submitted without com... oh hell.

[lagilman]

The very definition of WTF? fannish style. Everything detractors sneer at, paraded in full view of the attorneys...


http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1933456027/002-4876564-3915249?%5Fencoding=UTF8&s=books&v=glance


I don't even want to bitchslap this person, unless I can use someone else's hand.


ETA: One of the suggested Amazon.com 'tags' given this book: "is yoda gonna have to smack a bitch" *dies*

Comments

[nycdeb.livejournal.com]

I -- I don't -- No wait. Let me start over.

How can she -- No...

Oh good gads! WTF indeed!!!!!!!!!!!!

and furthermore...

[nycdeb.livejournal.com]

I wish there was a way to express my disbelief that anyone could be this stupid but by golly - no one would believe the level of my disbelief or the depth of this stupidity. I went out into the vastness of the Internet and lo! found an interview with this woman (in the google cache as the original website was gone or some such). And why - according to Her Cluelessness, its all good...

Q: Having set Another Hope in an already existing universe, I find myself wondering if there was any concern on your part regarding copyrights?

No, because I wrote this book for myself. This is a self-published story and is not a commercial book. Yes, it is for sale on Amazon, but only my family, friends and acquaintances know it’s there.

Q: I also wonder how far a writer is allowed to write in a world and to use characters introduced by another author?

If it’s not a commercial project, I don’t see any problem. George Lucas’ Star Wars universe is fertile territory for so-names “infinities,” or alternate storyline material. Thousands of people write them, and they are posted on hundreds of unofficial Star Wars-themed web sites on the Internet. Lucas himself said that as long as no one is making a profit, he thought such tributes were wonderful.)

The pain of knowing that she's out there somewhere - possibly operating heavy machinery, encountering innocent people who don't know what someone that stupid is standing RIGHT NEXT TO THEM.

Re: and furthermore...

[lagilman]

And this, Gentles, is why I speak of the legalities of and penalties for writing fanfic. NOT for the folk who understand what they're doing, and color within the lines as best they can, but this.... god. Willful Ignorance doesn't go far enough. This Darwin-Award-worthy, bloodline-ending, brain-wilting arrogant sort of 'F*ck You stupidity.

And, babe? Once you take money for it, no matter how you take money for it? You've crossed the Rubicon, and the lawyers will be waiting on the other side.

Re: and furthermore...

[otherdeb.livejournal.com]

Yep. Definitely Darwin Award-worthy.

What scares me most is that this woman is allegedly a publishing professional. She should have known clearly what the laws were on this. Hell, every fanficcer I know clearly knows what the laws are, and most try to steer clear of that line.

The reprecussions of this are not gonna be pretty for anyone.

[blazedglory.livejournal.com]

Yeah. What you said.

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

I don't even want to bitchslap this person, unless I can use someone else's hand.

*points to icon*

There's a lot of crazy and entitlement in the world.

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Totally on different topic but I soooo love your icon. That is just brill

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I couldn't resist doing it. :)

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

Heh, I like the "statistically improbable phrases" bit. Someone needs to tell this chick to look up "D'oh!" in the dictionary. *g*

[otherdeb.livejournal.com]

Beleive me, we all understand, Laura. Half the fanwriters I know would love to serve her up to Lucas, naked, hogtied, on a silver platter, with her original draft in her hands. We won't go into what the publishing pros I know would like to do with her, or the print on demand writers who are really trying to create careers....it's just too graphic.

[baka-kit.livejournal.com]

Ms. Head? Meet Mr. Desk.

*sigh*

[ex-fashioni.livejournal.com]

I'll see your bitchslap and raise you a clue by four

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0595382371/ref=cm_srchresults_product/002-8314090-7598432?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155

The "author" of this Mary Sue missive took serious exception to the one-star review she received.

[debg.livejournal.com]

Who in hell ARE these people? Are they all nuts?

Dude. Copyrights are not to be messed with.

Scary how many people out there seem to need a visit from the Clue Fairy...

[ex-fashioni.livejournal.com]

In this case, not even copyrights so much as libel. I mean, Miss Thang put on the cover something like "a fantasy based on the pop-opera super-group Il Divo," and then proceeds to basically depict two of the members in great detail, even though she changes the names, apparently.

Hello? This is not good.

[bill-leisner.livejournal.com]

In case you're not already aware, Karen Traviss (author of legit SW fiction) has also seen this, and already passed it along to her good friends at Lucasfilms Ltd....

[lagilman]

Oh, more folk than just Karen have already speed-dialed the shark-people at LucasArts, don't worry -- at least one of them from within the Ranch.

