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<article xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" xmlns:xl="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" version="5.0" xml:lang="en">
<info>
<title>Why I will continue to write my real person fan fiction (fanfic)</title>
<date>2019-11-20</date>
<author>
<personname>
<firstname>Shlomi</firstname>
<surname>Fish</surname>
</personname>
<email>[email protected]</email>
</author>
<authorinitials>SF</authorinitials>
</info>
<section xml:id="tldr">
<title>TL;DR Summary</title>
<simpara>I, <link xl:href="https://www.shlomifish.org/">Shlomi Fish</link>, writer, software developer,
and amateur philosopher, will continue to write
<link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_person_fiction">real person fan
fiction</link>, which is fiction that depicts famous real-life people, either
dead or alive. This is despite the fact that some people told me I must
not because it can hurt that person’s future and career. I’d like to
note why seemingly Hollywood actors have been jinxed by that, and why it
cannot happen to singers.</simpara>
</section>
<section xml:id="technion_vs_projeuler">
<title>The Technion vs. Project Euler</title>
<informalfigure>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="./euler.webp"/>
</imageobject>
<textobject><phrase>Portrait of Leonhard Euler</phrase></textobject>
</mediaobject>
</informalfigure>
<simpara>I joked that my opinion on
<link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technion_%E2%80%93_Israel_Institute_of_Technology">The
Technion</link>, the University where I completed my B.Sc degree in Electrical
Engineering (= "EE") ,has become "untwitterable". The more I think
about it, the more it seems that I think less highly of it, despite the
fact that some people told me that it wasn’t a waste of time, and that
I’ll fondly look back at my studies. Part of the problem was that I
studied there only in order to get my degree (while I’m not interested
in electronics), which I wanted in order to get more higher-paying jobs.</simpara>
<simpara>I paid money to study there, and the people whom were indirectly paid by
me, while sometimes being helpful, often had limited time to help me,
looked down upon me, and gave me hard tests and unfair grades. It
destroyed my self-esteem, harmed my health, made me maniacal, put me on
psychiatric drugs which
<link xl:href="https://github.com/shlomif/why-openly-bipolar-people-should-not-be-medicated">harmed
my health</link> further, and taught me little of lasting value. Despite
paying I didn’t enjoy it, and only did it to get the diploma, so I can
get a more lucrative job later on.</simpara>
<simpara>Paying and getting paid made the experience worse. This is the curse of
<emphasis role="strong">professionalism</emphasis>.</simpara>
<simpara>Many years later, I started solving problems at
<link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Euler">Project Euler</link>, one of many
<link xl:href="https://github.com/EbookFoundation/free-programming-books/blob/master/problem-sets-competitive-programming.md">competitive
programming sites</link>. Since I had quite a bit of math and programming
background, I did quite well at it, and have solved over 300 problems. I
didn’t have to pay, but I voluntarily paid a small donation. I am still
unhappy by the somewhat degraded
<link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_experience">user experience</link> of it,
but am otherwise very content.</simpara>
<simpara>Despite not paying or expecting to be paid, or rather because of it, I
was met with gratitude, respect and admiration by the people I helped on
the <link xl:href="https://freenode.net/">freenode chat network</link> with previous problems
I solved or by announcing that I have solved a new one - also without
paying.</simpara>
<simpara>I was much happier as an <emphasis role="strong">amateur</emphasis> - someone who does what they do
because they enjoy it and love it, not to get paid. See
<link xl:href="http://paulgraham.com/opensource.html">Paul Graham’s "What business can
learn from open source"</link> .</simpara>
<simpara>Lately, by inspiration from a correspondent on an Internet chat who
mentioned someone’s one line Résumé, I wrote my
<link xl:href="https://www.shlomifish.org/me/resumes/Shlomi-Fish-Resume-as-Software-Dev.html">"I’m
a Rock Star software developer" Résumé</link> where I included only amateur
