Copyright Law and Harlan Ellison...
Jun. 29th, 2018 10:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Here we go again..Round two of Fandom vs. the World Internet Copyright Police:
EU Copyright Developments and Fans
As if World Copyright Law wasn't confusing enough on its own, enter the digital age and the internet, making it even more convoluted. Honestly, this is what happens when software engineers and lawyers have too much time on their hands.
The whole thing reminds me of Napster and Digital Copyright Act, neither of which made a lot of sense either and gave me a headache.
So you too...can have a headache:
Articles 11 and 13 would govern how the EU approaches copyright on the internet. Article 11, known as the “link tax,” would effectively make it infringing for websites to contain links to copyrighted press publications. Article 13, known as the “censorship machine,” has to do with whether websites have an obligation to filter user-posted content to prevent users from posting infringing material.
These provisions would not make fanworks illegal, but they could make fanworks harder to post and find. Because there may be opportunity for further debate on the language, it is hard to know exactly what impact they will have if they make it through the next step. But if they do, they will govern what internet hosts have to do (sites like YouTube and Tumblr and possibly the AO3), not what fans have to do. The provisions are about linking and filtering for infringing material; noncommercial transformative fanworks will still be non-infringing. The impact for fans would be indirect–rules against linking to copyrighted press publications and rules requiring filtering for infringing material may make it harder to find and post (non-infringing) fanworks online.
Beyond the general facts that they will make fanworks harder to find and post, it is difficult to predict exactly the impact these provisions would have, because it is difficult to predict precisely the language that they will pass. The language that JURI adopted is not published in any official form, and the language is hotly debated. Some proposals are worse than others. For example, in some proposals, nonprofit entities like the OTW/AO3 would be exempt from filtering obligations. In others, the rules take into account the nature of the works hosted, but do not take into account a site’s nonprofit status. Regardless, commercial sites like YouTube and Tumblr will likely see new obligations if these Articles pass. To find out even more about these proposals, we recommend reading this fantastic Reddit AMA by a few top European intellectual property professors. (In fact, the OTW legal team knows them and can vouch for their expertise!)
The bit about prohibiting linkages annoys me. I get prohibiting sharing entire articles, but links to the articles or websites sharing them? Really? Frak you, EU and the greedy paranoid folks who came up with this new rule. I'm sorry, I published a book. I made it available on Kindle. I know people are downloading it for free on other sites and there's zip I can do about it. I DO NOT CARE. Why? At least they are reading it. If someone wrote fanfic based on my story or book, I'd be flattered. Go at it! I'm not writing a sequel to it. Have a blast. I really don't understand the rigid restrictions of copyright law -- hence the reason I ran screaming from copyright law and went into something far more honorable and a lot more lucrative entitled contract and administrative law.
Half to state -- I was on two list-serves in the 1990s and early 00s while working as a Rights and Permissions Manager, and over time, I found myself agreeing more with the pesky Librarians who argued for expanded fair use, over the paranoid and greedy publishers who argued for restricted use.
2. Controversial Author Harlan Ellison Remade Sci-Fi While Battling Movie Stuidos Publishers and Frank Sintra
Whoa..Frank Sinatra??? LOL!
Excerpts...which probably violate the European view of copyright law, but I am paralyzed by not caring all that much.
In regards to the episode "City on the Edge of Forever" -- fan favorite episode of Star Trek.
But what ran on television was different from the writer’s original idea. Ellison’s script for the “Star Trek” episode presented a harsher concept — including a more overt antiwar theme, illegal drug use among the crew, and an execution. Roddenberry and his team drastically watered down the writer’s idea, sparking a bitter spat between the show’s famous creator and Ellison. Decades later, in 2009, Ellison filed a lawsuit against CBS Paramount over merchandising and publishing fees from the episode, Wired reported.
“It ain’t about the ‘principle,’ friend, it’s about the money!” Ellison bombastically said in a statement when the suit was filed. “Pay me! I’m doing it for the 35-year-long disrespect and the money!”
That was also pure Ellison.