I'm looking forward to seeing Amazon get splattered with the results. Someone was asleep at the gate, there.

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

I have been getting e-mails asking me about it for obvious reasons. Yeah Sue knows about it and they are "not amused" as they say.

The excuse Amazon will go with is the one that they have on hand for the works about a show (Firefly and religion; Texts on Harry Potter including guides; you know of what I speak) the "academic" text as it were that publishers have been using to skirt the copyright issue for yeeeaaars. They will claim that they thought it was some book like a technobabble guide to Star Wars.

[lagilman]

Yeah Sue knows about it and they are "not amused" as they say.


*snorfle* I can just imagine....

[neutronjockey.livejournal.com]

Someone was asleep at the gate, there.
It was TX-1929 and TX-2342 ma'am. They'll be written into her 'subsequent novels.'

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

I think my biggest problem with this is going to be the effect this has on fanfic. Most companies have been rather lax about enforcing their rights to the material that other people play with but garbage like this will bring the lawyers out of the wood work and shut down something that has been going on for over 40 years. One bad apple is going to spoil the whole apple cart.

[lagilman]

Oh, it happens over and over again -- every time someone shoves themselves into the gun sights, the copyright holders obligingly come out with the ammo, and the rest of fandom yells "why you pickin' on us?"

Because they can't tell, at a distance, who's going to be reasonable and who's going to be an ignorant *expletive*, and so everyone gets caught, cooked, and basted with the same brush.


Not to compare this woman to a turkey, or anything. Really. That would be an insult to turkeys.

[quarkwiz.livejournal.com]

mock_the_stupid had some fun with this over here.

[raiining.livejournal.com]

That is the funniest community I have seen in a long time. This story is now quite over the 'net, actually. I *almost* feel sorry for this woman, but to diabuse that notion I only have to read her horrible interview again. :: facepalm ::

[lianneb.livejournal.com]

Or how about this one? British Born, American Bred : A Prince William Fanfiction (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1419603264/sr=1-8/qid=1145746952/ref=sr_1_8/102-9788949-5349754?%5Fencoding=UTF8&s=books)

Yep. Listed at Amazon, the idiots. Amazon, that is. If they don't start controlling what they list, they are going to find themselves paying big fines.

[karenmiller.livejournal.com]

I just looked on Amazon. I find myself sitting here saying, What? What? What?

Did you read the back cover????? She found someone to BLURB it. And they reference Star Trek.

I just got up, but I think I have to lie down again ...

[raiining.livejournal.com]

My question is who publishes these things>?! Can't they get in trouble too? What self-respecting book-binder will actually spent money to copy these horrific insults to actual writing?

I mean ... a fanfic of Prince William - it even says fanfiction on the cover: WTF????

[karenmiller.livejournal.com]

Well, in this case she did. Which makes it all the more insane. She runs a vanity press and she published the SW crapola-fest. I hope she likes living in tents, because once LFL has done with her ...

As for Prince Willian fanfic? Okay. That's it. I'm cooked. I'm done. I'm outa here ...

[lagilman]

[mini-rant]

It's called RLF or RPF -- real life or real person fanfic. Some of them are... well, mostly harmless. often even amusing ("Real Actor sucked into Role-Universe" sort of thing, etc). Some of them take that step into wish fulfillment scariness of the smut sort.

Those are, IMPO, the shortest route to wanting needing the mental brillo ever discovered. Ugh. And also, ick. And no, I'm not going to apologize for thinking so, no matter how many people try to defend their position. It's just... too privacy-invading for me to condone.

You can make an argument about (ab)using created characters. You canNOT claim the same for using a real live person, no matter how public a figure they may be.

The quick and dirty rule I have is "would they be uncomfortable having their (theoretical) kids/parents/loved ones stumble across it on-line?" If you suspect the answer might, even remotely be yes, then it shouldn't ever be posted.


[/mini-rant]

[karenmiller.livejournal.com]

See, I get a bit tired of people who rant and rave about their right to do whatever the hell they please, when doing so grossly infringes the rights and privacy of other people.

Screw you, ducky. Smutting up another living person's life for your own possibly sexual amusement/gratification and making said smut available in a public forum is gross, it's mentally unbalanced and I will not apologise for calling you on it. Yes, Virginia, some things are just plain Wrong, and all the bleating self-justificatin in the world doesn't change that.

See? I can rant too ... *g*

We'll never stop it, Suri, but we can condemn it wherever we find it, we can challenge these revolting people's fantasy that there are no ramifications or consequences to their behaviour ... and maybe some of them will think twice before doing it again.

What gets me the most is the folk who do this stuff would be the first to go apeshit if someone did it to them.
Sheesh.