Fanworks Theft - Blog Posts

I don't know who needs to hear this, but as a creator -

I am fine with "the audience" -

downloading my fics

printing my fics

copy/pasting or screenshotting my fics

sharing your saved copy of my fics with anyone else who might want them in the unlikely but never impossible case that my fics are no longer available on ao3

making a book of my fic(s) and running your fingers across the pages while lovingly whispering my precioussss

doing these things with anything I create for fandom, such as meta, headcanons, au nonsense like 'texts from the brodinsons,' etc

I am not fine with "the audience"

doing any of the above with the purpose/intent of plagiarizing my work or passing it off as their own in any capacity

feeding my work into ai for any reason whatsoever

Save the fandom things. Preserve the fandom things. Respect the fandom things.

Enjoy the fandom things.

some very important info re: paid accounts~

I am not a lawyer, but I can decently interpret legalese and, being as I also suffer from tl;dr syndrome and assume others may as well, I took one for the team and went through the updated TOS for the post+ accounts and highlighted (what I understand to be) the most pertinent information, which ultimately comes down to this:

You cannot monetize copyrighted works (aka charge and earn money from fanfic, fanworks, etc) and if you do decide to put your fanworks behind a paywall via Tumblr, when you are inevitably sued, Tumblr will not protect you and will not defend you and you alone, personally, will be responsible for whatever monetary damages said lawsuit results in.

If anyone is a lawyer and knows I've gotten any of this wrong, please do not hesitate to correct me/this post.

Screenshots taken from Tumblr's TOS (updated 7-21-21), Stripe's Account Agreement, and the post+ FAQs.

1. Your paid account will not be hosted by tumblr; it is routed through a 3rd party.

2. By signing up for a paid account, you're entering into an agreement with Stripe, so in addition to Tumblr's TOS, you are also bound to Stripe's TOS.

3. Stripe, like Tumblr, will not defend you or protect you against any lawsuits.

4. Furthermore, you may end up owing Stripe money (indemnify = compensate)

5. Tumblr's TOS specifically states that you can't put any content on your post+ account that violates any laws, including laws that protect intellectual property rights of others. This is super important, because Tumblr's post+ FAQ also states that you can post anything that you would regularly post on tumblr, which I'm sure many will take to mean that gifsets, fanworks, etc are fair game, since all of that stuff can be posted on tumblr now. However, the difference is, you're not making money from the fanworks you're posting or reblogging now. Once money enters the equation, the game changes.

Tumblr is making it seem like any and all content goes for post+ accounts, knowing 90% of this site is fanworks. This is not true and you'll be opening yourself up for lawsuits if you charge for fanworks.

6. Tumblr further disclaims any and all liability in any legal issues.

tl;dr: Please do not make a post+ account, bc you will be opening yourself to lawsuits and if that happens, Tumblr's response will be not our problem, you agreed to all the terms which said you couldn't do that, sorry not sorry. Please protect yourself.

APPARENTLY this is something I need to state because it isn’t something people understand. If someone says for _____ to not interact and you fall into that category, don’t interact with them! It IS invading boundaries. It doesn’t matter if you think those boundaries make sense, they’re that person’s boundaries.

*THIS WAS SENT TO A FRIEND. NOT ME*

the friend who received this is too nice to say something about it but i have reached a point now where i have seen them receive so many messages like this that i just can't keep my mouth shut anymore

this is straight up evil behaviour. whatever lighthearted tone this anon thought they were sending this with, i don't care. it's gross in every sense.

i'm speaking directly to whoever sent this now and frankly, if you follow me, non, unfollow me right fucking now because i don't want this energy anywhere near my blog. it hurts enough that you've targeted my friends with it.

listen up because apparently it bears repeating for the millionth fucking time -

FANFICTION AUTHORS ARE HUMAN BEINGS. they have lives and jobs and school and things they struggle with. maybe they've even spoken publicly about their struggles in the hopes their readers would understand them a bit better because at the end of the day this is a community and they have every right to use this space however they fucking want to.

"don't start a fic you can't finish" - literally shut up. shut up! we are not paid to do this, i will start and not finish whatever the fuck i want.

and holy shit, anon. as if this message wasn't disgusting enough, please let me state plainly something you "desperately" need to hear: no robot can give you what a human writer can. and the fact that you even threatened to just go to AI at this point shows how little you care about storytellers and all they provide for you.

again, i don't care if every word of this message was sent in jest or meant to be read playfully. it's not fucking cute. this shit hurts writers and ya'll need to realize that.

if you take time out of your life to send messages like this, you're a bad person. period. this is not how fanfic works, it's not how the world works. if you can wait two-three years for a movie or a new season of your favourite tv show, you can wait a few months for a fanfic to update. or you can wait forever. we literally owe you nothing.

i'm done sugarcoating it, ya'll. disrespectfully, grow up. grow up! enough is enough.

anyway

Just because they didn’t mean to be cruel doesn’t mean they weren’t cruel. Your hurt is still real even if their intention wasn’t to hurt you.

Hey there! It's totally cool if someone wants to turn your content into ai. Take it as a compliment! Remember, it's a fandom, you don't own it and we all share and create together, so it's fair for people to have different opinions about your work. No need to get upset, it's all part of the fun and diverse community we have here! Just let others have what they find satisfying.😊

I understand your point. But no. It's not. I'm a part of a community, the exchange of ideas with other human beings is expected. I don't get a say with what other people do with my characters but I'm kind of responsible for what is done with them regardless and to just reduce everything to... Train an algorithm to replicate what I do? The things I make? That's just. It's soulless. I get not everything I write appeals to everyone. That's fine. But you don't get to remove me from the equation of my work. It's not a compliment. Death of the author doesn't fucking apply when I'm right here. I guess I can't stop people if they do it privately but seriously, please. Please think of what you're saying. Because the implication that the author can be translated into AI and removed from the process is just horrific.

This may be arrogant but the reason anyone would like my takes at all is because they come from my heart, head and hands. Remove that and you may as well just use an AI trained on the canon material and leave me out of it.

The one thing I disliked while watching the Digimon Adventure Tri movies is that Meiko (who was the new character for the films) took WAY more focus than the original 8 Digidestined/chosen children

This could be my issue, but I dislike it when a character archetype is known for being shy. I am shy, but having that as a character's only defining trait makes the character dull to watch. Also, while watching the movies, Meiko felt like someone's fanfic oc at times when all the characters they interact with adore and love her very much, and she and her Digimon partner are extraordinary throughout the plot's run.

I feel like she was only made as a character just so the writers could give Taichi a love interest and further establish that the 02 epilogue is still, in fact, canon. Even then, the two of them lacked any chemistry.

The darkness is the internet sometimes good but vastly toxic to humanity… it’s doing Exactly what it’s intended to do. Take away your freedom to decide…. Look at your own mirror… bet ya little voices pictures you seen on internet influencing how you should perceive yourself … the real you is looking at you in the reflection… Fuk the internet vibes…. It’s a machine… we are complex highly intelligent beings… yet we let something we physically cannot see determine how we should live our own lives… lotta feelings we can’t physically see also are the answers … our society really needs a huge reset… the important things are ruled by idiots and the intelligent ones ignored…. Put the flame into the right hands and change our whole system get rid of the opportunist who have no soul but to gain power = money. It’s the money that is the problem…. Nature doesn’t need money, it has function by itself not needing anything but the ground to grow from… the whole system is totally fucked. Seems everyone is contented it’s already to late, the device in your hand says it all…. They have us already