SquidgeWorld Updated TOS

[squidgestatus]

Based on some things I've been seeing around AO3 and Tumblr, I updated the SquidgeWorld Terms of Service. The Terms of Service are here: https://www.squidgeworld.org/tos

The text of the additions is here:

NEW - Added July 7th, 2021: Users will not add any link, in their profiles or in their profiles or in any posted work or comment that points to a fundraiser of any kind including, but not limited to, Patreon, Ko-Fi, or the like. The only exception to this is in the case of a piece of work that is of original work, meaning the fandom used is Original Work, and no other fandom is listed. The work must have original characters at all, and must not utilize any aspect of a fandom such as characters or relationships that stray from the "Original" characters and relationships listed in the child tags to the Original Work tag. You may, however, link to an off-site (non Squidge.org property) profile such as your Tumblr profile or such, and that site may link to whatever you'd like. Fanfiction and other fan works are guaranteed under the "Fair Use" clause, and are protected as long as the person posting it makes no money off of the work. People linking to Patreon or such and making money off of fanworks submit the SquidgeWorld Archive into legal jeopardy.

Comments

[duskpeterson]

"I need to move it (and a couple other equivalent items) to 'Other Media'."

Thank you for your help with that!

"Can you give me an example so I can understand better?"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_adaptations_of_Beowulf#Novels_based_on_Beowulf

These are all examples of fanfics being sold commercially in a perfectly lawful fashion. "Beowulf" (the canon) is way out of copyright, and the authors aren't - one hopes! - basing their fanfics on recent media (except in the one case listed there of an authorized novelization).

I'm not saying that you need to permit SquidgeWorld creators to link to their lawful, commercially sold fanworks. I'm just saying that, when you say in your Terms of Service, "Fanfiction and other fan works are guaranteed under the 'Fair Use' clause, and are protected as long as the person posting it makes no money off of the work," that's not true for all fanworks. It's true for most fanworks, but not for all of them. In some cases (like the Beowulf novels), the right to create and distribute fanworks is protected, period, regardless as to whether the person makes money off their fanwork, because the canon is either public domain or is licensed for commercial derivative works.

There's a lot of confusion about this among fans, simply because, when professional authors write fanfic, their publishers don't usually label it as fanfic. But there's no content difference whatsoever between professional author writing a Beowulf novel that's published by a Big Press, and a fan uploading their own Beowulf novel to SquidgeWorld. And now that professional authors are getting a lot more candid in public about the origins of their novels and stories ("I wrote this as a challengefic in a fanfic contest!"), it's becoming much more obvious to everyone that some professional novels are simply fanfic that can be legally published and sold.

So that's why I was suggesting that, instead of that sentence about Fair Use, you simply say that you want to keep the fanworks portions of SquidgeWorld noncommercial. I don't think you need to elaborate upon the very complex legal nature of fanworks. I think it would take a savvy lawyer to do that!

(I hope I'm not making you bleery-eyed with all this. I didn't mean to spend so much of your time!)

[squidgiepdx]

Agreed that items like Beowulf are in the public domain and items that are derivatives of it can be sold. However, those items wouldn't be posted to SquidgeWorld as they would be for sale on Amazon, Kobo, etc. And ethically, I couldn't allow someone posting, say the first chapter to a profic with a link to the item for sale somewhere else. That violates the spirit of what Squidge.org has been doing for the last 27 years.

I'm willing to discuss exceptions to the "no patreon, etc" links for public domain items, though honestly as with my previous post about "George vs Georgina" it can make for a slippery slope. I've made a new "news" item on SquidgeWorld seeking input on this, though we can continue to talk here as well. Link: https://www.squidgeworld.org/admin_posts/23

[duskpeterson]

I think we're going in circles, because twice now I've said that I'm fine with your policy against linking to commercial fanworks. I always was. :)

I was just suggesting that the way you worded your ToS was confusing. But I think I've taken up more than my fair share of your time, and I'm taking you away from far more important work you could be doing. It may be that nobody besides me will have any problems with the ToS wording; I certainly hope so.

Heading back to the beginning of this conversation, thank you so much for being welcome to Original Work creators. :)

[squidgestatus]

Yeah, I got distracted, I'm sorry! For work right now I'm doing mind-numbingly boring work, and this is the only intellectual discussion I've had today. Except I latched onto the wrong part of it. :)

Thank you for the discussion!

[duskpeterson]

I'm glad I was able to provide a distraction to your boring work. :) Always a delight to talk with you; thanks again.