I actually agree with Ellison -- and am curious as to what his original non-watered down script would have looked like. The version I saw on-screen, was good, but disappointing. (Joan Collins played the role of the main female character in the episode.) Part of the reason it was disappointing was all the hype. I saw it after everyone told me it was the best thing ever. And long after I'd watched at least two seasons of Star Trek Next Generation and seen far better sci-fi.
Across his incredibly prolific career — he penned 50 novels and more than 1,700 short stories, as well as scripts for classic television shows like “The Outer Limits” and “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,” according to the Verge — he was as well-known for his spats and public battles as for his groundbreaking imagination. Ellison tussled with Frank Sinatra over a pair of boots, scrapped with publishers about his creative vision, and even took on Hollywood studios when they lifted his ideas of big budget movies.
Whether you know it or not, if you've watched any genre television series, you've probably run across him at some point.
Part of the only Jewish family in the area, Ellison had to defend himself physically against bullies, Variety reported. That same spark carried over into adulthood. Ellison was booted out of Ohio State University after punching a professor who said Ellison had no talent for the written word, according to the AP.
Hmmm...my brother was almost booted out of Ohio State too, but for another reason. Also, he was told that he'd never make it as a professional artist or a graphic artist. My brother had the last laugh and ended up teaching graphic arts at Yale and Rhode Island School of Design.
“It is the game of ‘What if?’ ” he said explaining his writing process in a 2013 Guardian interview. “You take that which is known, and you extrapolate — and you keep it within the bounds of logic, otherwise it becomes fantasy — and you say, ‘Well, what if?’ That’s what speculative fiction is, and at its very best, it is classic literature, on a level with ‘Moby Dick’ and Colette and Edgar Allan Poe.”
Yeah, sort of do that myself. I guess. I thought everyone did? Except I like happy endings. The world is dark enough, why make it darker?
As the journalist Gay Talese recounted in his 1966 New Journalism classic “ Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” an argument between the writer and the famed crooner in a Los Angeles nightclub almost came to blows. Sinatra took issue with Ellison’s boots.
“I don’t like the way you’re dressed,” Sinatra told Ellison, Talese wrote.
“Hate to shake you up,” the writer shot back, “but I dress to suit myself.”
LOL! This actually reminds me of my favorite post to date on Ellison, by spikewriter. RIP Harlan Ellison -- where she recounts guiding him through the crowd at an LA Comic Con to find J. Michael Straczynski, while people are attempting flag him down for autographs. He'd been on the Babylon 5 panel.
[See, if you've watched ANY sci-fi in the last 20-30 years on television, you've run across Ellison. He was that prolific. Although I think I liked Bab 5 better than the original Star Trek.]
Then John Scalzi's post which explains his comment in the post article about how controversial Ellison was.
I was in the audience at the 2006 Hugos when Harlan groped Connie Willis, and laughed because I thought it was a set piece between them. I later learned it was not and was embarrassed I had laughed. I have a pretty good idea why Harlan did it and why he thought it was harmless, but he was wrong to have done it and deserved the anger sent his way for it. I liked talking to him and admired his work immensely, and appreciated the complicated human he was. I just wish the first time I had seen him in person, he hadn’t have humiliated a colleague, a woman and a great writer. It stays with me even now.
Hmmm...
Ellison settled his lawsuit with CBS Paramount over the classic “City on the Edge of Forever.” The writer later released his own uncensored version of the original script as a book.
So, I can just go and read it, if I want to.
Oh...And... cjlasky7 wrote a funny piece about Harlan Ellison going to heaven which is interesting, except I didn't know Jews believed in Heaven?? I don't. Or rather I have a different take on it, but I'm also not Jewish. Unitarian Universalist at the moment. We don't believe in hell or heaven really, so much as everyone rejoins the source at some point, being energy beings in organic matter -- the organic matter dies, we go back to the source. (Or at least that's what I believe, I'm not clear on UU's -- their beliefs seem to go all over the map.)
Goodbye Harlan.
Sigh. You couldn't have taken the Doofus with you? Actually, I've decided the Doofus isn't killable by natural causes on account of the fact that he is a soulless vampire. I'm nicknaming him Vlad.
And please, someone, stake him already...and while you're at it, all his cronies.
