U.S. Copyright News, OTW Legal, and You

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2020-12-22 18:22:02 UTC

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OTW logo with the words 'Spotlight on Legal Issues'

Since we began in 2007, the Organization for Transformative Works' core mission has included working to promote fan-friendly copyright law. For years, we've submitted testimony and comments to governments, filed briefs in court, and helped mobilize fans to have their voices heard by lawmakers around the world. Recently, one of our big legal advocacy projects has been testifying and submitting comments to the U.S. Senate about the way U.S. Copyright works online under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Today, U.S. Senator Thom Tillis has released proposed legislation that would be bad for the AO3 and bad for fans. OTW Legal will fight for fans against this proposal, and you can help.

Sen. Tillis's proposal is awful. Among other things, it would dismantle safe harbors in the DMCA that protect the AO3 and other fan sites. It would put fanworks at greater risk of being taken down, and make it harder for new fan sites to get started. But here's the good news: it's just one Senator's wish list. Although Sen. Tillis's office has released a proposal, it's not even a bill yet--and if we remember our Schoolhouse Rock, becoming a bill is only the first step on a long, winding road that can involve lots of changes and may go nowhere. And before it starts on any road, the OTW (and you!) will have opportunities to have our voices heard and make a difference in what (if anything) might go in a bill.

OTW's legal advocacy team is on the case. We've been submitting responses and objections to Congress and the Senate, meeting with Sen. Tillis and other lawmakers, and doing everything else we can to continue to support free expression and fair use, promote copyright safe harbors that make it possible for the AO3 to exist, and protect fans from having their works unfairly taken down or commercially exploited by others.

We're optimistic that this wish list will not become law! But we have a lot of work ahead of us, and if you live in the United States, you can help. As things go forward, we'll know more about what specific actions will make a difference, but for now the biggest thing you can do is stand up and be counted. If you are interested in staying informed or getting involved, let us and our allies at the Re:Create Coalition know!.

OTW Legal is here to help! To find out more about the OTW's Legal Advocacy work or how to contact us, visit our Legal Advocacy page.

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.

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LaikaFlash Tue 22 Dec 2020 07:49PM UTC

Oh no... This feels like SOPA all over again.

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1. Weirwood_Bonsai Fri 25 Dec 2020 09:49AM UTC
  
  That's because it is. When SOPA was defeated I had a professor who said SOPA would never truly go away and would keep coming back under different names, and that's exactly what has happened.
  
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2. 1. DribsAndDrabbles Fri 25 Dec 2020 01:27PM UTC
    
    This Covid "relief" bill is just another attempt at the copyright part of Transpacific Partnership.
    
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  2. 1. Weirwood_Bonsai Sat 26 Dec 2020 07:24AM UTC
      
      Exactly. They gave us 500 dollars in hopes we wouldn't notice all the bullshit they're sneaking in. Using a crisis to push for their corporate agenda.
      
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    2. 1. DribsAndDrabbles Sun 27 Dec 2020 12:28AM UTC
        
        I hope the uproar about it, will make it impossible for them to sneak in all the extra bullshit!
        
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      2. Weirwood_Bonsai Sun 27 Dec 2020 07:23AM UTC
        
        I'm glad OTW exists to give us respectable representation and a voice, we would've been defenseless in the 2000s
        
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  3. LaikaFlash Fri 25 Dec 2020 04:04PM UTC
    
    Guess it won't stop until the Internet goes. I'm pretty sure there are still old fogies who think the net is a massive pirate haven, even after what happened to Napster back when. It sure feels that way, assuming most folks don't understand the term "transformative work".
    
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  4. 1. Weirwood_Bonsai Sat 26 Dec 2020 07:23AM UTC
      
      The only other way it'll stop is if all these boomer politicians leave office and are replaced with savvy millennials.
      
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    2. 1. arsonfrogger Sun 27 Dec 2020 01:53AM UTC
        
        that probably won't take much time, seeing as almost all of them are in their eighties
        
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      2. Weirwood_Bonsai Sun 27 Dec 2020 07:24AM UTC
        
        True but a lot of Xers aren't much better
        
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        BatmanFanGirl Thu 31 Dec 2020 03:11AM UTC
        
        Hey now, I'm an Xer and all my friends are Xer's they don't feel this way at all. I would argue this is a politician/corporation thing, not individual people or even groups at a certain age. And honestly Boomers aren't a lot of these people you accuse in congress writing bills either. A lot of them are the silent generation.
        Also don't forget most Gen Xer's paved the way for online fanfic including starting it big in the 90's when the internet just launched. I was reading X-Files fanfic online in 1995 when I was 16.
        
