious, alcoholic, adventurous princess” by one reviewer, the show’s protagonist, voiced by Abbi Jacobson, was shown to be bisexual or pansexual. This is illustrated through her kissing the elf, Elfo (voiced by Nat Faxon), trying to have sex with various men, seeming to have feelings for Lady Bowmore (voiced by Tress MacNeille), female explorer, and falling in love with a mermaid named Mora (voiced by Meredith Hagner). This is further supported by the fact that Jacobsen is bisexual herself, making the representation that much more genuine. As for Carmen Sandiego, it was more implied than anything else. In February, in Instagram Live interview, Duane Capizzi, the showrunner of Carmen Sandiego, said that it was intentional that Le Chevre (also known as Jean Paul) and El Topo (also known as Antonio) were together, and confirmed them at a couple, calling them villains which are “sweet,” but you “can’t help but love.” [5]

Carmen Sandiego and Julia Argent in the Carmen Sandiego: To Steal or Not to Steal animated film

Some fans also speculated that protagonist Carmen Sandiego had feelings for Julia “Jules” Argent, called “Carulia” by fans, but that has not been confirmed by Capizzi or anyone on the show’s staff. Similarly, for City of Ghosts, the LGBTQ representation was subtle rather than outward like in Disenchantment. In the case of that series, Thomas, one of the show’s protagonists, a specialist of the Ghost Club and voiced by transgender child actor Blue Chapman, was non-binary, confirmed as such by show creator Elizabeth Ito. One episode of the series also showed a character with two mothers. The series, more broadly, was praised for its simple animation and characters, but having “strikingly complex” stories and background art which reflects the “realities of one of America’s richest cultural melting pots,” Los Angeles.

Disenchantment, Carmen Sandiego, and City of Ghosts were not the only Netflix shows with LGBTQ characters. The kids-oriented Ridley Jones also included such characters. The preschool animated series included a non-binary bison named Fred voiced by Iris Menas, and two characters (Aten and Kosi) voiced by Andrew Rannells and Chris Colfer, two openly gay actors. The series was created by Chris Nee, who created series like We The People and Doc McStuffins, both of which featured LGBTQ characters. Nee described herself as gay and “relatively butch” in an interview in 2021. Jacobson, who had voiced Bean in Disenchantment, voiced Katie, the protagonist of the animated film, The Mitchells vs. the Machines. In the film, she wears a pin with a rainbow flag and later is noted as having a girlfriend named Jade at film school, with the representation relatively subtle. More outward, in terms of the representation, were Chicago Party Aunt, which included a a gay man named Daniel, and Q-Force, which featured an assortment of LGBTQ characters. The latter series, which had caused great controversy and consternation online due to its use of stereotypes, features a gay protagonist named Steve Maryweather (voiced by Sean Hayes), a gay man named Benji (voiced by Gabe Liedman), a lesbian woman named Deb (voiced by Wanda Sykes), and a gay drag queen named Twink (voiced by Matt Rogers). A late-comer to this article was Arcane, the first part which aired from November 6 to November 20. Show writer Amanda Overton confirmed that Caitlyn Kiramman was a lesbian, saying that there is no word for gay or stigmatization against it in Piltover, meaning that Caitlyn could “marry any gender or race suitor,” but such a person would become “a part of her house.” Overton also said that the relationship between Caitlyn and Vi is “naturally developing,” with the trauma that Vi’s parents were killed by Enforcers, with Vi also confirmed as a lesbian as well. On Twitter, Overton said that everyone on the show’s crew is “working together to tell the same story.”

On November 25, 2021, the final season of F Is For Family, aired on Netflix. It included Louis, the gay brother of Sue, a character voiced by Neil Patrick Harris, an openly gay actor. It also included Ginny Throater, who divorces her husband, Greg Throater, and is bisexual, while Greg is gay, and divorces her as a result. Additionally, Eileen, Frank’s sister, is lesbian and becomes Ginny’s lover. The second and final season of the Netflix series, Centaurworld, premiered on December 7. It featured three gay characters: Zulius, Ched, and Splendib. Zulius, who was hinted to be gay in the show’s first season was confirmed as such in the second season, while Ched was revealed to be gay. Furthermore, Zulius is voiced by Parvesh Cheena, an openly gay actor.

Other than shows on Netflix, there were multiple series on other streaming platforms included LGBTQ characters. For instance, Volume 8 of RWBY, running from November 2020 to March 2021, which streamed on the Rooster Teeth website, featured a trans woman named May Marigold, who is voiced by a trans woman, Kdin Jenzen, a bisexual catlike woman named Blake Belladonna (voiced by Arryn Zech), and various lesbian characters. The latter included Ilia Amitola (voiced by Cherami Leigh) and a couple (Saphron and Terra Cotta-Arc) who have a child named Adrian. At the same time, the first season of Invincible, which aired on Amazon Prime from March to April 2021, included a gay recurring character named William Francis Clockwell, voiced by openly gay actor Andrew Rennells.

