Rebecca Tushnet, the legal professor who's written extensively on fandom and the (American) law has been interviewed on NPR about fanfiction, legal action, and the Organisation for Transformative Works. It's a podcast, so I'm downloading to listen to later, but (from worldserpent) it seems some people don't like the OTW because the OTW has unilaterally named itself the representative for active fans and the feeling that the OTW is either drawing too much attention to fan activity or outing it to the general public.

Um, no. Fanfiction and also fanart have been around for decades in print version; now with the internet making it possible for anyone to upload their work regardless of quality or popularity people are simply kidding themselves if they think 'fandom' is still lurking in the shadows. It's not just fanfiction either; nowadays any decent computer can be turned into a professional film editing or music recording suite and one just has to pop over to YouTube to see what people are coming up with. It's long gotten to the point that not only are fan activities more visible -- Harry Potter Lexicon, anyone? -- big media and the authors who own the copyright are now openly courting fan activities. Best example is The L Word with its 'write a scene for us to film' contest (eventually won by a fanfic author), but then there's also Trent Reznor actively encouraging his fans to remix his songs (apparently Universal Music wasn't so keen on it); Stephen Colbert and his Green Screen Challenges, George Lucas and the Star Wars Mash-ups (btw, anyone actually looked at those terms and conditions? They claim all rights in video submissions and none of the liabilities); the viral marketing for The Dark Knight which called out for fans to take pictures of themselves in Joker make-up and send them in ... I'm sure there are plenty more examples in fandoms I'm not familiar with. Intellectual property owners have been reassessing its relationship with fans for years with the growth of the internet because they know there's a huge untapped potential out there, and they've been looking at ways to use it.

So, anyone who still thinks fandom is invisible, I'm sorry to burst your bubble but get out and read more. Fandom hasn't been invisible for a long time, and now big media is actively bringing it out into the mainstream. The OTW isn't calling attention to anything people didn't know about before.

Also, your informative link for the day: Universal Music is arguing in court that take down notices don't have to consider whether allegedly infringing material could be excused by fair use. By the way, the court case is about a home video. Original video material and a very bad short recording of the song that has allegedly been infringed, but if this case gets handed down for Universal Music then fanvids -- which use far better quality recordings of songs in their entirety with copyrighted video material -- should probably get seriously worried.

And I thought the trailer for The Dark Knight was brilliant (it still is) but now ...

THE WATCHMEN.

NICE. The effects, the slo-mo with the Silk Spectre, the design of Dr. Manhattan (I think they caved a bit with the full frontal nudity, but I can understand that), and Rorsharch with a mask that actually changes. This adaptation might be all right (please let it be so).

Comic book movies are supposed to be things you can take kids to. They might find some parts scary or upsetting, but generally heroes running around in costume beating up bad-guys is safe for kids.

I wouldn't take kids to see The Dark Knight. Especially if they have a fear of clowns.

( I'm going to make this pencil disappear (spoilers ahoy) )

...Yes, I was a geek and lined up an hour early after work at the Sydney IMAX to see this film (dodging all the Catholic tourists who have invaded the city) and I really wish the gang from Perth was with me because I know they would have loved to go as well. Sigh.

The iPhone is .... very shiny.

PROS: Touch screen. Video and sound quality. 3G internet access (though Australian plans make you pay through the nose so I'm going to stick to Wi-Fi hotspots for the time being). Apps that let you access Facebook and other things I usually waste my internet time on (even LJ posting can be done through Twitter), the maps, the conversation-style text messaging, and more - my dad added the PhoneSaber app meaning when I'm feeling particularly silly I can make the iPhone sound like a lightsaber LOL. Fantastically easy to use considering I've rarely touched Apple products other than the first-generation video iPod with the turn-wheel, and all the pinching/expanding/tapping is very intuitive and so much fun.

CONS: Australia's insanely restrictive and expensive 3G data plans. The camera's only 2 megapixels which isn't that big a deal to me personally in the grand scheme of things -- if you want to take good pictures on the go get a good ultra-portable camera. Do wish it would take video, though. Battery life has been criticised in reviews, though I'll wait and see how mine goes. No Bluetooth, but I never use that anyway. If there's a way to hold down the shift/upper case button I haven't found it yet which makes it annoying when trying to type in ALLCAPS. Copy+paste would be good too.

All in all, combination phone and iPod with really useful bells and whistles = awesome.

Going to see some stand-up comedy tonight. Tomorrow: The Dark Knight at the Sydney IMAX. CANNOT. WAIT.

Whatever power up there is making legal scholars publish hot-off-the-presses articles on fandom and intellectual property law for fandom_lawyers to link KEEP DOING IT I LOVE AND NEED IT.