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        Weirwood_Bonsai Sun 03 Jan 2021 05:42AM UTC
        
        I was only referring to Xer politicians, not Xers in general. All I mean is a lot of Xer politicians are probably in corporate pockets, most Xers are certainly sensible about the internet and your generation is why it's so big.
        
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3. GrahminRadarin Sun 27 Dec 2020 06:20PM UTC
  
  I'm sorry for not knowing this already, but what exactly is the problem with SOPA and fanfiction? I can't figure it out from the old news reports. By extension, what's the problem with this new proposal?
  
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4. 1. LaikaFlash Sun 27 Dec 2020 07:57PM UTC
    
    (Disclaimer: I'm not even a law student. The following is my understanding.) SOPA would have put the responsibility for removing copyright infringing content on the hosts of a site, as opposed to letting them send offending users a notice for them to remove the content themselves (which the DMCA's "safe harbor" provision allows). The sites themselves would have been liable to be shut down for said infringement. The new proposal is one for more of the same. Here's EFF's article on the new proposal.
    While most companies tolerate fanfiction (I assume it's generally considered futile to send cease and desist orders nowadays), the potential for abuse of the "notice and stay down" proposal is staggering.
    
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  2. 1. GrahminRadarin Wed 30 Dec 2020 08:03PM UTC
      
      Thanks for the article and explanation!
      
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    2. 1. LaikaFlash Wed 30 Dec 2020 09:17PM UTC
        
        'preesh. I was a tad afraid my explanation was too vague.
        
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Rare_pair_princess Tue 22 Dec 2020 07:52PM UTC

can the government stop shitting on creativity

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1. LaikaFlash Tue 22 Dec 2020 07:58PM UTC
  
  But entertainment companies are losing money to horny fanfics put online for free! /sarcasm
  
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2. 1. AC9123 Tue 22 Dec 2020 08:46PM UTC
    
    Lol they say that but I only started watching some shows or reading some books because of certain crossover fanfiction.
    
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  2. 1. LaikaFlash Tue 22 Dec 2020 09:06PM UTC
      
      The notion that a site hosting fanworks could be even equated with, I dunno, the original Napster is what gets me. But clearly, copyright infringement is the devil, fair use is an illusion, and I guess we're all bad consumers. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
      (Edited for typos.)
      
      Last Edited Tue 22 Dec 2020 09:10PM UTC
      
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    2. eelia_faustus Tue 22 Dec 2020 09:33PM UTC
      
      I mean -- exactly! They seem to not understand that fandom and fanworks support and keep the original works from which they originate alive and running in a more radical and substantial way (economically, too!) than anything else!
      The bigger and more active the fandom, the more relevant the show, anime, series, book, whatever remains in the long run. It doesn't take a mastermind to understand this. And yet...
      
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    3. 1. sagedaisies Tue 22 Dec 2020 10:54PM UTC
        
        IKR! Like, more fan work means more promotion of the actual book or anime or whatever in question. Doesn't take a genius to figure it out.
        
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      2. Styfas Wed 23 Dec 2020 12:26AM UTC
        
        This!
        
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        akintu Fri 25 Dec 2020 03:22PM UTC
        
        YES! I’ve literally accidentally fallen into being a huge fan of ATLA, Star Wars, AC and FF7 through stumbling on some ff that I liked the look of. Insane how they think that taking creative works down will do anything but be a detriment :)
        
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        AC9123 Sat 26 Dec 2020 05:13AM UTC
        
        Dude... I know I watched Supernatural and Sherlock because of fan fiction. (SuperWhoLock lol)
        And I know I started watching Natsume Yuujinchou after seeing someone wrote a crossover of it with Supernatural. It had always been on my plan to watch list but it's now one of my favorite anime. (And oof I might have spend quite a bit on it...)
        Still. People who haven't experienced it won't really understand, I guess. Especially if they don't even really know what fanfiction is lol.
        
