Totally AWESOME Twilight Copyright Wank
on March 25th, 2009As in Twilight Zone interpretation of copyright. Read this. We control the horizontal. We control the vertical. And we control the characters if you just wrote about them but didn’t make a picture. They are ALL OURS to use because you didn’t create a graphic novel, you were dumb enough to just WRITE a book!
WTF???
Long story short:
Some deluded fanfic author has decided to publish a sequel to Stephanie Meyers’s Twilight novels. They have entitled this epic Russet Noon, and instead of just posting it online like a normal obsessed person, she has decided to SELL this tome via some company called AV Publishing, an operation which may very well be located in someone’s basement.
The remarkably daffy understanding of copyright law makes for most amusing wank.
After New Moon, I guarantee you that every girl in America will be in love with Jacob Black. Who said things ended at the end of Breaking Dawn? And who says Jacob didn’t get Bella? Forget Edward. Russet Noon is a Jacob and Bella story. The saga continues with or without Stephenie Meyer. So who cares if she postpones the publication of Midnight Sun indefinitely? The fans will continue the story either in their minds or through tribute sequels like this one. Who wants to know about Edward’s side of the story anyway? It’s all about Jacob Black. Hands down. No negotiations. Bella Swan belongs with Jacob Black.
After the publication of Russett Noon, I guarantee you that every girl in America will not give a rat’s ass when you get served by lawyers with so much money they could buy you, your 15 cats, and your hidden stack of Jacob/Edward slash.
Most appreciative hat tip to Arlene.
For the slow children in law school. This is an example of the use of copyrighted material for purposes of satire or commentary. Twilight: The Sparkledammerung. Brutal hilarity.
I once wrote that if someone did this to A Distant Soil, I would just laugh and then buy two copies, but looking back on it, I’d probably cry first. Then I’d laugh and buy two copies.
BTW, many useful copyright links in our sidebar. (Link fixed, thanks!)
omg the Sparkledammerung link made me shoot coffee through my nose. But the theory is valid: Edward Cullen IS Joseph Smith.
I need to change my pants now XD
The Sparkledammerung also gave me many LULZ and my guffaws were so loud and so uncontrolled my family thought I was choking and came running to the studio to give me the Heimlich.
I’m trying to picture anyone actually BUYING it.
The curiosity would overwhelm the natural instincts of many. Me included. Everyone needs a good laugh once in awhile.
But then, at least one person would just buy it and post it to the internet saving the rest of fandom the trouble of buying it.
This “Lady Sybilla” (and somehow I get the feeling she ain’t no “lady”) is stupifying in her sweeping statements of what she’s free to do. And make money off.
Just as a logic thing… she’s apparently claiming that Jacob Black is freely available for her to mangle as she chooses — but since she’s also apparently using Bella, to whom that liberty does NOT apply, how does she justify the whole?
Oh, nevermind. I realize she’s of that mindset that says “I WANT to do this, so I WILL do this, and that makes it perfectly legal!”
All because, you know, we must not tread on the self-esteem of tender students, we must not discourage their creative endeavors, they are entitled to their hearts’ desires…. NOT!
Oh, dear. I feel a rant bubbling up. So I’d better stop.
That she can be so self-righteous, so wrong, and so out of her mind with ego all at once…her brain must be a crowded place.
Honestly, meeting and dealing with some of these fan authors, it’s just maddening. They are filled with self entitlement and rage at anyone who contradicts them.
Woe betide anyone who uses THEIR characters, or THEIR story settings without their permission!
That creator rights thing only works one way…in their favor.
To Ms Russet Noon: there’s this little concept you might want to research — “derivative works”. It’s right there in any given list of copyright legislation. Pretty near the top. You won’t have to read too far down.
Fandomwank is reporting she’s actually sold some copies.
More fun at Absolute Write:
http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=136015
Wow. This made me laugh so hard. So, what percentages do you give her for ego, denial and self righteousness?
It’s almost tempting to buy a copy. Not because I want to support this madness, but this book might be a collector’s item, after she is subsequently sued and the book is abandoned. And yes, there is a morbid curiosity about how bad a train wreck the book would resemble.
JP
Read just a page of the Absolute Write board. Heh.
Oh, Josh, don’t bother getting a copy of it. If the prose is anything like the copy in those press releases (which I suspect were written by Lady S herself), it’s not worth it. “Jacob is WONDERFUL! Edward sucks!” Gag me now.
I have never understood how fans believe, and justify, that they know more/better about characters in a book than the person who wrote it. It’s “Misery” on a logarithmic scale.
That movie still scares the bejeesus out of me, btw :-/
oh you might like this, this comment just left on my LJ to a post I made about this stupid book:
My husband (high school English teacher) just informed me that one of his fellow teachers’ classes was trying to argue that Twilight was better, more important, and better written than Julius Caesar! WTF?!?
yes, the wtfitude continues…
damn you but I had to click the Fandom wank link. After stealing some great icons I found the bestest thing I wish I’d written first, re: the Russet Noon thingy:
“It’s like a wank truffle with a soft stupid center enrobed in entitlement, rolled in moron dust, and accented with delicate shavings of WTF.”
