The book he had been reading aloud to her had been cast aside on the settee now that the story was finished. Though she seemed always to quietly consider the literature rather than discuss it with him, Louis had cherished even the silence spent with his beloved reclined against his chest. As was his usual habit, he took to cradling her small hand in his own, absentmindedly toying with her fingers and marvelling at the way her tiny nails gleamed like fragments of glass in the light. The number of years made no difference when it came to his admiration of her, for could the child ever be anything but the child in the eyes of the parent? Tilting his head to rest his cheek against ringlets of gold, he whispered softly to her, “You’re perfect..”
“If you have some fan-tastic fic, we’d love to read it. Send us your finest work and one winner will be published in the pages of EW and on EW.com.”
Yep, that’s a thing that Entertainment Weekly – who are generally a fandom-supportive magazine/website – is doing this month. January is Fanuary, and they’re focusing on fandoms, fan creativity (fic and art), fan theories and more.
It’s definitely not the first time that a mainstream publication has focused on fanworks – look at the article on My Immortal in NY Magazine last summer, or about 90% of what happens at SDCC and NYCC. It’s also not the first time that a mainstream entity has encouraged fanworks submissions – Lucasfilm has hosted (”curated”) fan-film fests, Mtv and the BBC have showcased fanart in galleries and at comic-cons, Wattpad has worked with shows like Dig by hosting fanfic, etc.
And EW is owned by Time, Inc., which isn’t actually owned by Time Warner anymore, though there are still certain lingering licenses and relationships between the two companies. Whether you’re ok with – or excited by – Fanruary, think it’s a great way to get more readers, writers, artists and reccers interested in awesome fanworks and share squee, or if you think it’s a way for a major multinational to get clicks and free content from fandomers, or whether it’s irrelevant to you and your fannishness, the contest terms of use are a watershed moment for fanworks, because of parts of its Terms of Use; some sentences are awesome. Other parts are kind of weird.
This bit is awesome:
Entrant represents that any fan fiction submission and other materials submitted as part of Entrant’s Contest entry are original…
Before, say, 2013, it would be surprising for a mainstream publication to create a contest that is premised upon the fact (not the idea, not the theory, but the fact) that the fan fictions submitted therein is “original”.
But given recent cases, including those, like Google Books that we’ve written about here, that’s become an accepted fact. A fanfic can be an original work. EW can ask for fanfic submissions that do not “infringe upon the rights of any third party” because it’s an accepted legal judgment that fanfic does not automatically infringe upon the rights of any third party. They didn’t ask for fic only based on works in the public domain, like Shakespeare and Sherlock Holmes and Jane Austin.
They ask the entrants to affirm that the entry does not “otherwise” infringe on any third party’s rights. The underpinning to this is that fanfiction is transformative, Fair Use and thus non-infringing. It says “fan fiction submission” – not just “submission”. By putting “fan fiction” into that sentence, they’re creating a situation where a court would have to use the standard meaning of “fan fiction”. Now, EW is obligated to accept whatever risk could vest, at least re what they eventually opt to publish.
It’s a good thing to have in your archives of Why Fanfic Is Noninfringing, basically, and we like archiving things that say that, especially when they come from big companies that are related to at least some of The Powers That Be.
While we’ve seen some say that you’re handing over your story to EW if you enter the Fanuary contest, it appears that you’re actually not assigning it to EW or anyone else. The ToU for the contest says:
Entrant grants to Sponsor a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to edit, publish, promote, republish at any time in the future and otherwise use Entrant’s submitted fan fiction, along with Entrant’s name, likeness, biographical information, and any other information provided by Entrant, in any and all media for possible editorial, promotional or advertising purposes, without further permission, notice or compensation (except where prohibited by law).
Under this, they can do a lot with the story you submit, even if you don’t win, but they don’t have any exclusive rights to it just because you submit it to the contest – although it wouldn’t surprise us if the winner has to grant a broader license before they publish their story.
