So, apparently this guy named Keith Mander bought LOTRFanfiction.com and a Twilight fanfic archive -- ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
esteliel has wonderful coverage here -- and is going to monetize them ... somehow.
This is not good.
OTW has already posted their reaction to this -- they're offering Archive of Our Own accounts to any writer from those sites who don't already have an AO3 account and the OTW coders already working on custom importers for anyone who wants to transfer their stories.
My own take on it is that this guy is going to be no more successful at monetizing fanfic than the guys behind FanLib, mostly because the core fanficcers will flee from this kind of horsecrap. Fanfic exists in gray areas to start with and has a gift culture that is fairly shy of attracting attention from the rights' holders, and blundering in trying to make money off of other people's fanfic is considered beyond the pale. In part, because it violates the gift culture, but also because it just emphasizes just how much of a clueless outsider you are and that you might just bring down the attention of rights' holders (like the Tolkien estate, which is pretty fierce about their ownership of the the rights) on people who have been trying to fly under their radar.
esteliel has wonderful coverage here -- and is going to monetize them ... somehow.This is not good.
OTW has already posted their reaction to this -- they're offering Archive of Our Own accounts to any writer from those sites who don't already have an AO3 account and the OTW coders already working on custom importers for anyone who wants to transfer their stories.
My own take on it is that this guy is going to be no more successful at monetizing fanfic than the guys behind FanLib, mostly because the core fanficcers will flee from this kind of horsecrap. Fanfic exists in gray areas to start with and has a gift culture that is fairly shy of attracting attention from the rights' holders, and blundering in trying to make money off of other people's fanfic is considered beyond the pale. In part, because it violates the gift culture, but also because it just emphasizes just how much of a clueless outsider you are and that you might just bring down the attention of rights' holders (like the Tolkien estate, which is pretty fierce about their ownership of the the rights) on people who have been trying to fly under their radar.
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It's almost funny, watching these Suits think they've found an untapped market. I wonder if this guy's going to get into a flamewar with fleeing fen like the Fanlib people....
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He definitely is not answering the questions people are leaving in the comments.
The fact that LOTRFF now seems to be owned by a limited liability company based in the UK (owned by Mander, one assumes) is just... the Tolkien Estate is in the UK. Why would anyone with any sense incorporate as an LLC in the same country as the people you may be copyright infringing on as part of your business plan?! Especially when the UK is much narrower than the US in the 'fair use' exemption that fanficcers try to skate under.
Basically... :P
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Really, I'm amazed that someone has made this mistake again. Not only do they open themselves up to a huge lawsuit from the Tolkien estate, but it violates the various fan-authors' rights as well, and the culprit's responses come across like a teenage con-artists trying to sound reasonable and adult.
Thank you for posting this, though, it definitely shows how greater awareness of the fanfiction community isn't always a good thing.
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The OTW does champion work, but then they have to work damage control when some fool like this one shows up. Seriously, I doubt they wanted to have to shift a lot of their coders (who are volunteers, you know! I believe the only paid employee is the CPA who handles the OTW taxes) over to creating custom importers to transfer stories from the LOTRFF and Twilight archives.
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wandering by to say...
--the CPA who does the taxes
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Basically, it sounds like it's going to be as much of a mess as FanLib.
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I love fandom so much sometimes.
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But yeah, I expect this attempt to monetize on fanfic archives to work just as well as FanLib...
And OTW is quite awesome. I need to chuck some money their way.
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He obviously sees fandom people as a paddock full of big woolly sheep. I love how we're collectively baring our teeth.
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We're definitely not sheep. Herding fans is like herding cats -- it really doesn't work.
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Yet another young techno-jerkass who thinks that the world (including fanfic authors) is his oyster. I think he imagines that all the fanfic writers are naive young women with heads filled with fluff and stars in their eyes.
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At least in his own personal blog, he doesn't seem to be answer the questions about the legalities. Although, frankly, I don't know how he could win anyone over with his 'business' plan.
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I expect more information will develop over the course of the weekend -- and how convenient this was over the Independence Day weekend, so most of the US fans are going to be occupied with their holiday? Hopefully some light will be shed into just what is going to happen, and how fandom will collectively react to it all.
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Fandom is just not something you can just waltz into. Obeying the social conventions is extremely important in making any business venture work in fandom.