Viva Forever

I enjoy pop music though I’m more of a 90s girl myself. There’s plenty of crappy-but-catchy pop music out there today and I’m pretty tolerant of most songs I hear on the air these days. Songs like “My Humps” by the Black Eyed Peas are hilarious! I’m still uncertain whether I think musicians have the duty to be role models to the kiddies or not and usually I’m pretty apathetic (though often accompanied by a bit of eye-rolling) to the over-sexed music clips showcasing the likes of the Pussycat Dolls, Beyonce etc.

And then a few days ago I saw the videoclip the the song “Girlfriend” by Avril Lavigne. Because the clip is SO AMAZING, it warrants embedding into this very entry:

This clip POSITIVELY portrays:

• Unprovoked violence
• Stealing someone’s boyfriend
• Being a “motherfucking princess” (that comes straight from the lyrics!)
• Bullying

What the hell is wrong with you, Avril Lavigne? You’re a grown woman, OLDER THAN ME, and THAT’S what you come up with?? Oh yes, let’s all laugh along with her at that nerdy (you can tell by the glasses!) redhead! Let’s push said “nerd” around and launch a golfball at her head! Let’s be amazed that she must be a FUCKING PSYCHIC with her “knowledge” when a man (who’s already in a seemingly smooth relationship) likes her! Let’s revel in her “princess” behaviour when she and her lackeys brutishly shove people out of the way so she can use the bathroom mirror (to draw on it!)! Because I know that’s acceptable behaviour!

I’m going to look pass the fact that this is a 22 year old woman dressed up as a punky 14 year old. What annoys me is the way she plays up bad behaviour to be a good thing. I annoys me how she packages such terrible behaviours with a sugary “princess” label. What is this, a precursor to being a “bitch”? That’s not “confidence”, that’s plain old douchebaggyness. But then again, I personally have a deep dislike for the Bitch = Good Thing mentality.

The Gist of It: Fanworks are technically illegal. However not only do I think it shouldn’t be but the problems in itself is just ONE example of the law’s inability to deal with the concept of “information” as separate from its notions about physical property.

And now for the Too Long; Didn’t Read part.

Context and Definitions
I’ve never been one to heavily participate in any fandom; netwise, while I grew up around anime shrines and collectives I’ve never much been involved with it. I don’t write fanfiction, I don’t draw fanart. The closest is me maintaining a fanfic archive. However, I’ve always been a firm believer in there being something not quite right about making fanwork illegal, and for the longest time I thought it was legal (under some sort of “fair use” principle). But I’m wrong and hence this entry. Along the way, it helped that I had many an offline discussion with Tim on the matter (and related issues) as well as participating in similar discussions with Snark members.

When I mention “fanworks” in this entry, I mean media produced by fans of an existing genre of anything. This usually means fan ficition and fan art of existing movies, books, comics, etc etc. By “non-profit” I mean people who create fanworks and do not have them published to get money, i.e. entirely non-commerical. I am not talking about illegally downloading copyrighted materials such as music and movies. I think my arguments probably extends to, say, use of copyright images that get appropriated into layouts and web graphics, but to keep things tight, I’ll just be talking about fanworks here.

Further disclaimer: I barely known enough Australian law to get by as a law student, I know even less American law. Furthermore, very little proper jurisprudential research has been done by me, these are really just preliminary thoughts at best. Don’t be a moron and take the following as legal advice in any way.

Legalities
Fanworks are technically illegal. For an indepth reason this details why fanfiction is technically illegal in America. To sum up it seems that not only is fanworks most probably not considered “parody” and “fair use” but it’ll most likely contravene trademark laws too. For example, a fanfic on Harry Potter is illegal as it uses both copyrighted and trademarked characters without permission from the author. I believe such sentiments would probably be reflected in other Western jurisdictions too.

Of note, is that there hasn’t been a case where someone has sued another for publishing (non-profit or otherwise) fanworks. There’s been authors who publicbly denounce fanfiction, for example, like Anne Rice and threaten to sue. There’s also been a number of cease and desist letters sent to writers and fansites (a database of them is available at Chilling Effects) that threaten legal action. However, these fans would most likely be terrified of recieving such notices and fanworks would be removed and the matter settled. Therefore, without any case law to clarify and make certain the status of fanworks, I’m optimistic fanworks are only illegal in the strictest sense.

