Call for Stories: Help the OTW Fight for Fair Use!

Post Header

Published:

2017-11-23 18:09:46 UTC

Tags:

Spotlight on Legal Issues

Do you use screencaps or video clips in your fanfiction? If so, the OTW needs your help!

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") makes it illegal to rip from DVDs, Blu-Ray discs, and many other encrypted technologies. The OTW has won a legal exemption that makes it legal to rip DVDs, Blu-Rays, and digital downloads to make fair uses for the purpose of noncommercial remix videos, like fanvids.

But the DMCA still blocks fans’ ability to make fair uses of video in other contexts, such as fanfiction. Although fair use law would often allow fans to incorporate video clips or stills into their fanfiction (making it what the law calls a "multimedia e-book") the DMCA restricts fans’ ability to gain access to video material for that purpose.

What the OTW is Doing About This

Fortunately, the law provides for a rule-making process every three years where the Copyright Office can recommend exemptions for authors to access the works they need, which the OTW has participated in. There is currently an exemption for e-books, but it only applies to nonfiction multimedia e-books offering film analysis.

A group of allies led by the OTW and the Authors Alliance are fighting for a modified exemption that will allow all authors of e-books, including fanfiction creators, to gain access to the clips they need from DVDs, Blu-ray discs, and digital streaming services.

How You Can Help

Share your stories with us! If you're a fanwork creator who's needed to rip digital content for use in your fanfiction, or if you anticipate finding yourself in that situation in the future, you can help us demonstrate why there's a need for this exemption.

The Copyright Office places an emphasis on stories from authors who have been harmed by the DMCA in the past or are likely to be harmed by the DMCA in the future, so please take our 5-minute survey and share your experience!

The deadline for us to submit our evidence is soon, so please fill out the survey by December 4, 2017. And even if you have no story to contribute, please spread this message to others. Every story helps.

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.

Actions

Comments

Sorry, this news post doesn't allow comments.

Ratlochet_1472 Thu 23 Nov 2017 07:50PM UTC

Why aren't you posting about Net Neutrality as well? If there's no NN then we won't even be able to use this site without paying hoards of money, much less use digital content for our stories.

Comment Actions
- Thread
1. Diamond_Raven Fri 24 Nov 2017 03:04AM UTC
  
  From what I understand, since AO3 is mostly a text-based website, even if AO3 doesn't pay to be part of the "fast lane" (ie users won't have to pay a higher fee to access it), it won't make much of a difference. Most text-based websites (forums, story archives, blogs etc) won't be effected very much, so users won't be asked to pay a higher fee to access those sites. The difference will impact websites that have streaming content. As for accessing other digital media, that has nothing to do with AO3.
  
  Last Edited Fri 24 Nov 2017 03:04AM UTC
  
  Comment Actions
  - Thread
  - Parent Thread
2. 1. Saphirablue Sat 25 Nov 2017 04:55PM UTC
    
    Well (from what I've read and how I've understood everything), but your ISP could decide to block access to the AO3 completely or ask for additional money in order for you to access it.
    
    Comment Actions
    - Thread
    - Parent Thread
  2. 1. Diamond_Raven Sat 25 Nov 2017 06:17PM UTC
      
      I haven't heard of the blocking thing, just that they might slow your access to it (which won't matter with text-based websites). Anyway, I'm Canadian so I may not be clear on the details. Our news media hasn't spent much time discussing this issue, since it's a US thing.
      
      Comment Actions
      - Thread
      - Parent Thread
    2. 1. Saphirablue Sat 25 Nov 2017 07:32PM UTC
        
        Here is a Tumblr post that mentions it (because basically - companies did it already before Net Neutrality became reality): https://marthawells.tumblr.com/post/167834688527/prokopetz-gacorley-prokopetz-the-whole-net
        I'm also not from the US but managed to stay fairly up to date with this due to friends. I don't know all the details also but, yeah, no matter what - this isn't a good thing.
        (Also, it's not all about downloading stuff and streaming TV shows/movies/whatever. Just imagine being hard of hearing/deaf, communicating largely via video and then you'd get charged huge amounts of money in order to have internet speed so that you are able to communicate via video. Imagine your ISP blocking, let's say, Google because your ISP (or their mother) owns a rival search engine. And so on.)
        
