OTW mentioned on Zuckerman's blog and Boing Boing

[femmequixotic]

OTW has been mentioned on Ethan Zuckerman's blog.

By using the word "transformative" in the organization name, the organizers of the group are advocating a legal argument - writing fan fiction based on the characters and universes of copyright-protected media is a transformative use, protected by fair use clauses in US copyright law. In other words, this is an attempt to stand up and fight for this interpretation, rather than hiding from copyright holders, which is a huge step forward to this subculture....

OTW has taken a very interesting step in declaring that fan culture has a dominant gender. In their statement of values, they note, "We value our identity as a predominantly female community with a rich history of creativity and commentary." Here, again, it's important to understand the definition of "fan culture" - media fandom, fanfic and vidding, a culture that's predominantly female, though not exclusively so.

Zuckerman's blog post has also been noted on Boing Boing.

ETA: OTW has also been mentioned on Netribution, and on the blogs of Tobias Buckell and John Scalzi. (Thanks to droneish for the links to the last two.)

--femmequixotic, bethbethbeth, ciderpress, mirabile_dictu, shrift, svmadelyn
Community Relations Committee

Comments

[llaras.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I do understand where the arguments come from, but they seem so silly and narrow to me. I think I'm so far on the other side (fandom in general) now that I can't make sense of what they are saying.

I'll never forget when I first discovered fandom and fanfic. It was like a revelation. There were all these people out there who liked what I liked and took the time to discuss it and write about it and it just blew my mind. I jumped in with both feet and haven't looked back. I've made some wonderful friends and had some really happy times here, I wouldn't give it up for anything.