However, the first paragraph says, “Entries become sole property of Sponsor and none will be acknowledged or returned.” @ew, we think that someone might not have beta-read the contest rules, because the copyright license in the Rules contradicts the implication in the first paragraph, in a way that makes the first paragraph look poorly worded because it’s vague as to what the entry actually is. If @ew does a similar contest in the future, they may want to just say “No entries will be acknowledged or returned.” ETA: @rivkatdiscusses this issue here.
ETA for clarification: In the US, a license or assignment of copyright can only be done in writing, and while a nonexclusive license (like the one spelled out in the Rules) can happen without a signature, as the Copyright Office says, a “transfer of copyright ownership … is not valid unless an instrument of conveyance
(for example, contract, bond, or deed) or a note or memorandum
of the transfer is in writing and is signed by the
owner of the rights conveyed or the owner’s duly authorized
agent.” See 17 U.S.C. § 204(a).
We don’t believe that submitting a contest entry constitutes a signing by the fic-writer; if it doesn’t, then there’s no assignment of the fic. There is, as we said, a non-exclusive license, but that means that after submission, the fic-writer can still do anything they want to with said story.
It was summer. One of the more sweltering that I remember. We were at least a month into being truly lovers, not just friends, and he’d dragged me out into the hills in search of a stream. We each had a bottle of wine (or two?) and he was carrying bread, cheese, and cherries; I had my violin.
It took almost an hour to find it. Mon dieu, but it was so hot. The sort of hot that is like a curtain before you, like a wet blanket that covers your body. By the time we found the stream, we’d both stripped off our shirts, and I remember worrying my feet would have swollen in my boots.
We stripped off our clothing and immediately took to the water. Now, remember, these are cool mountain streams, even in summer. It was glorious. Bathing, drinking, splashing each other, wrestling. Then making love on the grass, our breath coming hard, our cries building until the little death, and then collapsing beside each other in happy, satisfied exhaustion.
We drank wine for hours and ate, the cherry juice staining our fingers and mouths, our lazy kisses a mixture of sweat and fruit. I remember almost weeping at the perfection of it, turning into his neck and burying my face there because I knew it wouldn’t last, that the sunlight and sweetness and poetry of it would end, as it always did.
Before we left, I remember he grabbed me ‘round the waist and kissed me, then pulled back and looked me in the eye. If you don’t know him, you can’t know how penetrating, how soul-piercing that gaze can be–he loves with perfect trust, and it’s absolutely terrifying.
Ah, hmmmmmm…. I don’t remember that specifically, and I’m feeling like I should know that…
^Lee Pace as Marius bc of reasons.
… but I can surmise that since he was the only authority figure anyone paid respect to for awhile, that would naturally lead to them speculating on him abusing such status.
Which he did, somewhat, with Armand, when he took him in. I haven’t personally dissected that ship too thoroughly, so I wouldn’t know.
I’ll open this up to the group: Anyone out there have an answer for this anon?
//Haven’t been around long enough to know (only got into the fandom in 2005), but I would guess it’s just what you said.. that maybe his and Armand’s relationship as it came through in TVA and B&G was a negative surprise to people? Especially compared to how favourably he’s portrayed in say TVL/QotD.
ooc: I think it’s partially the later stuff with TVA and B&G, where he comes off as a not-so-nice guy. But back when there were only three books, Marius was the authority figure trying to implement rules for the vampires, so he was an obvious antagonist for The Brat Prince, resident rule-breaker.
I read the books when I was 13 and was like, “wee everyone is hot” but then I reread them at 27 with more scrutiny and formed some vastly different opinions on characters. I realized I didn’t like Marius at all LMAO it’s just because he’s got a personality I’m not fond of in a man.
So I imagine people might have been “eh *grunts & hand waves*” on Marius and that somehow designated him the one to make the villain when it suited. Fandom is not known for having impartial views on anything – now or back then.
^All good reasons, TVA and B&G would have had a big impact on fandom’s perception of Marius.
Later-canon Marius is very… um… he seems to have misplaced some of his marbles.
#marius I leave u alone with my mortal luvvies for 5 DAMN SECONDS WTF