achievements, including Project Euler, and excluded the Technion. At
first I thought it was because EE B.Sc. degrees are quite common and so
not notable enough. But then I realised something else: I wasn’t proud
of my EE degree. These were my most vexing, toxic, soul destroying,
unproductive, six years of my life. I regret doing it for greed of
money.</simpara>
<simpara>That junkie stand up comedian whom I saw at a captioned twitter video
was right: if you want to succeed as a writer, entertainer, and amateur
philosopher: don’t work "hard".</simpara>
</section>
<section xml:id="taylor_swift">
<title>Taylor Swift as an amateur</title>
<informalfigure>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="./taylor_swift.webp"/>
</imageobject>
<textobject><phrase>Photo of Taylor Swift</phrase></textobject>
</mediaobject>
</informalfigure>
<simpara>In
<link xl:href="https://www.shlomifish.org/humour/fortunes/show.cgi?id=sharp-gnu&#8212;&#8203;think-big">this
conversation</link>, someone on freenode complained how much he disliked
<link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swift_(programming_language)">Apple’s
Swift</link> programming language (which you may not have heard of) and I
suggested he charge more - maybe 300 USD / hour - which he said no one
can afford. Its name reminded me of
<link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Swift">Taylor Swift</link> - a successful
and popular singer, who has many videos on YouTube, some of which I am
fond of and which many people praise. You probably heard of her. Now, I
told him that she probably charges more than 300 USD/hour, but the fact
of the matter is, she might perform even for free for something that is
important to her, because performing is fun. Her videos, despite often
being popular, probably do not offset their production value in YouTube
ads. But they are good publicity, provide fodder for remixes, parodies
and covers, and are fun enough to produce so she can afford to sustain
the cost. She doesn’t work for money or even for a shitload of money.
She works for fun.</simpara>
<simpara>There is likely a lot of fan fic, fanart, comments and idolisations of
her on the Internet. She may not improve significantly, but she can
derive inspiration and comments from them, and even if she is criticised
or held in contempt, she can either ignore that criticism or learn from
it.</simpara>
<simpara>If I wrote a Real Person Fanfic of Taylor Swift, she won’t be harmed or
object. If I depicted her figuratively "kicking the ass" of the NSA in
<link xl:href="https://www.shlomifish.org/humour/Summerschool-at-the-NSA/">Summerschool
at the NSA</link>, it would not have harmed her reputation a dent, and it may
have even give her good publicity and even fodder for songs or videos.</simpara>
<simpara>As an amateur, it would not have harmed her, and I would not have been
considered a villain.</simpara>
<simpara>But I did not.</simpara>
</section>
<section xml:id="smg_and_sglau">
<title>Sarah Michelle Gellar and Summer Glau</title>
<informalfigure>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="./summernsa-logo-small.webp"/>
</imageobject>
<textobject><phrase>Logo of Summerschool at the NSA</phrase></textobject>
</mediaobject>
</informalfigure>
<simpara>Instead I sent the actresses
<link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Michelle_Gellar">Sarah Michelle
Gellar</link>, and <link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_Glau">Summer Glau</link>, two
actresses who seemed invaluable for that due to previous associations I
had. While their acting careers were already on the brink of
termination, and I depicted them positively, it likely may have sealed
the envelope on both of their Hollywood careers. But it was probably the
best for both, because the Hollywood professionals were already
intimidated by them, and they could be more productive as non-acting
non-professionals activists. Why?</simpara>
<simpara>Because they are professionals. The better they played, the more they
were scorned and maligned and given poorer roles by other jealous
professional movie makers who were jealous of their competency and
elevated perception by amateur fans who knew better. There is a whole
<link xl:href="https://twitter.com/shlomif/status/1174571159372935168">YouTube search
about why Hollywood cannot cast X anymore</link> but it is the same old story.