HBO Max, also owned by Warner Media like Rooster Teeth, featured a gay couple, Jonny Quest and Hadji Sing, in Jellystone!, while Young Justice, which focuses on young superheroes from DC comics, has a rash of such characters. Specifically, Kaldur’ahm/Aqualad (voiced by Khary Payton) is polysexual, while Marie Logan (voiced by Danica McKellar) is bisexual or lesbian, Eduardo “Ed” Dorado Jr. (voiced by Freddy Rodriguez) is gay, Violet Harper (voiced by Zehra Fazal) is genderqueer, Wyynde (voiced by Robbie Daymond) is gay, and Harper Row (voiced by Fazal) is bisexual. The second half of the fourth season of Young Justice premiered in late October of 2021 and aired until December 30, 2021. While Kaldur reappeared in the newest season and with speaking lines, characters such as Ed, Bart, Violet, and Harper either had no lines, were only pictured, or only their voices were heard. At the same time, Logan died in Season 2, Wynnde has not made an appearance. These are unfortunate developments.

The HBO Max preschool series, Little Ellen, featured same-sex couples, with a second part of season one released in October, while Summer Camp Island, which also airs on HBO Max, includes a non-binary couple (Alien King and Puddle) and two presumably gay ghosts. It was also implied in various episodes that Timothy Brice Campbell in the HBO Max series Close Enough was either gay or bisexual. The second and presumably final season of gen:LOCK premiered on HBO Max and it featured a genderfluid character named Val(entina) Romanyszyn. Her character was not only groundbreaking as a genderfluid character by smashing apart tropes attributed to such characters, but is voiced by a non-binary pansexual voice actor named Asia Kate Dillon. Val confirmed that she was pansexual in the same season and Robert Sinclair was shown to be gay, with a boyfriend named Chris.

Continued in part 2

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tv-moments · 1 year

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Ms. Marvel

“No Normal”

Directors: Adil & Bilall

DoP: Robrecht Heyvaert

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starberry-cupcake · 2 years

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I shouldn’t be opening this can of worms but the whole Vampire Chronicles revival has made me notice how, because of how fandom has become intrinsically linked with shipping, people immediately link fanfiction with slash in their minds and wrongfully believe that Anne Rice’s deal with fic was the shipping.

The biggest problem with this isn’t that people think Loustat wasn’t canon but that they minimize the real issue, when we’re getting in troubling times with fanwork through how easy it is to monetize work online nowadays and how people are learning to do it before they even learn what intellectual property is.

Anne Rice thought initially (like many authors did, but she was particularly hellbent on it) that fanfiction was a direct threat to her copyright and intellectual property. And, legally speaking, she had the grounds to pursue that idea into shutting people down, because fanfiction isn’t actually legal.

One of the particular reasons that has been circulating in fandom at large through the years (though I don’t think it was ever cleared and I don’t think the publisher will ever do so) is that Knopf thought fanfiction was a direct threat commercially to her material if they were to swap to ebook publishing alone (the entire 2000s decade, and even a bit more into the 2010s, was a huge baby fight between editors on whether or not ebooks were going to entirely replace paper, you have no idea the lectures I've attended, some actually about fanfiction held by clueless boomer editors outside of anything fandom related). She thought they had a point and they started their legal actions. Some people still keep the receipts of the cease and desist Knopf sent FF net and they mention clearly that, even if they weren’t making a profit, it was copyright infringement. And they were, technically, not wrong.

This is not to remove blame from Anne Rice, Knopf and their behavior, but to remind people of the fragile nature of fanfic as a whole. The reason why fanfiction survived was because of the work fandom put into making fanfiction more visible outside the niche corners of fandom, establish its nature as a non profit activity and defend its intent while helping writers cover their backs when needed.

It is still not a legal genre in general, especially fanfiction of copyrighted work that isn’t on public domain (and some countries also pay for use under public domain), but it’s allowed to exist somewhat under the common acceptance of it not being for profit and not being meant as a direct competitor to the original work or a replacement of it, but a fandom appreciation of it. That’s why AO3 has an army of lawyers ready, that’s why they don’t allow people to link their monetization platforms in their fics.

The thing is, the monetization of online content has made it easy for people to forget that. This is not just a fic writer situation, but a content creator situation, people learn to monetize before knowing what they can monetize, in every platform. Those girls who went and did a Bridgerton musical without permission were allowed to even be eligible for a Grammy but the moment they started profiting for themselves, Netflix, producer and author came knocking, because what they did is illegal.

Added to this, the US copyright law is now more prominent internationally because of them owning the vast majority of mainstream sharing platforms and their servers being located in US territory, as well as them having the studios that end up owning the rights of adaptation eventually. So, companies rather than people are now more accepted to be holders and representatives of IP.

This practice isn’t as commonplace in other places of the world, where the material author always has the last say, but the US law being present in every major platform online and the evolution of the entertainment industry (in which adaptations or distribution create the possibility of major companies like Netflix, Disney, Universal, etc. to become representatives of IP that used to be owned by an author and a publisher alone) have created a scenario in which insanely huge companies can and will act as representatives of an IP and pursue legal action, with or without the original author deciding on it.

So, the fact that the whole Anne Rice vs fanfiction situation has been reduced to some idea that her very gay books weren’t gay and she didn’t like slash is derailing the conversation from the original issue, which is a problem that is still relevant today, maybe more than ever. Anne Rice might be gone and, even before that, her stance on fanfiction might have changed, but we’re losing what we learned with that experience if we’re not willing to remember it properly.

#I'm gonna regret posting this but #I'm gonna do it for now #luly rambles #fanfiction #vampire chronicles #long post #delete later maybe idk #interview with the vampire

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