        Comment Actions
        
        Thread
        
        Parent Thread
3. OTW_Communications (Official) Sat 25 Nov 2017 01:59AM UTC
  
  Hi Ratlochet_1472!
  We’ve been getting lots of questions about net neutrality, and we hope to have some information out soon.
  Sincerely,
  -Janita Burgess
  OTW Communications Co-Chair
  
  Comment Actions
  - Thread
  - Parent Thread
Diamond_Raven Fri 24 Nov 2017 03:00AM UTC

I'm not entirely sure what constitutes as "ripping", so I'd like some clarification. I often use screencaps from movies to create cover art for my fics, which I embed in my fics. However, I don't know if the process I use qualifies as "ripping". I just grab a screen capture from the scene as it plays on my computer screen (using the old 'PrtSc' button, no fancy software). The quality isn't the best, but that's where Photoshop comes in. Please let me know if what I do qualifies as "ripping" and whether it would be helpful for me to fill out the survey.

Comment Actions
- Thread
1. Snowgrouse Fri 24 Nov 2017 11:51AM UTC
  
  I don't know if I'd call it "ripping" myself, but AFAIK, it's the same thing copyright-wise? "Ripping" is usually used in reference to clips or entire movies, i.e. several frames in order to reproduce somthing that moves, like gifs or fanvids. Or when you just copy entire movies from the source (DVD, streaming site etc.) onto your hard drive and stuff. I often do that so I don't have to bung the DVD/Blu-Ray into the laptop's disc drive every time I just want to grab a few seconds off a movie to make a gif for Tumblr or to illustrate a fic.
  Hope that clarifies things:)
  
  Comment Actions
  - Thread
  - Parent Thread
2. 1. tahanrien Fri 24 Nov 2017 10:07PM UTC
    
    Thanks for the explanation. I also wasn’t sure if this was just about fanvids or gifs as well.
    
    Comment Actions
    - Thread
    - Parent Thread
  2. 1. Snowgrouse Fri 24 Nov 2017 11:00PM UTC
      
      For what it's worth, I don't think my definition is necessarily the same as Ao3's in this particular context--I get the feeling they count screencaps as well. But I'll leave it up to them to clarify (especially as I think copyright US law is more permissive about screencaps anyway); I just provided the usual definition of "ripping." And responded to the survey by giving examples of my spliced gifs and such (where I can get two actors/characters who never appeared in a movie together to look like they did), which I've used to illustrate my fics or to just tell a one-gif story in the past. (Hope it came through, BTW, as I got a 302 error at the end from the survey server.)
      
      Comment Actions
      - Thread
      - Parent Thread
3. OTW_Legal (Official) Sat 25 Nov 2017 11:25PM UTC
  
  Hi Diamond_Raven!
  This is a good question, and thanks for asking it. For current purposes, it helps if people discuss screen capture along with decryption, so go ahead and talk about your screen capture experience! You're right that both can be considered ripping, but that they may have different legal consequences. Screen capture takes advantage of what's often known as the "analog gap" -- it doesn't require any decryption -- but as you note, it's also lower quality. Decryption yields higher quality, which is necessary or for many kinds of fair use fanworks, but it involves what the law describes as "circumvention of technological protection measures." For that reason, many believe that the DMCA's "anti-circumvention" provisions -- the rules we're seeking an exemption from -- apply only to decryption and not to screen capture. That said, the U.S. Copyright Office has discussed screen capture in its rules along with decryption, so it's good for us to have feedback and stories about both.
  Thanks for asking!
  Betsy
  OTW Legal
  
  Comment Actions
  - Thread
  - Parent Thread
gangnam_stiles Fri 24 Nov 2017 03:50PM UTC

Will there be any way to know if your story helped at all? I've submitted mine and I hope it'll be useful at least a bit, but it'd be nice to know for sure either way:)

Comment Actions
- Thread
1. OTW_Legal (Official) Sat 25 Nov 2017 11:31PM UTC
  
  Many thanks for submitting! We really appreciate it. I can assure you that your submission will be useful -- it may be quoted or it may be used as background information, but regardless of how we end up using it, it'll definitely be useful!
  Over the next few weeks, we'll be deciding which stories to quote in our submissions and which ones to use in the background. When we've filed our submission, we'll post it on the legal page of transformativeworks.org, and we'll link to that in news posts about the process. There, you'll be able to see which stories we ended up quoting.
  The gears of lawmaking turn slowly, so action by the Copyright Office may take up to a year -- but we'll also link to what they do when they do it. They sometimes cite or quote individual examples, and we will try to highlight that if it happens.
  Thanks again!
  Betsy
  OTW Legal
  
  Comment Actions
  - Thread
  - Parent Thread
TheArcher Mon 27 Nov 2017 10:51AM UTC

Would using screencaps for pod fic art count?

Comment Actions
- Thread
1. sunflowerpizza Sat 02 Dec 2017 09:23AM UTC
  
  I think if the media was fanfiction, yes.
  
  Comment Actions
  - Thread
  - Parent Thread
dinoontheceiling Tue 28 Nov 2017 04:06PM UTC

Can we also talk about Net Neutrality?

Comment Actions
- Thread

AO3 News