quote:

To whom it may concern,

As a party in the case you submitted to the SomethingAwful dot c-o-m department, having laughed, chuckled, and, admittedly, guffawed at the description of the works of E. Stoop that incorporated the phrase "f*nfiction", I must question under which grounds you expect possible legal repercussions to come from. Considering the popularity of such works as 50 Shades of Grey, Sherlock Holmes Fucks The Author, the collected works of Cassandra Claire, and Light in August, let alone the continued existence of Naomi Novik, there don't seem to be any notable repercussions for selling f*nfiction, apart from the slings and arrows of derision and/or literary fame. To say the least, legal insulation from those two seems rather out of keeping with any human jurisprudence. Are you, perhaps, an extraterrestrial entity, operating a blog and misunderstanding the points of difference between Earthling law and Parvatomatisian law? In that case, I would be willing to assist in understanding the finer details. For hire, of course.

Yours,
Bill Ashbless, MMy

quote:

Dear S- G-,

Thank you for your swift response. Unfortunately, it is not satisfactory. We understand that you do not perhaps comprehend the matter completely so we will try to provide a more detailed description regarding the issue.

1. "Gau" has shared E. Stoops's private, personal information with the SA forum. Your rules specifically prohibit this with the following statement "Please do not post others' personal information (phone number, addresses, emails, etc.)." As E. Stoops' gender is deliberately kept private, this falls into the 'etc' category provided. This information is not available to anyone in the commercial sphere deliberately. However, Gau chose to share this information as he knows E. Stoops in real life. According to your own rules, this is a breech in appropriate conduct for SA members. We would like all references to E. Stoops gender to be removed.

2. Naomi Novik, Cassandra Claire, and the other examples you have cited are aberrations in the world of publishing. While it is obvious to any and all that 'dressed up fanfiction' has become a real moneymaker, most everyone accepts that in each of the examples you've provided, original content was dreamed up by the author and included to give at least the veneer of original fiction. That is, they are not selling characters under copyright in new adventures. They are selling expies. Which while essentially the same thing, legally it more or less automatically makes something NOT fanfiction, regardless of its roots. We are selling neither fanfiction nor expies Having work described as fanfiction creates a host of potential problems:

a. Anyone with a similar book could hit us with a law suit. They could bring up Gau's review as evidence that the work was recognized as fanfiction at this time. (This statement can build precedence.)
b. Any similarities with another work that appear later in the series could ALSO become cases that use Gau's words as evidence that the series deliberately aped other authors for monetary gain.
c. It brings all books under the umbrella of Small Tomaotes Press under suspicion, which means that anything else we publish by E. Stoops or anyone else that bears incidental similarity with another work could also be contested in a lawsuit citing Gau's statement.

Is this thin? Is this unlikely? Yes, right now it very much is. We accept that. However, we have to consider our future and in the future, it could suddenly become a big deal, especially in sue-happy America. We mean to be reasonable. We are not asking that Gau's assumptions regarding the author of blog posts be taken down, we are not asking that his remarks towards our blog be removed. The summary of the book, which is patently wrong, may also stay. We are simply asking that all references to the gender of our author and the word fanfiction be removed.

Thank you,

Small Tomatoes Press

To a dog, its mouth is just a handy-dandy low-tech sonic screwdriver attached to its face.

quote:

To the entity referred to as Small Tomatoes Press by Blogspot,

Well, I checked on this "Gau" character, and I discovered him in an SNES cartridge, but no matter how many questions I asked him using improvised Morse code, he just repeated the same things! I'm afraid that corroborating your accusations will require some more time, sir, madam, or elf. Since you obviously have some form of contact with him, have you considered trying for an out-of-court settlement? That may cause him to let something slip.

I would prefer it if you would use fewer obscenities in your responses. While I am a hardened person of the world and quite familiar with such words as "pr*vacy", "in*ppropri*te", and "f*nfiction", this is nevertheless a delicate machine and your initial email caused it to make distressing sighs and print out warnings that it was getting the vapors. Suffice it to say, to catch the motherfuckin' SOB will take a working Psylink Terminal (c).

However, I do have to warn you that it may take a matter of years to get such things as references to f*nfiction removed. Feral tribes of robots haunt the hallways leading to the servers, large parts of the software are run using surplus MULTIVAC and Difference Engines, and there are persistent warnings of the necessity of blood sacrifice to activate certain sections of the database. It's a huge mess, really.