Dear Stephenie Meyers: the above is an example of a simile. This is how they are used. For future reference, if they ever let you write another “book”. Signed, me.
Arlnee, nothing has made my day more than seeing the Lady Sybilla refer to her online detractors as a bunch of teenagers. I haven’t been mistaken for a teenager in years. I feel like I’ve been carded. It’s delightful.
The writer of russet moon is the owner of AV publishing, so russet moon is in effect self published. It’s a total infringment of copyright regardless of how she tries to dress it up. All fanfic is an infringment and can be stopped at any time by the copyright holder. In the case of Twilight this hasn’t happen, but it has with other writers such as Anne Rice. The biggest issue Twilight fanfic writers should be worried about now is if the publishers decide to step in and call a halt to fanfic because of one silly woman who crossed the line.
Hi Carol! Thanks so much for registering and posting your comments.
I agree with you: the real bummer is how this can affect other fans. I’ve posted repeatedly that I have no problem with fanfic myself, but people like this Lady Sybilla step over the line and make things hard on all fans.
IIRC, Anne McCaffrey has had a longstanding absolute no Pern fanfic rule. Apparently if you want to write about your own characters in that world it’s fine, but use or mention any of hers, even in background, and she will sue. Which means everything has to be AU, in eras that aren’t established. Which also means that there has been very little Pern fic, since it all has to be OC, and I’ve never yet met a wannabe Pernwriter who didn’t call her all sorts of names and say how unfair she’s being.
On the other hand, who could blame her, given this and the HP Lexicon BS? And I heard about this policy long before the interwebs came into play.
Hey, I have only had a couple of problems with fans using my work improperly. And the ire they sent my way after I objected was so vicious and pervasive that I went for years swearing off having anything to do with fans.
It’s so unfair to fans. It only takes one to really make a pro miserable, and they just suck up your entire life.
But I will caveat to add that I have NEVER had a problem with anyone who was a true fan. Always aspiring pros and pros – usually semi-pros not doing very well for themselves.
No real fan has ever done anything genuinely harmful to me.
Lady Sybilla’s latest daffy wank:
“Fortunately, though, we send love to all the civilized people out there who know better than to judge a book by its cover . . . oops . . . author.”
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I always judge a book by its author. Since the author wrote it and all.
Yeah… I think it’s a bit “out there” to imagine that a book is not going to be judged by its author.
I suspect that “Lady Sybilla” wanted to say that a book should be evaluated by its content and not the character and actions of the author. And one could make a case for that (Oscar Wilde? Lord Byron? Marquis de Sade? – not that I’ve read anything by de Sade), but really, the writing has to be quite exceptionally good for people to overlook the private life and character flaws of the author.
I think in the context really means that we shouldn’t care that the book is not written by Stephenie Meyer because it’ll be OH SO MUCH BETTER when it is written by Lady Sybilla!
And the whole point for me is, yes, I do care that the book isn’t written by Stephenie Meyer. It’s her copyright, after all.
So, i agree with your point, but I don’t think that’s the point Sybilla was trying to make herself. She just doesn’t think the audience should care whether Stephenie Meyer wrote Russet Noon or not.
“the writing has to be quite exceptionally good for people to overlook the private life and character flaws of the author.”
Hoo boy yeah, I’m having a ton of fun with reconciling Victor Hugo’s many flaws and Les Misérables–heck, even his own characters don’t like him XD
Hint to Lady Sybillia: next time pick a book that’s out of copyright. It’s much easier
Out of copyright – fair game. I had many friends go bonkers over Disney’s version of Hunchback of Notre Dame, for example.
Dudes, Hugo’s dead. You can’t hurt him. And if you want to play with his Hunch, have a go.
Heh… yeah, maybe I was giving LS too much credit – or leeway, at least.
I guess I’m a heart too egotistical a writer – I just don’t get why someone would want to gain fame writing someone else’s novel characters. Sure there are times when you have multiple authors writing a character – television and comics, for instance. But those instances are understood, and the writers can’t do just anything they want: they do have to stay within established characterization parameters.
But this? It sort of drips of an emotional desperation to me. If she weren’t so over-the-top about the wonderfulness of her own writing, I’d pity her.
You know, I do get it to an extent. I mean, I get all tingly when I get to work on officially sanctioned stuff, like Lord of the Rings or Indiana Jones.
But I’ve done a few unlicensed, unofficial tribute thingies (essays or illos for some small presses, as in the UNOFFICIAL COMPANION OF A BOOK I’VE NEVER READ by Author Out to Make a Buck), and I find them embarrassing. None are on my resume. And, of course, none violated copyright (basically they were collections of interviews and articles), though I know in more than one case the author had to make changes to the material to pass muster with the lawyers.
I actually feel better about the fan activity I did when I was a kid, and have warm memories of working on fanzines and APA’s. I did fanfic, too, and got my first job offer from DC Comics because of my fan activity. Most publishers and authors are cool with fanac.
Maybe that’s why I never insisted on getting paid for almost everything I did on those unofficial books. I did virtually every assignment as an unpaid favor. After the fact I realize I got taken advantage of, but still, no one held a gun to my head.
