(no subject)
May. 27th, 2013 08:17 amGood morning everyone, and welcome to Radio Free Monday!
Ways To Give:
Dove linked to a fundraiser page for @amazonziti's younger sister, who fell while climbing a mountain at the beginning of this month and is now paraplegic. The family is trying to help raise some money for out-of-pocket medical bills.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lizcommotion and her partner are doing a fundraiser for the National MS Society, involving the 100 mile Bike To The Bay and a crafty raffle for donors. They need to raise at least $300 to enter the ride, but of course more is always better. You can read more here at Dreamwidth or at their dedicated tumblr, or donate to the cause here.
TarasGreen on Devart has a younger sister who is raising money to fund a three-week dance intensive at Gelsey Kirkland this summer. Her Indiegogo campaign is here and her family is offering various rewards for donation; TarasGreen is offering prints and portraits, and you can view examples here. This is a repost from a few weeks back, but TarasGreen also linked me to a video of her sister dancing with a contemporary dance company called the Movery (her sister is the one in the short shorts and with a long braid).
Help For Free:
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
polarisnorth linked to Women Action Media (WAM!) and the Everyday Sexism Project, working to call out advertisers on Facebook who are allowing their ads to be shown next to images promoting rape culture. They're asking consumers and users to tweet/email/comment on these company's Facebook pages calling them out and asking if they're okay with the situation.
polarisnorth is also continuing work on Hater Free Wednesdays, chronicling comic book stores that are friendly (or unfriendly) to women, people of colour, and queer people. HFW now has a twitter
(@HF_Wednesdays) and WordPress -- check them out!
News To Know:
Daroos on Tumblr would like to announce the Midwest Fandom Congress Summer Session, an informal fannish get together being held June 8th in St. Louis, Missouri. There will be a noon meetup at the City Museum and a dinner downtown; RSVPs are required for the dinner. Crash space is available as are rides to/from public transit. You can follow the link above or contact "daroos" at LJ, DW, or Tumblr for more info.
Amazon Strikes Again
eldarwannabe was the first but definitely not the last to link to the big story of the week, which is that Amazon.com will soon be opening "Kindle Worlds". This is a program whereby fanfic for certain pre-licensed canons can be published and legally sold through Amazon's selfpub epress. justice_turtle linked to more about the process here, including the restrictions (10K or over, no porn).
While I really don't see anything wrong with the idea of paying for licensed fanfic -- like tie-in novels -- there are two fairly significant issues with this. The perhaps more concrete issue is broken down by John Scalzi in a great post here, where he talks about how the contract you make with Amazon to use Kindle Worlds is not good for authors, especially since they lose all right to the intellectual property of their works. That said, he also points out that with this, your ideas might get seen and used -- but without it, they probably won't even get seen, so you have to decide if unpaid work is worth the attention/exposure. An article I happened to come across this week is a good reminder that even professional publishers dislike Amazon's business tactics and are continually mistreated by the company.
The other issue I haven't seen discussed online in any formal way, but a friend made the point the other day that this could potentially lead to issues with transformative works not done under license. If Amazon has the license to publish works about a specific canon, it may be possible to go after works written in those canons which aren't published through them but available for free on sites like AO3. It would be sheer stupidity for the creators of the canon to do it, because it alienates the most passionate part of their fanbase, and most production companies and studios are aware of this. But Amazon is giant and does not care, so they could potentially chase down people they see cutting into their market-share.
My recommendation is, as always, not to do a deal with Amazon; I don't even shop there, and haven't in years. But whether you know you won't, think you might, or are actively interested in publishing with them, remember to be informed!
Just For Fun:
Anon linked to a BuzzFeed article about Cat Heaven Island in Japan. Anon is not wrong -- play the soundtrack, it makes it even more awesome.
And this has been Radio Free Monday! Thank you for your time. You can always post items for my attention in comments here (or on any post) or email me at copperbadge at gmail dot com. If you're not sure how to proceed, here is a little more about what I do and how you can help (or ask for help!).