To paraphrase on an old
<link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series">Star Trek
(the original series)</link> quote: "It does not happen some of the time. It
happens all the time."</simpara>
<simpara>But in the music industry it never happens. It will be very preposterous
to ever see a YouTube feature "Why no one listens to the songs of The
Beatles anymore.". Moreover, even though
<link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_Grimmie">Christina Grimmie</link> was
killed (in part due to her own mismanagement), and I was shocked and
saddened by that, her songs are still popular. If I now rewrote my
screenplay depicting her as a super intelligent and resourceful female,
who kicks the ass of the NSA, people will think I am helping keep her
legacy alive, and revere me for it.</simpara>
</section>
<section xml:id="jk_rowling">
<title>JK Rowling vs. Me</title>
<informalfigure>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="./jk_rowling.webp"/>
</imageobject>
<textobject><phrase>J. K. Rowling</phrase></textobject>
</mediaobject>
</informalfigure>
<simpara>I want to become the next big writer, but I want to remain writing for
fun, publishing for free <link xl:href="https://www.shlomifish.org/">on my site</link> under
Creative Commons licences, and writing mostly fanfic or even real person
fiction. People feel sorry for
<link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._K._Rowling">JK Rowling</link> for being a
professional, despite the fact that she is a millionaire.</simpara>
<simpara>But people either love my work, respect me, or even think I’m
preposterous or blasphemous (which
<link xl:href="http://shlomifishswiki.branchable.com/Encourage_criticism_and_try_to_get_offended/">indicates
I may be right</link>). People would cringe at reading the Harry Potter books
now ("TL;DR") but many of my old
<link xl:href="https://www.shlomifish.org/humour/">stories, aphorisms or factoids</link> are
still funny and fresh.</simpara>
<simpara><link xl:href="https://twitter.com/EmmaWatson">Emma Watson</link> is currently the most highly
paid actress in Hollywood, who rose to fame after having played Hermione
in the Harry Potter films. It makes her comparable to
<link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Schwarzenegger">Arnold
Schwarzenegger</link> who also used to be the highest paid actor.</simpara>
<simpara>But it’s not as if she is the new Arnold Schwarzenegger. Instead, Arnold
Schwarzenegger will forever be remembered as the old Emma Fuckin’
Watson!</simpara>
<simpara>Poor Emma. Why do we feel sorry for her?</simpara>
<simpara>Let me try it again. It’s not as if Taylor Swift is the new Madonna. In
fact, Swift is the new Socrates! I’m sure Ms. Swift will approve of the
new Taylor Swift factoid.</simpara>
<simpara>It does not have to be this way.</simpara>
</section>
<section xml:id="actors_are_unique">
<title>Actors are not replaceable</title>
<informalfigure>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="./aynrand2grimmie.webp" contentwidth="she would be Christina Grimmie"/>
</imageobject>
<textobject><phrase>If Ayn Rand was born in the 1990s</phrase></textobject>
</mediaobject>
</informalfigure>
<simpara>Jewel Staite
<link xl:href="https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2e3t1f/jewel_staite_ama/cjvt8t9/">testified</link>
that only she and Summer Glau could have played their characters on
<link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly_%28TV_series%29"><emphasis>Firefly</emphasis></link>.
Similarly I am more and more convinced that only Emma Watson can play
Selina on <link xl:href="https://www.shlomifish.org/humour/Selina-Mandrake/">my <emphasis>Selina
Mandrake - The Slayer</emphasis></link> screenplay but I’d like her to do it because she
enjoys it and work for relatively little. It will be preposterous to
assume that the late Christina Grimmie can ever be replaced by her
YouTuber colleague <link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiffany_Alvord">Tiffany
Alvord</link> or even by Taylor Swift, despite the fact that all three were or
are wonderful singers.</simpara>
<simpara>Actors should become amateurs and work for fun on amateur films they
like by amateur writers, who like me, write mostly fanfic and often
crossovers and even real person fiction. As much as I like
<link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kermit_the_Frog">Kermit the Frog</link> and
<link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Luke">Lucky Luke</link>, I wish Chuck
Norris and Summer Glau to
<link xl:href="https://www.shlomifish.org/humour/Muppets-Show-TNI/Summer-Glau-and-Chuck-Norris.html">star
along them</link>, because the latter two are equally as awesome even if real.