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      3. lexiStar Wed 23 Dec 2020 07:24AM UTC
        
        This is literally it right here.
        
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      4. KURTASKIES Wed 23 Dec 2020 07:54AM UTC
        
        LOUDER!
        
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      5. Anon (Guest) Tue 29 Dec 2020 04:29AM UTC
        
        I got into Boruto because of amvs (for some reason I'm struggling to find good fanfics to read), and I got the urge to read My Hero Academia thanks to Mr Compress scenes and fanworks of Endeavor.
        Real transformative fan fiction ain't a problem as long as people aren't trying to make money off of (glares at those who do just that). However, certain works that fully copy the copyrighted content (majority of Reaction fics or songfics for example) despite knowing it's wrong? Or how about people like Suzy Lu? Those types of people give us a bad look, and their illegal actions shouldn't be praised but punished. It's in part thanks to them, and those who ignore the problems and praise them instead, that things like this happen.
        It absolutely sucks that those who were good, respectful of copyright, that didn't try to make money but just enjoy sharing in the love of their fandom gets dragged screaming under the bus by corrupt, greedy, ignorant individuals like the ones I mentioned (and we can't forget the politician trying to get it passed either).
        Well, I'm off to try to find a good fic to read. (Btw, anyone else getting a weird message at the top of the site saying you're using a proxy site? AO3 is giving me this for some strange reason. On Kindle Fire 7th gen btw.)
        
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      6. Insomni_Snack Tue 29 Dec 2020 06:02AM UTC
        
        I don't really think they'll ever understand that though =/
        
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    4. Deviheart13 Sat 26 Dec 2020 05:10AM UTC
      
      I didn't even know what Good Omens was until fanfic hit me in the feels. I bought a subscription service for this ship!
      
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    5. Readsonly4fun Sat 26 Dec 2020 01:31PM UTC
      
      Truth! I never watched any of the Law & Order franchise before FF.
      
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    6. youngjusticewriter Sun 27 Dec 2020 03:57AM UTC
      
      Me too. That or an author I like wrote for the fandom so I checked out the fic(s) and then went and either read or watched the series because I was now interested in it.
      
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    7. acf151 Tue 29 Dec 2020 03:41AM UTC
      
      Here too! I discovered Burn Notice, White Collar, Torchwood and Firefly through fanfiction. And several book series I otherwise would have missed.
      
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  3. Guest (Guest) Wed 23 Dec 2020 12:10AM UTC
    
    If the unproofread works of horny amateur authors on the internet are consistently outperforming your original material, isn't that just natural market competition? It's survival of the fittest, after all! /j
    
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  4. 1. LaikaFlash Wed 23 Dec 2020 12:32AM UTC
      
      Ah, but wielding said copyright to remove "transformative" content is just defending the free market! We silly millennials really did stifle innovation with our creative commons licenses and AMVs. /totally serious political analysis, you guys
      
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  5. NightwispSeeker Sat 26 Dec 2020 01:45AM UTC
    
    I literally only begin Voltron and Teen a wolf because I love some fanfics
    
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Lightwhathouse Tue 22 Dec 2020 07:58PM UTC

well I guess all the governments hate fan work

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KeroZombie Tue 22 Dec 2020 08:07PM UTC

Christ, not this crap again. I don't live in the US but thank you guys for fighting this.

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1. Ghosty_Blues1 Tue 22 Dec 2020 09:16PM UTC
  
  Same here, man America go brrr
  
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Synergetic_Prose Tue 22 Dec 2020 08:08PM UTC

Thank you for your hard work!

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naoto_fuyumine Tue 22 Dec 2020 08:34PM UTC

Thank you for keeping up the good fight!
I hope this gets stopped early. I've already donated to the EFF since donations is the only way I can help as an European.

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parkinginback Tue 22 Dec 2020 08:36PM UTC

All the more reason for those of us in the US (and those in GA specifically) to vote to turn the Senate blue. Then there would be no chance of this mess even making it to a point where it could make it into a bill.

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1. iMetanoia Wed 23 Dec 2020 06:49AM UTC
  
  As if the blue side hasn't attempted this exact same crap in the past. It doesn't matter what side is in control, both are corrupt and neither are truly on our side.
  