That all being said, the use of "expy" may harm your case. There is a ruling pending before the 20th Circuit Court that would render the use of "tr*perisms" viable evidence to negate torts or even throw out criminal charges. I would sincerely recommend restricting your usage of such terms, unless you were using the colloquial abbreviation for "expressway", in which case I am very confused to learn that apparently William Faulkner sold roads to people.

Furthermore, and relating to my continued efforts at interrogating "Gau", in order to make these things stick and send him to Sing Sing for 20 to life, we're gonna need to prove credibility. Do you have any examples from your and/or E. Stoops' interactions with "Gau" to give reason for the court to believe him to be a credible authority on matters such as f*nfiction? Because if not, I'm afraid that you're going to have to make use of the "Public Domain" defense, or potentially even the "Third Punic War" defense. Might I suggest the "Journal of Submarine Commander von Forstner", as it bears sufficient resemblance (e.g. in the categories of submarines, bishonen, oral sex, magical powers, and the First World War) to your work(s) as to render it(them)[em]{eir} legally unassailable.

Also, given the apparent vulnerability of books to charges of f*nfiction, such that a man writing an obviously-inaccurate review can nevertheless threaten the entire credibility of your burgeoning publishing empire, have you given though to starting a campaign to tighten legal defenses and avoid future tragedies like this? I think that, for the sake of not only you, but all other authors writing y*oi sci-fi stories, it should be carried out.

Regards,
Scott Crane, III

Effectronica posted:

Error 404 posted:

Ok, You gotta post a bit more context than that.

Ettin posted:

I feel like asking questions this time, so let's ask some questions. What are you guys running, reading and planning to run? Or playing if you're not a GM.

Effectronica posted:

publishing their yaoi submarine fanfiction and she wrote an email to Lowtax

Effectronica posted:

I have something to get off my chest. I've been carrying it around with me since the dark days of the second grognards.txt thread. Now, with one of the particulars absent and the other bearing the red text of shame...

Ettin posted:

What are you guys running, reading and planning to run? Or playing if you're not a GM.

TheLovablePlutonis posted:

ohhh i think i heard it before... I guess?

Gau posted:

I later received several angry emails from this woman stating that I had offended her religious views by stating that dogs aren't sentient and it should be perfectly legal to own them. She's also known for saying that sexual harassment is a legitimate metagame tactic in Magic and Wizards has overstepped their bounds by limiting the game in some sort of nerdy affirmative action argument.

Syrg Sapphire posted:

Shin Megami Tensei 4, instead of watching a liquor store.

In my defense, saturday nights/sundays period are SUPREMELY dead shifts. We get like a customer an hour. Also, the 3DS browser is horseshit.

Ettin posted:

I feel like asking questions this time, so let's ask some questions. What are you guys running, reading and planning to run? Or playing if you're not a GM.

grassy gnoll posted:

Playing in NTech, Mouse Guard, running TBZ, reading the Ryuutama pre-release and the Double Cross advanced book now that it's out in PDF.

I did not intend to become a living anime, but here we are none the less.


Man, that takes me back. Does your store do that supremely depressing thing of opening at eight in the morning to service the terminal winos and then keeping all deliveries until noon, so that the manager can yell at you for not doing enough even though you've faced the entire store twice that day?

Humbug Scoolbus posted:

Wait what!?! Double Cross pdfs???

grassy gnoll posted:

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/128931/Double-Cross-Roleplaying-Game-Core-Rulebook
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/128932/Double-Cross-Roleplaying-Game-Supplement--Advanced-Rulebook

The really tragic part is that you missed the Memorial Day sale.

grassy gnoll posted:

Man, that takes me back. Does your store do that supremely depressing thing of opening at eight in the morning to service the terminal winos and then keeping all deliveries until noon, so that the manager can yell at you for not doing enough even though you've faced the entire store twice that day?

Syrg Sapphire posted:

Actual tasks we have to do to justify being open 24 hours: "Mop the parking lot".

Syrg Sapphire posted:

Actual tasks we have to do to justify being open 24 hours: "Mop the parking lot". "Dust all wines." "Check the expiration dates on all candies in the store."