Once I’ve done something official on a project – such as getting hired to do official Lord of the Rings or Star Wars work – I feel great about being a part of it all.
Since part of my job means doing works based on the work someone else created, yeah I get it. It’s cool to draw Superman.
But it’s much cooler to draw Superman when DC Comics asks me to. And it’s not just the money.
Oh, I have no problem “getting it” on the art side. I’ve done a lot of my own share of Tolkien illustration, for instance – like this one of Elwing and Earendil
http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z156/scribblerworks/Artwork/?action=view¤t=Morning_Elwing.jpg
But I just find the storytelling side of it different. Doing artwork inspired by a story isn’t trying to “make more” of the story. At least, that’s the way I feel about it.
Well, it depends on what you’re doing with it.
For example, there are two professionally produced sequels to Les Misérables, both coincidentally named “Cosette.” The first was by author Laura Kalpakian, which was a sequel to the musical version of the book, so much so that the cover art was a direct homage/ripoff of the Cosette face by Bayard that has become the Cameron Mackintosh logo/icon/registered trademark. It was even promoted as a tie in to the 10th anniversary of the musical and to generate interest in making a movie version of the musical. Basically, Kalpakian was hired to do an Alexandra Ripley (she of the “Gone with the Wind” sequel).
Fan reaction? It blew chunks. How badly? It came out in hardcover and I immediately found a library copy. I hated it but being a completionist I preordered the tpb which had not yet been released, since those come out a year after the hardcovers do….
They never released a softcover edition, they cancelled it. That’s how bad it was. Even the publisher thought so.
Second sequel was by a French guy named Ceresa who wrote Cosette, Or The Time Of Illusion. Basically it boiled down to someone who hated the subject, thought himself superior to it, and channeled Albert Camus in his I’m Not Absurdist mood on a bad writing day to crank this out. How bad was it? Victor Hugo’s heirs sued him for “defacing a national treasure” which is an actual crime in France (and the same argument they made against the Disney version of “Hunchback”). They lost. But really they didn’t need to bother, even though it spawned a second book Marius, or The Fugitive (Marius fights at The Alamo! I Am Not Making This Up!) it has so far not continued. Fan reaction? WTF No Seriously WTF?!?!!!centetonze!1!
And then there’s me. Little insignificant self-published me, with a few nice reviews on Amazon and Borders, and surprisingly little wank in my lettercol other than the occasional “how DARE you try to write a sequel to this!” rant. Which is fine. My take on it? Mix the original book with the actual author’s life story, add liberal dashes of “Shakespeare In Love”, “Around The World In 80 Days,” the occasional Guest Historical Figure, and sprinkle with the occasional nod to fanservice without an Oh No You Didn’t and then just have fun with it like a Giant Sized What If? Omnibus. And the people who buy them seem to get this and are okay with it. Win all around
I’m hoping this isn’t what I’m eventually famous for. In fact, I can do without fame, or infamy. When the Ceresa dustup started about the second Cosette book I thought how awful I’d feel if the heirs came after my books because that wasn’t what I wanted. I look at Eric Shanower’s work on the OZ books, and that’s what I want to show through with my stuff, that you can add to someone else’s canon without stomping on it or anointing yourself the official continuationer, the “I’m better than the original creator” proclamation.
Hugo created a fixed finite universe in a box. I’m wrapping that box in a bigger box that includes him and his influences, too, which puts a whole new filter on what he wrote. I’m not saying I’m better than Hugo by any stretch of the imagination. I just call the right to pull a Roshamon on him.
Anyway that’s what I’m doing. Sorry for the teal deer. WordPress needs cut tags and I need an editor
I see what you mean Arlnee. And I definitely think what you are doing is something different than Lady Sybilla! (Not to say, I’d expect a higher quality!)
let us both hope so XD
back on topic (post distappeared! Poof!) apparently LS also swiped the cover art from some guy’s DA. Imagine that.
http://www.journalfen.net/users/caito/56192.html?thread=5248
so, nothing original inside or outside. I bet even the paper’s recycled XD
Great points, and great contribution Arlnee.
Anyone else having trouble posting? Got a couple of complaints the board is acting up. I’m seeing nothing int he Spam filter.
(because I keep getting a “duplicate post” notice where there is none)
let us both hope so XD
back to original topic: it turns out that not only did LS borrow copiously from a work still in copyright, she even swiped the cover art from some guy’s DA:
http://www.journalfen.net/users/caito/56192.html?thread=5248, click through to see pics etc.
so, neither the outside nor the inside is original. All she needs to do is use recycled paper and it’s a publishing hat trick XD
Sorry Arlnee, finally found the problem. FIXED!
and there’s the last one I did. Weird! And again I say! Weird.
sorry for the multiposts. Fail was here.
The new WordPress update stores suspected spam, but not where the old WordPress did. Sometimes even regular posters (like you) get ID’d as spam for some reason, but I could not find where the posts were stored. Once I found ‘em, I cleared them, and here we are. It’s like magic. Found about 20 posts in the bin. Sheesh.