I would think it’s also arguably a very important factor when we’re dealing with NON-PROFIT, NON-COMMERICAL fanwork. Copyright/trademark owners do not lose anything, including profits, when someone writes fanfiction or draws fanart. The courts are generally reluctant to treat cases where there has been no commercial damage as a commercial case, but without any case law involving fanworks as precedent, this is also very unclear. For more information about fandom legalities, do visit my current favourite community, Fandom Lawyers.

Information =/= Physical Property
The problem is, currently, the law is trying to treat information as physical property. By physical property I mean tangible stuff, like houses, cars, paintings etc, things you can pick up and take away. If you pick up someone’s wallet and take off with it, you’ve deprived that person of their wallet. But information doesn’t work that way! This idea is best summed by George Bernard Shaw, who said:

“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.”

To again take Harry Potter as an example, after reading the book, I have the information about Potterness in my head. Yet I haven’t inadvertently deprived anyone of their Potter information. If I were to use the Potter information in my head to fabricate a picture or piece of writing, who has been harmed?

Some people would argue that the harm exists in the USE of the original media, which I suppose would mean even the very THOUGHT of Harry Potter one might have technically belongs to JK Rowling. Even if you didn’t write or draw anything, even if you were to say, talk to your friends about Harry Potter, aren’t you technically using a trademarked character/plot without Rowling’s permission? See the absurdity? It’s absurd to even consider information as a form of property because it information is NOT a physical object.

Circularity: Copyright Laws Are Justified because Copyright Laws Says So
Some people have argued that even outside the realms of legality, you shouldn’t use something that someone else has created. Original characters, stories, artwork etc are okay, but fanworks are not because you’re just taking someone else’s ideas and calling them your own. I’d say that’s a rather superficial distinction.

If I were to write a poem about a pretty sunflower, most would agree that that’s a pretty original piece of work. But isn’t that poem just a fanwork about a sunflower? Is there a difference between me having written a poem about a sunflower I own or a sunflower I saw in someone’s garden? If it’s the latter case am I “stealing” the information about the “sunflowerness”? If I were to draw a picture inspired by a bespectacled boy walking down the street, is that really somehow more original than if I were to draw a picture inspired by Harry Potter?

And therein lies the circularity of it. If we’re dealing with concepts outside of legalities it is roundabout to say that some things are original while others are not if you’re using legal definitions. That’s kind of like saying, “fine, if we’re not going to talk about the law, it’s still unethical to use existing media because the law says that media has a protected status”. It doesn’t sit right to say works about boys and sunflowers are okay because no one owns them; but works regarding Harry Potter and Stargate are not okay because the law says they’ve been tagged by someone already. Copyrights and trademarks are just identifiers of who got to the copyright/trademark office first, it does not have a significance beyond that. We live in an age of postmodernism when new ideas are built upon old ones. How is it fair to accuse certain works to be unethical and unoriginal if they use existing works as inspiration, while existing works are themselves based off older story themes (e.g. wizards, spaceships, vampires etc)?

Summing Up
If we’re not talking about making money, to illegalise and possibly punish those who make creative works based on existing media is ludicrous. The above arguments is still valid to cover appropriation of graphics and such that’s used on non-profit, non-commerical fan sites too. It is however a different matter if we’re talking about making money though. The market comes into play and I feel that’s where trademarks and copyright may still have validation; i.e. to protect economic interests. This is why there’s been quite a bit of kerfluffle over a new commerical fanfiction archive, fanlib.com. A great summary is available here and more about it in the Life Without Fanlib community. But that’s beyond today’s entry. Otherwise… fanworks all the way! Whoo! :D

While I haven’t had to use public transport as much these days, I have been relying on buses and trains to go places (e.g. school) ever since I was about ten years old. The other day when I was throwing clothes on and scrambling to brush my teeth to catch a bus on time for an appointment in the city, I wondered, do those who frequent public transportation (especially if needing to commute fairly long distances) develop some sort of nonchalant disregard for their appearance in order to be on time? Or is it just me?

I’ve never been a morning person and have developed a super fast morning regime to maximise sleep time. I could honestly wake up 15 minutes before I need to catch my bus, and put on clothes, wash my face, brush my teeth (maybe throw in hair too) and, if quick, probably make a cup of instant coffee before zipping off. Is this because I just don’t care about my appearances, or is it because I hate waking, or is this how most morning commuters operate?