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2. 1. parkinginback Wed 23 Dec 2020 10:57AM UTC
    
    You can think that (even though you're wrong) but the fact remains that a democratic senate would not let something like this come to the floor.
    
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  2. 1. iMetanoia Wed 23 Dec 2020 05:37PM UTC
      
      Either way this doesn't look good for the Archive.
      
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    2. Leni_licious Fri 25 Dec 2020 06:28PM UTC
      
      I'm not so sure, don't most media companies, Disney as the biggest example, donate to Democrats? Whether or not a democratic senate would let this come to the floor depends on what their sponsors think and how much they are willing to donate, same goes for any majority senate.
      
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3. thewonderofpandora Wed 23 Dec 2020 02:45PM UTC
  
  Lol. No. Ossoff and Warnock are awful.
  
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4. 1. Resilicns Wed 23 Dec 2020 03:09PM UTC
    
    They’re mediocre with Warnock being slightly better, but when your two choices are being punched or being burned alive, I would prefer being punched. It’s easier to pressure democrats into the policy decisions we want- republicans are ONLY beholden to corporations and demagogues. Are democrats beholden to corporations? Yes. But they also do things if you bully them into it because they want you to vote for them. But they CANT do those things if they don’t have the majority. Republicans will pass this bill because the people paying them under the table want them to, and it benefits their investments.
    
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  2. 1. thewonderofpandora Mon 28 Dec 2020 04:02PM UTC
      
      You must be joking. Warnock is a white hating racist and Ossoff would go along with equally awful policies because he's a weasel.
      
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    2. 1. Resilicns Tue 29 Dec 2020 01:16AM UTC
        
        Damn, didn't know Kelly Loeffler had an AO3 account. How'd she get past the bot test?
        
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      2. thewonderofpandora Tue 29 Dec 2020 02:29PM UTC
        
        Cheerlead for the candidate who fellates the black david duke all you want, but stop pretending it isn't true at the very least.
        
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  3. uchiwan Thu 24 Dec 2020 01:06PM UTC
    
    you are entitled to your wrong opinion.
    
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  4. 1. Chys Thu 31 Dec 2020 06:05AM UTC
      
      I hear the US government is trying to take that away, too.
      
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  5. sagedaisies Thu 24 Dec 2020 05:17PM UTC
    
    Still better than Perdue and Loeffler
    
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  6. 1. thewonderofpandora Mon 28 Dec 2020 04:01PM UTC
      
      Nope.
      
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  7. nope (Guest) Fri 25 Dec 2020 12:40AM UTC
    
    There isn't going to be a communist revolution in the US any time soon, comrade. You take the best that you can get instead of stomping your foot and insisting on purity.
    
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  8. 1. feifeicuttie Fri 25 Dec 2020 11:49PM UTC
      
      "Take the best you can get" =poop, not wanting poop = "purity"
      
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    2. 1. lilacsilver Mon 28 Dec 2020 06:52PM UTC
        
        Normally I wouldn’t comment on a political thread like this, but I’ve got news for you: all politicians are poop. You will never find a single one who is 100% on your side.
        
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      2. feifeicuttie Mon 28 Dec 2020 07:20PM UTC
        
        Yes , and defeatist attitudes get us lesser of two evilism. Change to the system is the only solution. Everyone should be aware of the fact that politicians lie. Maybe if these weren't cushy jobs where you get paid to hobnob and take bribes and instead were civil Sevants like they are supposed to be, we could get the rights i was told Americans were entitled to. Rights that can be taken are privileges .
        
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IgnisFelicis Tue 22 Dec 2020 08:57PM UTC

Good luck and thank you for fighting for us! ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

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jatkojohto Tue 22 Dec 2020 09:05PM UTC

Thank you for all the hard work.

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ScrollPerfecter Tue 22 Dec 2020 09:13PM UTC

Thanks for fighting for fair use and fighting fro freedom of speech, creativity mustn't be stifled.

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ForgottenDreamofFlames Tue 22 Dec 2020 09:33PM UTC

Thank you for being so active in protecting us all.

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Wrathfulrumble Tue 22 Dec 2020 09:40PM UTC

Hey I thought this only affects streaming.