Lost in Translation: Anime, Moral Rights, and Market Failure -- perfect for the moral rights section of my essay, and now not only can I giggle about referencing Harry Potter, Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, LiveJournal etc., I can now add references to the butchering of Sailor Moon, Card Captor Sakura and One Piece.

Assignments shouldn't be this much fun.

I HATE PATENT LAW.

*koff* in all my copious spare time I dropped in to watch Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian ( Read more... )

So that's it. After sixteen months of wrangling, stupid scandals about flag-pins, WTF scandals over sniper fire (or lack of), substantive scandals over pastors and spouses the US Presidential contest is between a forty-something, Harvard educated, black bi-racial, constitutional law professor and a seventy-something, next-to-bottom-of-the-class, POW, old white guy. Don't know about you, but I'm grabbing popcorn and pulling up an easy-chair because THIS is going to be good to watch dear America please don't fuck this up again the past eight years have already been bad enough I don't think the sane world could survive another four years of BushLite

(Other than that, I'm not here, I have two assignments, work, costumes, story, party organising, incoming friends and flatmate, apartment renovations, all to deal with in the space of less than three weeks so I'm a leetle stressed out right now.)

Apparently Russian's Communist Party wants to ban the fourth Indiana Jones movie in Russia because -- get this -- the movie distorts history. "It's rubbish..." they say. "In 1957 the communists did not run with crystal skulls throughout the US."

So much for my hope that there's an old Grail diary with Hitler's signature on it displayed in some museum somewhere.

Every time Sichuan comes up on the TV or newspapers I feel like crying, especially when it comes to all the schools and how many only children were killed, so have a community message a la nekomancy and naanima.

The Sichuan Earthquake has come and gone and left many dead, orphaned, homeless and destitute. Although we're on the other side of the world, we can still make a difference. There are a few ways of pledging donations and aid:

MSN is running a Rainbow appeal for the children: if you put a (R) infront of your msn nick and sign this following page, they will contribution 20 cents RMB: http://info.msn.com.cn/caihong/rainbow.html (in Chinese).

HSBC has pledged to make MATCHING DONATIONS. Any donations made to the below accounts will be matched by HSBC with an upper limit of $8 million RMB. Matching ends on 31/05/2008.
A/C Name: HSBC China Earthquake Relief
A/C No.: 808-459085-001

Red Cross Society of China
http://www.redcross.org.cn OR http://202.108.59.10/english/donate.htm
Online donation facilities or below is Account Bank Information of RCSC
A/C in Name of: Red Cross Society of China
A/C Name: Zhong Xin Yin Hang Jiu Xian Qiao Zhi Hang
A/C: No.: 7112111482600000209

开户单位：中国红十字会总会
外币开户行：中信银行酒仙桥支行
外币账号：7112111482600000209

The website was a bit hard to navigate but ... that's basically the foreign currency donation account. There's other no.s and other not for profit organisations out there. The HK Red Cross site is easier to deal with and well HSBC does state they will donate equivalent amount for each of your donations in RMB.

The Australian Chinese Embassy website also shows the RCSC donation a/c details:
http://au.china-embassy.org/eng/gdxw/t434408.htm

Account Name: Embassy of The People's Republic of China in Australia
Earthquake Relief Fund
Account No. BSB:352-000 A/C: 126512
Bank Name: Bank of China, Sydney Branch.
***Telephone No. of the Embassy: 0414880919; 0408784630;0414793168

Obviously you can go through your country's embassy and/or Red Cross Branch. Personally I chose the Australian branch of the Red Cross -- easy to use, quick online transaction. Not much, but it helps.

: test post
: result = synchronised posting works

What with all the LJ/6A fallout, although I don't have anything that could possibly get me into hot water (I lock everything and like my fanfic characters legal :P) it seems a lot of people are jumping ship. Therefore, as well as my main journal here at LJ I can also be found at:

GreatestJournal: http://-leareth.greatestjournal.com/
InsaneJournal: http://users.insanejournal.com/_leareth

If it weren't for the synchronised posting thing I doubt I would have done this, but since it was easy to set up I thought why the hell not. My paid LJ account runs out in November, so I'll wait until then to decide what I'm doing with this LJ account. I have yet to decide whether to move inkpawprints over.

If anyone on my friendlist has a GJ or IJ account it would be very much appreciated if you could comment with your GJ or IJ account so I can add you - I've seen a few links posted through my friendslist but there's a lot of you guys and I lost track *g*

If you would like to read my journal, please leave a comment in this entry. And preferably friend me back as well :3