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Starkarm

Member Since 2010-08-27 -:- Recomendations : 0

  • Bio
    Courtesy of an unfortunate altercation with the rather delusional censors administering fanfiction.net, I was encouraged to explore this site. I was abundantly delighted to discover that it features a limitlessly more enlightened policy towards sexual content, as opposed to a system that hypocritically permits- if not advocates- brutal and bestial portrayals of violence while denying an author's right to more productive expression. Thus, assuming that anything is removed from my fanfiction.net account, any readers can reliably assume that it will endure here, providentially shielded from the criminal stupidity of censorship. Please note that, while I avidly embrace reviews, positive or negative (though, obviously, I favor the positive ones), there are certain elements that I will not accept. Above all else, any complaints as to the actual content will be ignored; anyone who is homophobic or squeamish about sexuality should probably not be perusing this page, in any event. Additionally, vigorous complaints regarding characterization will be disregarded as silly and nonsensical, given that any such unofficial works are in defiance of accepted canon, and I've no patience for self-declared arbiters of acceptable portrayals. Assuredly, it does not bother me if a reviewer remarks upon how unusual or, distinct from their standard depictions, the characters seem, but it's annoying for anyone to become upset about that in fanfiction. Finally, and this cannot be emphasized more fiercely, I am enraged by those who believe it's clever or appropriate to criticize a broad vocabulary or complex descriptions. Literature is interesting solely if one can actually immerse oneself in the setting and the characters' experiences, and linguistic diversity and depth are integral to that, so complaining about elegant language is as rational as being irritated by dialogue not being rooted in monosyllables and inarticulate grunts. I've simply confronted an irksome excess of reviewers who seemingly cannot abide the notion of eloquence, invoking the notion of 'purple prose' (whatever the hell that is) or, oh, the horror, the usage of a thesaurus (which I've never once employed) as pejoratives, so it has become necessary to accentuate this point. And a brief discussion of disclaimers: there is absolutely no legal 'fair-use' precedent for the appropriation of intellectual property, fanfiction or otherwise. Legally, any usage of another's intellectual property for creative purposes, profit-oriented or otherwise, is unacceptable if the original creators so decide; it does not fall under the realm of creative parody, unless so explicitly declared, and 'fair-use' is solely the harvesting of passages or certain facets of the content for intellectual discourse, analysis, or review, and not wholesale appropriation of intact, recognizable entities for creative fiction. I mention this entirely as a point of a bit of amusement, courtesy of a review sorely lacking in humor by an administrator who seemingly failed to read my disclaimer, such as it is (not being legally valid in any manner, as disclaimers are never acceptable in copyright law); even if I disclaimed everything in the vast scope of the universe, I could be subject to an injunction, in accordance with domestic copyright law, by a particularly vindictive Venusian about a use of their character or creation. It bears mentioning, however, that the disclaimer issue, lacking a legal basis, should not be so vigorously and rather rudely enforced; the wry remarks regarding impoverished writers and no rational claim to ownership are as valid as my dry legalese, which contains the requisite terms [no claim to ownership of non-original characters, nor of their associated franchises- specifically what was requested, with no intention of seeking profit. Generic disclaimers are more convenient, and equally as legally irrelevant as specific ones]. This webpage contains an effective and fairly forthright encapsulation of the legal definition of 'fair-use': http://www.copyrightwebsite.com/Info/FairUse/FairUse.aspx. I will emphasize this again: fair-use is not what one would hope it would be. Fair-use was created to shield academic establishments, reviewers, the newsmedia, and other parties from frivolous litigation against their appropriation of works, or portions of works, for argumentative, reporting, and analytical purposes. Disclaimers do not shield anyone from anything; what defends fanfiction from the abusive court system and vindictive writers is the fact that it's not profit-oriented, and thus does not constitute grounds for seeking legal action or financial damages and penalties, beyond mere cease-and-desist orders in adherence to their copyright. For those unwilling to read even a few passages of tedious legalese, I will summarize it: fair-use standards are computed by a rather obtuse matrix that calculates the measure of infringement, the intended purpose, and the manner in which the infringement could impact the commercial viability of the original or derivative works. As there is no tangible transformation of recognizable characters and narrative settings in fanfiction, the 'transformation' caveat cannot be credibly invoked; there is no earnest modification of the message or form of the copyrighted entity, as the characters in fanfiction are invariably intended to be 'themselves'. What defends everyone from litigation is the character of factor four within the matrix: the calculation of harm inflicted to the franchise. Particularly spiteful authors, such as [name removed], will seek cease-and-desist orders, as is their right, against the publication of such infringing works, but- so long as there is no demonstrable harm caused by such writings- there is no valid foundation for the pursuit of more severe action. Unless it reflects a very public effort at defaming or injuriously modifying an author's recognizable copyright, or is pursued for profit-oriented purposes, there is little if any legal recourse beyond the aforementioned injunction. For what reason do disclaimers not factor into this? You cannot legitimately disclaim action into which you are knowingly entering; stating that your purpose is benign merely assures the copyright bearers that you intend no mischief against their franchise, which is ordinarily sufficient to assuage their concerns. That there are armies of powerful and influential attorneys at their beck and call merely further reinforces this necessity to benignly abrogate the law. Copyright infringement is copyright infringement, regardless of the circumstances, and irrespective of your defense; that is the reason for which, disclaimers notwithstanding, there are legal grounds for demanding the removal of copyrighted works at a whim. I would wish to issue a formal plea, on the basis of upholding the sanity of every coherent Anglophone, to dispense with the usage of the nonsense word 'fandom'; it's grating, illogically applied, and inspires a desire for Thorazine whenever it's seen. It seems to imply the derivative interest base spawned by a successful series, and not the original franchise itself; this would probably also confuse attorneys when the intellectual property owner is being notified that they 'own the fandom'. Whenever '-ly' materializes in an adjective, it becomes an adverb: it's a device that adds descriptive intensity to an action. Whenever a character's reaction to something is rendered in elegant prose, rather than simply being declared by the author as a seeming aside, that's 'showing'; 'telling' is the antithesis of that, and it's a technique that should vanish once you advance beyond 'Dick and Jane'.

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