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1. OTW_Legal (Official) Tue 22 Dec 2020 10:22PM UTC
  
  There are a lot of things going on in U.S. copyright law right now!
  Yesterday, Congress passed a bill that included provisions regarding illegal streaming, and also created a "small claims" copyright tribunal. You may be seeing news about both of those today, too, since they're quite dramatic! OTW Legal was active in opposing the creation of a "small claims" provision, which we've posted about here in the past. But it, together with the more-thoroughly-negotiated streaming bill, was crammed awkwardly into a COVID-relief package by the Senate. Both the "small claims" tribunal and "felony streaming" provisions became law when the COVID-relief package was passed. We'll post in this space about them in the future, so stay tuned.
  This post -- hoping to stand out from a maelstrom of copyright law noise -- is about today's announcement from Sen. Tillis, which has the potential to be much wider-reaching and has opportunities for immediate action. Hope this is helpful!
  OTW Legal
  
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2. 1. Account Deleted Tue 22 Dec 2020 11:08PM UTC
    
    This is the worst part about Congress's continual combination of many, many issues into one bill. We end up with a 5,600 page long coronavirus relief bill that no one wants to vote against because Covid relief is so important, but the bill sneaks in measures that would otherwise never pass.
    
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  2. 1. Core Thu 24 Dec 2020 02:33PM UTC
      
      I feel like that sort of thing should just be illegal. A bill should only be about one thing, or one and reasonably related things.
      Or at least only what the title of the bill states. >_< Allowing unrelated additions seems tailor made to encourage corruption and holding bills hostage to get personal demands appeased etc.
      
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    2. 1. Account Deleted Thu 24 Dec 2020 02:39PM UTC
        
        You’re exactly right—it’s all about sneaking personal agendas into the bills that are most likely to pass.
        
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  3. tei Wed 23 Dec 2020 12:23AM UTC
    
    Thank you, I was confused about this too!
    
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  4. Yuli (Guest) Wed 23 Dec 2020 09:56AM UTC
    
    Trump hasn't signed the Covid bill, and is threatening to veto it. I don't think it's a law just yet.
    
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  5. 1. thewonderofpandora Wed 23 Dec 2020 02:49PM UTC
      
      I hope he does. Give us 2k and remove unrelated crap and foreign aid.
      
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    2. OTW_Legal (Official) Wed 23 Dec 2020 06:17PM UTC
      
      Indeed! Since this was posted, there has been movement -- President Trump has threatened to veto the bill and, among other things, asked for all of the ancillary language in the act to be removed, including the "small claims" and "felony streaming" provisions.
      Time to contact your congresspeople and tell them to take copyright out of the COVID bill!
      Here is a way to do that:
      https://act.eff.org/action/tell-congress-don-t-let-a-quasi-court-bankrupt-internet-users-a9e11873-62f9-4fa1-a05e-675474e095e5
      OTW Legal
      
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    3. 1. Question! (Guest) Wed 23 Dec 2020 09:29PM UTC
        
        What about the bit about second 230? Trump reportedly said he wouldn’t pass the bill without language that eliminated it, and from what I understand, it’s what makes things like AO3 safe from issues due to content 3rd parties have posted as long as it’s dealt with when alerted to the issue, as opposed to being liable regardless? Or am I misunderstanding that law?
        
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      2. OTW_Legal (Official) Wed 23 Dec 2020 09:59PM UTC
        
        Hi! The 230 language is not in what Congress passed; Trump has said he will not sign the bill unless EITHER the 230 language is put back in OR everything else is taken out and the stimulus amount is raised. As you can imagine, option 2 is better on all counts!! The 230 changes that Trump wants would be bad for the AO3 and terrible for fans generally.
        
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        Question! (Continued) (Guest) Wed 23 Dec 2020 10:03PM UTC
        
        Okay yeah that’s what I was afraid of. It definitely sounded like the Trump wanted changes would be really bad for us but wasn’t sure. Thanks for some clarification, though if you could summarise the current law vs what Trump wants so I could understand it better that would be amazing. But I also understand if you can’t/won’t!
        
