The fuck is with this copyrighted lyrics nonsense? · 6:34am Nov 6th, 2013
Okay, normally I don't speak out publicly about this kind of thing, but this latest shitstorm has gone TOO far. I gotta speak up.
The Elements of Gaming had its Rock Band chapter written and published TWO YEARS ago. Not only that, but it goes without saying that having the song lyrics present in the chapter is INTEGRAL to the chapter's coherence, otherwise writing a chapter about the ponies playing Rock Band and NOT including the lyrics of the song makes little sense in terms of imagery and completely throws off the pacing. If this was a problem with the site's rules then why the hell did it take them THIS long to start cracking down on it? If the Elements of Gaming can stand up to scrutiny for two friggin years, I don't see why the sudden introduction of a new 'law' should have me scurrying to cover my ass.
I'm going to go along with this, and make the edits to the Rock Band chapter to remove the lyrics, but only to prove my point of how fucking little sense the chapter is going to make without them. And if anybody has got a beef with anything else that I wrote in this fic TWO YEARS AGO, they can go right ahead and take the story down. This site used to be THE place I would go to search for fanfiction, but if this is the direction the mods are going to continue taking it in, then I don't want to be a part of this anymore.
Think it has something to do with some other cases around the US or somethin. Apparently the holders of said copywrites are cracking down or something like that. Not quite sure. I mean, it could have happened any time before this as well, because this was something that could have happened regardless, but stuff happening around the States is apparently getting to worrying levels. Or something. I dunno. I think there's a blog or something around here somewhere that explains it better than me.
Namely this. Dis blog in question.
1486165 Well, what about sites that literally the entire premise is post the lyrics of songs. If any thing, I say they would be taken down first. Not only that, but I'm pretty sure that they're not going to sue a fanfiction website that isn't even making money for said fanfics. Finally, what are even the chances that they find the fanfics in the first place.
I'm saying that this is just the mods and knighty overreacting to something that shouldn't even a problem.
1486165 I read that one, and while I can understand the mods wanting to cover their asses and protect the site, I cannot remain silent on this. From a legal standpoint, it makes sense, but a move like this is a gross violation of the creative spirit! Not to mention how cut-and-dry the rule that they're trying to implement is, when the very nature of this site's content already crosses a lot of legal grey areas! It just reeks of hypocrisy.
1486182 From what I've heard, sites like that have actually been targeted before for copyright infringement - not sure how the hell that works, but given how corporate attorneys work for their big corporate bosses, I wouldn't be surprised if it's all in the name of money-grubbing.
1486186 True, but still. Do you really think that someone is going to sue over fanfics using lyrics of a song. Especially if the site isn't making money for it. Then again, people have sued over stupider things, and these are corporate attorneys we're talking about. Anyway, this means a lot of good scenes or even entire fanfics just got ruined.
1486201>>1486186
I won't say it isn't probably more than a bit hyped up, but on the other hand, some of these copyright holders are a bit. . . trigger happy. All it takes is one, well aimed suit and BOOM. Site go bye-bye. And knighty might get in a lot of legal trouble. 'Ell, even a failed suit could be majorly damaging.
Still, not something I'm particularly fond of. I can see why they did it, sure, but there's probably better ways of implimenting it. Who knows, maybe we'll find some sort of way to allow them back in in the future. -Shrug-
I blame the music industry (or rather, the people who seem to take pleasure in crushing creativity and originality who work in the industry) for this one either way.
As far as I remember is that I saw a thread where one guy was complaining about having some stories rejected because of lyrics being in the story. Not sure how, but I just make sure the music is linked to a certain words and I haven't gotten anything wrong
Pardon me for saying this, but I think you're overreacting.
We shouldn't really be bitching about measures a site's taken to avoid getting copyright issues. Heck, it being a fanfiction site is skirting the line as it is. If Hasbro or whatever suddenly decided this place was hurting them, they could shut it down no problem, but that isn't likely to happen since this and all 'original' pony media is pretty much advertising. Adding lyrics and music from copyrighted songs to those fics as they are is another thing entirely, since you aren't just taking elements of that song and turning it into a sort of pony parody, you are redistributing the thing. It's way easier to do this with the music industry, and they obviously don't like that, so they're a lot more defensive. It's entirely reasonable to want to avoid legal problems.
If you really think song lyrics make or break fimfiction in such a way that you would consider just leaving, I can't really do anything about it, but it makes me wonder what you were looking for here in the first place
There are plenty stories that don't need you to add random material from other artists to be great.
1486724 I'll just repeat what I'd said earlier in a reply:
"I read that one, and while I can understand the mods wanting to cover their asses and protect the site, I cannot remain silent on this. From a legal standpoint, it makes sense, but a move like this is a gross violation of the creative spirit! Not to mention how cut-and-dry the rule that they're trying to implement is, when the very nature of this site's content already crosses a lot of legal grey areas! It just reeks of hypocrisy."
tl;dr It violates the creative spirit and reeks of hypocrisy, which are the things that I cannot stand for.
Addendum: Just to elaborate, what I was looking for when I came to fimfiction was a place that wasn't as elitist, restrictive, and allowed for a much greater range of creative freedom than Equestria Daily when it came to fanfiction.
For the first point, I'll just point out that by adding copyrighted lyrics to your own work, you are not exactly being creative.
As for the second, it would be rather hypocritical if they were banning the use of copyrighted characters from other franchises in a fanfiction site. I don't find the fact that they're banning the outright sneaking of previously owned content into your own, regardless of whether or not you admit that it doesn't belong to you, hypocritical. The owners don't care if you give credit where it's due. The truth is they are not the same thing, for the simple fact that they are different forms of media, and the owners of that music media stand to gain a lot less from people using their stuff without permission than book, film, or video game authors and producers.
There is a good reason sites like Youtube will strike you down for using copyrighted material (and trust me, as different as videos and written fiction may seem, the principle remains the same. Hell, I've had my share of strikes and downed videos due to the music in some video games. You read that right, not the game, just the music in the game. As it just so happens, Rockband is a particularly egregious offender in this particular case.). The possibility of a lawsuit is real enough, but chances are, in this case it won't be you who'll end up hanging, but the guy who set up the place where the copyrighted material is allowed to end up. If this place really ends up getting a lawsuit, will you really think it was worth it just to copy-paste random lyrics into your story?
You can still link videos and you should be able to add copyrighted lyrics if you change enough of them (or if you make them yourself), but the banning of copyrighted song material, as disappointing as it may be, is completely reasonable.