EU Copyright Developments and Fans
As if World Copyright Law wasn't confusing enough on its own, enter the digital age and the internet, making it even more convoluted. Honestly, this is what happens when software engineers and lawyers have too much time on their hands.
The whole thing reminds me of Napster and Digital Copyright Act, neither of which made a lot of sense either and gave me a headache.
So you too...can have a headache:
Articles 11 and 13 would govern how the EU approaches copyright on the internet. Article 11, known as the “link tax,” would effectively make it infringing for websites to contain links to copyrighted press publications. Article 13, known as the “censorship machine,” has to do with whether websites have an obligation to filter user-posted content to prevent users from posting infringing material.
These provisions would not make fanworks illegal, but they could make fanworks harder to post and find. Because there may be opportunity for further debate on the language, it is hard to know exactly what impact they will have if they make it through the next step. But if they do, they will govern what internet hosts have to do (sites like YouTube and Tumblr and possibly the AO3), not what fans have to do. The provisions are about linking and filtering for infringing material; noncommercial transformative fanworks will still be non-infringing. The impact for fans would be indirect–rules against linking to copyrighted press publications and rules requiring filtering for infringing material may make it harder to find and post (non-infringing) fanworks online.
Beyond the general facts that they will make fanworks harder to find and post, it is difficult to predict exactly the impact these provisions would have, because it is difficult to predict precisely the language that they will pass. The language that JURI adopted is not published in any official form, and the language is hotly debated. Some proposals are worse than others. For example, in some proposals, nonprofit entities like the OTW/AO3 would be exempt from filtering obligations. In others, the rules take into account the nature of the works hosted, but do not take into account a site’s nonprofit status. Regardless, commercial sites like YouTube and Tumblr will likely see new obligations if these Articles pass. To find out even more about these proposals, we recommend reading this fantastic Reddit AMA by a few top European intellectual property professors. (In fact, the OTW legal team knows them and can vouch for their expertise!)
The bit about prohibiting linkages annoys me. I get prohibiting sharing entire articles, but links to the articles or websites sharing them? Really? Frak you, EU and the greedy paranoid folks who came up with this new rule. I'm sorry, I published a book. I made it available on Kindle. I know people are downloading it for free on other sites and there's zip I can do about it. I DO NOT CARE. Why? At least they are reading it. If someone wrote fanfic based on my story or book, I'd be flattered. Go at it! I'm not writing a sequel to it. Have a blast. I really don't understand the rigid restrictions of copyright law -- hence the reason I ran screaming from copyright law and went into something far more honorable and a lot more lucrative entitled contract and administrative law.
Half to state -- I was on two list-serves in the 1990s and early 00s while working as a Rights and Permissions Manager, and over time, I found myself agreeing more with the pesky Librarians who argued for expanded fair use, over the paranoid and greedy publishers who argued for restricted use.
2. Controversial Author Harlan Ellison Remade Sci-Fi While Battling Movie Stuidos Publishers and Frank Sintra
Whoa..Frank Sinatra??? LOL!
Excerpts...which probably violate the European view of copyright law, but I am paralyzed by not caring all that much.
In regards to the episode "City on the Edge of Forever" -- fan favorite episode of Star Trek.
But what ran on television was different from the writer’s original idea. Ellison’s script for the “Star Trek” episode presented a harsher concept — including a more overt antiwar theme, illegal drug use among the crew, and an execution. Roddenberry and his team drastically watered down the writer’s idea, sparking a bitter spat between the show’s famous creator and Ellison. Decades later, in 2009, Ellison filed a lawsuit against CBS Paramount over merchandising and publishing fees from the episode, Wired reported.
“It ain’t about the ‘principle,’ friend, it’s about the money!” Ellison bombastically said in a statement when the suit was filed. “Pay me! I’m doing it for the 35-year-long disrespect and the money!”
That was also pure Ellison.
I actually agree with Ellison -- and am curious as to what his original non-watered down script would have looked like. The version I saw on-screen, was good, but disappointing. (Joan Collins played the role of the main female character in the episode.) Part of the reason it was disappointing was all the hype. I saw it after everyone told me it was the best thing ever. And long after I'd watched at least two seasons of Star Trek Next Generation and seen far better sci-fi.