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        OTW_Legal (Official) Wed 23 Dec 2020 11:05PM UTC
        
        There's no short/easy answer to this -- but here's the aerial view.
        Trump has intimated that he wants a higher stimulus amount and to remove all of the extraneous things from the bill (including the "small claims" copyright tribunal known as CASE, which could bankrupt those targeted); but that he is willing to sign the stimulus that Congress passed, along with the bad CASE provisions, IF Congress effectively repeals the law that protects online platforms from liability for their users' posts. (That safe harbor that protects online platforms is known as section 230). So urging Congress to take out the extraneous things (such as CASE) and to increase the stimulus amount would, it seems, both accomplish the removal of the bad stuff from the stimulus bill and prevent serious consideration of 230 repeal.
        Although the bill passed by a "veto-proof" majority, Trump is forcing a veto override and, even if the override happens, still has the ability to effectively veto it by simply not signing between now and the end of his term. Hence the current situation.
        I hope that helps! Feel free to signal boost.
        Here is EFF's action regarding CASE, which was created before the stimulus passed, but is still viable in light of the current situation: https://act.eff.org/action/tell-congress-don-t-let-a-quasi-court-bankrupt-internet-users-a9e11873-62f9-4fa1-a05e-675474e095e5
        
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      3. starrose85 Thu 24 Dec 2020 01:35AM UTC
        
        I just e-mailed my Senators.
        
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    4. DribsAndDrabbles Wed 23 Dec 2020 06:30PM UTC
      
      He's already vetoed it. He said he will not sign it until Americans get at least 2k or more and all the unnecessary extras is completely stripped out of the bill. This was the same issue back in March/April and yet the extra stuff has not been taken out. Shouldn't any Covid relief bill only be for the American people and their small businesses?
      
      Last Edited Wed 23 Dec 2020 06:54PM UTC
      
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    5. 1. . (Guest) Wed 23 Dec 2020 09:31PM UTC
        
        Technically it’s not a COVID relief bill. That got tacked onto another thing. It’s a defense policy bill, that just happens to include the COVID relief part in it. Because why wouldn’t politicians try to shove everything they want into a bill to try to slip in as much bullsh*t as they can past us all?
        
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      2. blissfire Fri 25 Dec 2020 01:52PM UTC
        
        COVID relief, defense policy, copyright nonsense. Core above is right; this kind of bs shouldn't be legal.
        
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  6. Guest (Guest) Wed 23 Dec 2020 04:26PM UTC
    
    Thank you for telling us the news! Keep up the good fight!
    
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  7. Amethyst_The_Gem Thu 24 Dec 2020 03:36PM UTC
    
    Thank you so much OTW for fighting for our rights to create on this site! Fanfiction on this site has literally saved my life before (to no exaggeration), so to see this site be torn down because of a rushed law would absolutely break my heart.
    
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  8. Readsonly4fun Sat 26 Dec 2020 01:37PM UTC
    
    Thank you. My daughter is a budding creator and although her work tends to me more original than fanfic she is very concerned about all the attacks on the creative community. Last January she pull access to all her content on YouTube because of COPA. It seems like they are going to keep hammering away annually.
    
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audisawesomesauce Tue 22 Dec 2020 09:50PM UTC

As if 2020 couldn’t get any worse. It’s nice you guys are trying to fight this. I really appreciate that, as I’ve only just started using AO3.

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sagedaisies Tue 22 Dec 2020 10:53PM UTC

Thom Tillis was always a bullshit senator. I fail to understand how fan fiction affects the greater population.

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1. (Previous comment deleted.)
2. 1. azarias Wed 23 Dec 2020 01:54AM UTC
    
    ... who do you think is making a living off fanfic? The people who write blog posts for the all-volunteer website that nobody gets paid to work on, or someone else?
    
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  2. 1. (Previous comment deleted.)
    2. 1. Conspiracy theory? (Guest) Wed 23 Dec 2020 02:34AM UTC
        
        You know they are a registered nonprofit that gets annual audits, right? You can see these things for yourself; they're not secret.
        
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      2. (Previous comment deleted.)
        
        azarias Wed 23 Dec 2020 02:44AM UTC
        
        I posted links below to the audits from 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 (the ones I could find with a quick google). If you could point out the line items either paying volunteers or purchasing stock, I'd appreciate it.
        I also linked to the fundraising drive from earlier this year in which establishing a stock portfolio in the future was mentioned as a goal of the organization, which I honestly think is what you're misremembering here.
        