Ways To Give:
Dove linked to a fundraiser page for @amazonziti's younger sister, who fell while climbing a mountain at the beginning of this month and is now paraplegic. The family is trying to help raise some money for out-of-pocket medical bills.
lizcommotion and her partner are doing a fundraiser for the National MS Society, involving the 100 mile Bike To The Bay and a crafty raffle for donors. They need to raise at least $300 to enter the ride, but of course more is always better. You can read more here at Dreamwidth or at their dedicated tumblr, or donate to the cause here.TarasGreen on Devart has a younger sister who is raising money to fund a three-week dance intensive at Gelsey Kirkland this summer. Her Indiegogo campaign is here and her family is offering various rewards for donation; TarasGreen is offering prints and portraits, and you can view examples here. This is a repost from a few weeks back, but TarasGreen also linked me to a video of her sister dancing with a contemporary dance company called the Movery (her sister is the one in the short shorts and with a long braid).
Help For Free:
polarisnorth linked to Women Action Media (WAM!) and the Everyday Sexism Project, working to call out advertisers on Facebook who are allowing their ads to be shown next to images promoting rape culture. They're asking consumers and users to tweet/email/comment on these company's Facebook pages calling them out and asking if they're okay with the situation.polarisnorth is also continuing work on Hater Free Wednesdays, chronicling comic book stores that are friendly (or unfriendly) to women, people of colour, and queer people. HFW now has a twitter (@HF_Wednesdays) and WordPress -- check them out!
News To Know:
Daroos on Tumblr would like to announce the Midwest Fandom Congress Summer Session, an informal fannish get together being held June 8th in St. Louis, Missouri. There will be a noon meetup at the City Museum and a dinner downtown; RSVPs are required for the dinner. Crash space is available as are rides to/from public transit. You can follow the link above or contact "daroos" at LJ, DW, or Tumblr for more info.
Amazon Strikes Again
eldarwannabe was the first but definitely not the last to link to the big story of the week, which is that Amazon.com will soon be opening "Kindle Worlds". This is a program whereby fanfic for certain pre-licensed canons can be published and legally sold through Amazon's selfpub epress. justice_turtle linked to more about the process here, including the restrictions (10K or over, no porn). While I really don't see anything wrong with the idea of paying for licensed fanfic -- like tie-in novels -- there are two fairly significant issues with this. The perhaps more concrete issue is broken down by John Scalzi in a great post here, where he talks about how the contract you make with Amazon to use Kindle Worlds is not good for authors, especially since they lose all right to the intellectual property of their works. That said, he also points out that with this, your ideas might get seen and used -- but without it, they probably won't even get seen, so you have to decide if unpaid work is worth the attention/exposure. An article I happened to come across this week is a good reminder that even professional publishers dislike Amazon's business tactics and are continually mistreated by the company.
The other issue I haven't seen discussed online in any formal way, but a friend made the point the other day that this could potentially lead to issues with transformative works not done under license. If Amazon has the license to publish works about a specific canon, it may be possible to go after works written in those canons which aren't published through them but available for free on sites like AO3. It would be sheer stupidity for the creators of the canon to do it, because it alienates the most passionate part of their fanbase, and most production companies and studios are aware of this. But Amazon is giant and does not care, so they could potentially chase down people they see cutting into their market-share.
My recommendation is, as always, not to do a deal with Amazon; I don't even shop there, and haven't in years. But whether you know you won't, think you might, or are actively interested in publishing with them, remember to be informed!
Just For Fun:
Anon linked to a BuzzFeed article about Cat Heaven Island in Japan. Anon is not wrong -- play the soundtrack, it makes it even more awesome.
And this has been Radio Free Monday! Thank you for your time. You can always post items for my attention in comments here (or on any post) or email me at copperbadge at gmail dot com. If you're not sure how to proceed, here is a little more about what I do and how you can help (or ask for help!).