Had a combined birthday dinner for a friend of mine and myself, with my high school friends. I was absolutely floored with how thoughtful and generous to me they were, as they had bought me work clothing (and a bag!), a hot lil’ “preppy” top, a gorgeous knitted, long coat, Lush products, handmade jewelery and a wonderful scrapbook with our photos. Anyway, we then headed off to a hotel for a surprise birthday party that said friend’s sister organised. It was a small but almost “clubby” kinda party with dim lighting, a bar, a small dance floor and loud music. Best part: it was mostly 90s music. Woot!

Thoughts on alcohol: Mixed feelings. I remember I was very enthusiastic about trying when I first started to drink a bit but in the last few years my passion for it died down. I was in an excellent mood yesterday and decided to try some again. It was an interesting experience in drinking more than I’ve ever had before. I had Smirnoff Ice, a tequila shot, a Southern Comfort with Coke and a long island ice tea. It was weird, after drinking one made me want to drink more. I wonder if that’s got to do with the happy buzz I got out of it or whether I was just thirsty (and liked tea and coke).

I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to hold that down quite well (especially given the fact I’m rather small in size). The most interesting part was how aware I was of my impaired mental faculties. I was definitely talking more, swaying a bit on my feet too. I was still able to keep a close tab on what’s coming out of my mouth (even though I think there was a little more senseless stuff) and still inhibited enough to resist being pulled onto the dance floor (even with Michael Jackson hits and Michael Bublé’s “Sway” play! Man, love that song). Man, I personally can’t stand dancing in public. I feels so awkward and self-conscious and silly just standing there not being sure what to do. I guess I need to be even more inebriated before I lose THOSE feelings. I don’t know why I have no problems with karaoke but I do with dancing. I like watching other people do it though.

By the time I was more sober (after being driven home) I was getting quite paranoid about any potentially long-term damage to my body. After all, alcohol is a poison. What if my liver gave out? What if it killed off more brain cells that I could afford to lose? I also found it kinda difficult falling asleep (a problem I never have) even though I was incredibly tired.

Overall it was a really fun experience!

Tim bought me Sims 2 Holiday Edition *and* an expansion pack bundle which includes Nightlife, University, Family Stuff and Open For Business for my birthday. Needless to say, I’m absolutely OVER THE MOON about it. There might be less of me online as I indulge in tinkling around with the game. Woot! Mods and hacks, here I come! :D

Anyway, I received an email from ReviewMe today informing me that someone actually requested for me to review them, for pay. I had forgotten that I had signed up for it. My first thought was to ignore it because, well, I don’t like reading forced blog posts about fake interest in this or that product and I assume others wouldn’t want to read it on mine either. However, out of curiosity I checked out the request anyway, and apparently it was for a cosplay costume site.

I was actually typing out a review for the site but deleted because I can’t get it to flow naturally with what I wanted to say. So I cancelled the review! No US$30 for me. :P But I just want to mention that I do love cosplay. I don’t have the magical sewing skills that some people have (nor the magical coffers of gold that is required to buy custom costumes) however, in my spare time I like look at what some people have come up with.

Some people are just mind-blowingly good with their costumes. For example, take this cosplay of Belle from Beauty and the Beast. OMFG. Not only does it show how ridiculous some costumes in cartoons look in real life, but also how awesomely some people pull it off. Said cosplayer also does an incredibly convincing Aeris from Final Fantasy VII (love the hair). Can’t mention FFVII without throwing in the ever popular Sepiroth impersonators. Man, the hair is so hard to do well. I note that this is just scraping the top of the icebergs, the internet is full of jaw-droppingly amazing costumers, many of them from Japan and China. I’ve seen many in my days but I don’t have links on me at the moment.

What’s also fun, for different reasons, are the really bad costumes. Here’s a nice archive (NOTE YOU WOULDN’T WANT TO BE LOOKING AT THESE LINKS AT WORK. Potentially eye-gouging) and here’s what looks to be an ongoing collection. While I do really admire these cosplayers (and any cosplayers really) for having the courage to go out in public wearing very outlandish garb… for those that have quite terrible costumes, I really wonder what they were thinking?