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        did you actually read the budget posts? (Guest) Wed 23 Dec 2020 03:47AM UTC
        
        so the investment has probably been made by now.
        Yeah … no.
        2017 budget: "The OTW Finance team is investigating options for a sustainable plan to invest the OTW's current reserves; our forecasted income should be enough to cover this year's expenses without requiring emergency withdrawals from our reserves."
        2018 budget: "Given your generosity in previous years, we have a healthy amount in reserves, which we plan to keep in store for a rainy day. Thanks to this, we can explore alternative revenue sources to supplement your donations. The Finance team and the OTW board have decided on a conservative investment portfolio for a small portion of our funds to start with, which will place the initial investment at as low a risk as possible. This move is long overdue, and we're currently working on creating a solid policy regarding investment and usage of our reserves in place."
        2019 budget: "The Finance team has made progress in its search for a suitable investment method for a small non-profit organization like the OTW and aims to fully set up a low-risk, conservative investment portfolio by the end of 2019."
        2020 budget: "The Finance team has made progress in its search for a suitable investment method for a small non-profit organization like the OTW and aims to fully set up a low-risk, conservative investment portfolio by the end of 2020."
        2020 budget update: "We have made progress in a search for a suitable investment method and investment specialist for a small nonprofit organization like the OTW; we aim to fully set up a low-risk, conservative investment portfolio by the end of 2021."
        First of all, the "Finance team and the OTW board have decided on a conservative investment portfolio" as stated in the 2018 budget does not mean any investments, or even the desired portfolio setup/asset allocation/etc, were actually decided upon, let alone made – they were only "working on creating a policy". 2019-2020, the dates kept getting pushed back. As of October 7, 2020 (the date of the 2020 update post), the only notable change is that now they have an investment specialist on board … well, they may not even have that yet either, since "made progress in a search for" the investment specialist they were recruiting for back in August doesn't necessarily mean "successfully recruited & trained and now they are fully up-to-date with OTW policies etc and ready to invest the money", let alone making the investments that, so far, are ALSO still in the "making progress" stage. The OTW is amazingly transparent about its budget – if and when that investment gets made, they're going to tell us.
        
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        (2 more comments in this thread)
      3. azarias Wed 23 Dec 2020 02:37AM UTC
        
        some of that excess cash goes into stocks and some of it goes to an inner circle of older volunteers.
        *dies*
        *coughs*
        *revives*
        Yes! You could indeed think that! And tell it to anyone you meet! Oooooor ... you could take five minutes to actually read the budget, posted every year, that accounts for every dollar https://www.transformativeworks.org/tag/finance-reports/
        But wait! Maybe that's fraudulent. After all, the people preparing that budget are all volunteers. Sure, they're CPAs whose professional licenses are on the line, not to mention several felonies if they falsify financial info, but maybe the money in fanfic is just that good? So instead, you could look at the audits done by third-party financial firms to maintain the OTW's legal status as a non-profit: https://www.transformativeworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/OTW-Audited-Financial-Statements-2018.pdf https://www.transformativeworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/OTW-Audited-Financial-Statements-2017.pdf https://www.transformativeworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/OTW-Audited-Financial-Statements-2015-2016.pdf
        But wait! Maybe they're in on it! Maybe the money in fanfic is just SO GOOD that entire corporations will risk their industry standing, business licenses, and, indeed, personal freedom to falsify those audits! Maybe all that money IS getting socked away! Let's see how much money folks can make!
        The OTW's had two fundraising drives in 2020.
        In October, they brought in $89,688.51 (https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/17314)
        In April, they brought in $458,501 https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/15760 <- This post also talks about how the org would like to, in the future, invest in a stock portfolio to provide a stable income so that the org can actually hire employees, whom it will pay. Working for a nonprofit that can't guess how much money it's getting in a year, meaning they may not be able to pay you, doesn't sound fun :(
        $89,688.51 + $458,501 = $548,189.51 total revenue in 2020. That's a lot! I'd sure like to make that much money a year. How much does that work out to for the volunteers, though?
        Well, there are about 700-800 people volunteering for the OTW at any one time, some of them for AO3, some for other projects. So $548,189/700 people = $783.13 cents per volunteer, per year.
        Hmm.
        I'm gonna be honest ... maybe I'm spoiled, but I don't think I could live on that.
        