Across his incredibly prolific career — he penned 50 novels and more than 1,700 short stories, as well as scripts for classic television shows like “The Outer Limits” and “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,” according to the Verge — he was as well-known for his spats and public battles as for his groundbreaking imagination. Ellison tussled with Frank Sinatra over a pair of boots, scrapped with publishers about his creative vision, and even took on Hollywood studios when they lifted his ideas of big budget movies.
Whether you know it or not, if you've watched any genre television series, you've probably run across him at some point.
Part of the only Jewish family in the area, Ellison had to defend himself physically against bullies, Variety reported. That same spark carried over into adulthood. Ellison was booted out of Ohio State University after punching a professor who said Ellison had no talent for the written word, according to the AP.
Hmmm...my brother was almost booted out of Ohio State too, but for another reason. Also, he was told that he'd never make it as a professional artist or a graphic artist. My brother had the last laugh and ended up teaching graphic arts at Yale and Rhode Island School of Design.
“It is the game of ‘What if?’ ” he said explaining his writing process in a 2013 Guardian interview. “You take that which is known, and you extrapolate — and you keep it within the bounds of logic, otherwise it becomes fantasy — and you say, ‘Well, what if?’ That’s what speculative fiction is, and at its very best, it is classic literature, on a level with ‘Moby Dick’ and Colette and Edgar Allan Poe.”
Yeah, sort of do that myself. I guess. I thought everyone did? Except I like happy endings. The world is dark enough, why make it darker?
As the journalist Gay Talese recounted in his 1966 New Journalism classic “ Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” an argument between the writer and the famed crooner in a Los Angeles nightclub almost came to blows. Sinatra took issue with Ellison’s boots.
“I don’t like the way you’re dressed,” Sinatra told Ellison, Talese wrote.
“Hate to shake you up,” the writer shot back, “but I dress to suit myself.”
LOL! This actually reminds me of my favorite post to date on Ellison, by spikewriter. RIP Harlan Ellison -- where she recounts guiding him through the crowd at an LA Comic Con to find J. Michael Straczynski, while people are attempting flag him down for autographs. He'd been on the Babylon 5 panel.
[See, if you've watched ANY sci-fi in the last 20-30 years on television, you've run across Ellison. He was that prolific. Although I think I liked Bab 5 better than the original Star Trek.]
Then John Scalzi's post which explains his comment in the post article about how controversial Ellison was.
I was in the audience at the 2006 Hugos when Harlan groped Connie Willis, and laughed because I thought it was a set piece between them. I later learned it was not and was embarrassed I had laughed. I have a pretty good idea why Harlan did it and why he thought it was harmless, but he was wrong to have done it and deserved the anger sent his way for it. I liked talking to him and admired his work immensely, and appreciated the complicated human he was. I just wish the first time I had seen him in person, he hadn’t have humiliated a colleague, a woman and a great writer. It stays with me even now.
Hmmm...
Ellison settled his lawsuit with CBS Paramount over the classic “City on the Edge of Forever.” The writer later released his own uncensored version of the original script as a book.
So, I can just go and read it, if I want to.
Oh...And... cjlasky7 wrote a funny piece about Harlan Ellison going to heaven which is interesting, except I didn't know Jews believed in Heaven?? I don't. Or rather I have a different take on it, but I'm also not Jewish. Unitarian Universalist at the moment. We don't believe in hell or heaven really, so much as everyone rejoins the source at some point, being energy beings in organic matter -- the organic matter dies, we go back to the source. (Or at least that's what I believe, I'm not clear on UU's -- their beliefs seem to go all over the map.)
Goodbye Harlan.
Sigh. You couldn't have taken the Doofus with you? Actually, I've decided the Doofus isn't killable by natural causes on account of the fact that he is a soulless vampire. I'm nicknaming him Vlad.
And please, someone, stake him already...and while you're at it, all his cronies.
no subject
Date: 2018-06-30 04:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-06-30 01:28 pm (UTC)Also they had more television back then geared towards families and kids than now due to the Children's Television Act which had recently been enacted. Now kids tv is on cable channels and the networks don't even bother with it any longer.
no subject
Date: 2018-06-30 09:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-06-30 01:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-07-02 01:48 pm (UTC)