        Listen. Levity aside, I get it. We all live in the same capitalist hellworld. We're all inundated with the same ceaseless advertising 24/7. We're all told that we're lazy and don't deserve to have a house if we don't have a side hustle, and any interests we don't monetize are wasted time. It is really, really, really hard to imagine a genuinely non-commercial project that really is created by people who only want to provide their community with a resource for art, entertainment, and even mindless recreation. I get it. It's 2020 and the idea that there's something that isn't for sale, and that people can decide of their own free will to work without payment is hard. The world really does suck.
        But sometimes, in little ways, people really aren't selfish monsters, and don't want to steal from you or sell to you. Sometimes a volunteer is just what they say they are -- and have the records to back that up.
        
        Last Edited Wed 23 Dec 2020 02:38AM UTC
        
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      4. tei Wed 23 Dec 2020 03:03AM UTC
        
        *applauds*
        
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        Trilies Wed 23 Dec 2020 04:51PM UTC
        
        *Thank* you.
        
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        blissfire Fri 25 Dec 2020 02:07PM UTC
        
        I want to copy this and serve it up to everyone who posts conspiracy theories about AO3 finances every year like clockwork when the donation drives come around.
        
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      5. WolfKomoki Wed 23 Dec 2020 11:19AM UTC
        
        Do you really think that those donations go to FanFiction? Give me a fucking break.
        
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      6. An Older Volunteer (Guest) Wed 23 Dec 2020 12:45PM UTC
        
        You mean in all the years I’ve been volunteering for the OTW I should have been getting a check!? This is news to me. Even the founders have never taken a paycheck, wtf are you on?
        
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      7. 🙃 (Guest) Wed 23 Dec 2020 09:36PM UTC
        
        How long is “older volunteer”? Or is it an agr thing? Because I know I volunteered for a long ass time and didn’t get paid and also was on a committee with someone pretty damn old who also wasn’t paid (who also happened to be around for a long ass time too). I really wanna know if I and they got the short end of the stick on this or if it was just like, the OG board members they are talking about? 😂 😂 😂
        
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    3. nines (Guest) Wed 23 Dec 2020 02:12PM UTC
      
      I'm glad they deleted those comments, I honestly had enough of people always badmouthing AO3 with zero research and lies. There's enough baseless hate literally every fucking year.
      
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3. Weirwood_Bonsai Fri 25 Dec 2020 10:04AM UTC
  
  I just finished browsing his wikipedia page and he seems fond of banning things that don't affect the greater population
  
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4. 1. sagedaisies Mon 28 Dec 2020 04:41PM UTC
    
    Honestly, I wish there was an age limit for political seats. I respect Nancy Pelosi and all, but she's literally 80 years old. The oldest person in Congress is 87. I wish there were younger people at least who are actually in touch with the greater population.
    
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Ealasaid Wed 23 Dec 2020 12:11AM UTC

Welp, now I've got Schoolhouse Rock stuck in my head.

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1. CrazyCatMeow Wed 23 Dec 2020 07:25PM UTC
  
  Same
  
  Last Edited Wed 23 Dec 2020 07:25PM UTC
  
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Fervidflowering Wed 23 Dec 2020 12:22AM UTC

Thanks for all the work y'all do with the legal stuff. I really appreciate it as a fan both of y'all and fandom.

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JKFic Wed 23 Dec 2020 12:36AM UTC

Thank you for all you do.
Makes me think of this sticker my hero Frank Zappa came up with as a response to the PMRC bullshit back in the 1980s.
img src="https://hosting.photobucket.com/albums/v441/JasonPics/.highres/zappasticker.jpg" border="0" alt="zappasticker"

Last Edited Wed 23 Dec 2020 12:37AM UTC

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Eclipton Wed 23 Dec 2020 02:09AM UTC

This better not leave committee. I don't want AO3 to be forced to shut down because of one closed-minded senator. Besides, I still have one more Pokemon fanfic to write next year.

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Lukkas Wed 23 Dec 2020 02:35AM UTC

I'm not from US but I wish the best to all american ficwriters who are fighting against this shit

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Legume_Shadow Wed 23 Dec 2020 02:36AM UTC

Thank you, OTW Legal Team, for fighting this! Good luck!

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