Just like the old show
<link xl:href="https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/The_Muppet_Show"><emphasis>The Muppet Show</emphasis></link>
featured celebrity guest stars as themselves, and
<link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sesame_Street"><emphasis>Sesame Street</emphasis></link> has been
doing it since its inception in 1969.</simpara>
<simpara>In Ancient times, most philosophers were entertainers who collected
donation money after their performances, and in fact were closer to
today’s entertainers than our contemporary ivory tower professional
philosophers. See:</simpara>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<simpara><link xl:href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBIxGjSHzF8">Mel Brooks’ Stand up
philospher</link></simpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<simpara><link xl:href="https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/peter_ustinov_161259">Peter Ustinov:
"If Botticelli were alive today he’d be working for Vogue"</link></simpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<simpara><link xl:href="https://www.shlomifish.org/humour.html#if_ayn_rand_was_born_in_the_1990s">"If
Ayn Rand was born in the 1990s she would be Christina Grimmie"</link></simpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<simpara><link xl:href="http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=4229">ESR’s post about why most classical
music is a bunch of museum pieces</link></simpara>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<simpara>Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee are the last in the line of master
professional warriors (believed to have passed through
<link xl:href="http://shlomifishswiki.branchable.com/Saladin_Style/">Saladin</link> himself -
one of the greatest and most underrated
<link xl:href="https://www.shlomifish.org/philosophy/philosophy/putting-cards-on-the-table-2019-2020/#hacking-heroism">hackers</link>
of all time). However, I believe that some of the newer amateur
<link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed_martial_arts">Mixed Martial Arts
(MMA)</link> fighters could have
<link xl:href="https://www.shlomifish.org/humour/fortunes/show.cgi?id=sharp-english-play-to-lose">defeated
even Bruce Lee</link>.</simpara>
<simpara>The better the former professional actors like Emma Watson, Sarah
Michelle Gellar, Summer Glau, and Chuck Norris had become the more they
were resented, hated, envied and mistreated. Until it hit their breaking
point and they got angry and burst in rage against their mistreatment.
Simply because they were professionals and worked for as much money as
possible.</simpara>
<simpara>It is possible that the reason why it seems like the
<link xl:href="https://www.shlomifish.org/humour/bits/facts/Chuck-Norris/">Chuck Norris
Facts</link> have made
<link xl:href="https://www.shlomifish.org/philosophy/philosophy/putting-cards-on-the-table-2019-2020/#Chuck_Norris">a
comeback</link> recently, is because Norris has decided to play in roles he
liked, even if he got paid little or not at all, or was paid after the
fact. He became a happy and respected amateur. I won’t be surprised if
he sometimes agrees to star in local school plays, or otherwise star in
roles that may seem almost completely unlike his traditional Hollywood
image.</simpara>
<simpara>But for now I’ll write my real person fic on singers and YouTubers. I
already have one more factoid about Taylor Swift and there likely will
be more. I assure you that for a long time you won’t see a YouTube video
"Why people won’t listen to Taylor Swift’s songs any more?". Poor
Taylor! I’m sure she won’t survive reading this new Taylor Swift
Factoid, and sue me immediately.</simpara>
</section>
<section xml:id="emma_watson">
<title>Emma Watson</title>
<informalfigure>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="./emma_watson_capt_img.webp"/>
</imageobject>
<textobject><phrase>Emma Watson Captioned Image</phrase></textobject>
</mediaobject>
</informalfigure>
<simpara>Emma Watson is no longer hirable in Hollywood despite the fact that all
her films were commercial successes. And it’s because she too became far
too powerful and competent for the incompetent and envious professional
film makers and critics. But like great action heroes (or "hackers")
of the past like David who fought Goliath, its modernisation in the
<link xl:href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YyBtMxZgQs">Indiana Jones gun scene</link> or
the <link xl:href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Eont_yEGZs">trailer for "Hamlet"
starring Arnold Schwarzenegger</link>, she will not accept her fate, and bend
and break the rules to carve her unique destiny.</simpara>
<simpara>She will give Hollywood the fat finger and start producing fan
screenplays (in any conceivable format - not only the overly strict, and
pedantic Hollywood screenplay format, which is hard to get right) that
she will sponsor out of her own pocket. They will depict her as the
sexy, competent, bad-ass ass-kicker that she and her fans know she is
rather than her traditional sheepish and recessive (but not quite)
<link xl:href="https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Hermione_Granger">Hermione Granger</link>
image, and these videos will be available free of charge on YouTube.
Many awesome male and female actor hackers who used to be household
names but are now unhirable for becoming too competent, honest and
intimidating, will follow suit.</simpara>
<simpara>She might opt to make the material available first under relatively
restrictive licences such as
<link xl:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC-by-nc-sa</link> or even
<link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_rights_reserved">All rights reserved</link>
and ask to collect "ransom" money to make it
<link xl:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC-by</link> or even
<link xl:href="https://creativecommons.org/choose/zero/">CC0 / Public Domain</link>. She might
give access to large data files and high quality videos for a pay or
sell high quality collectors sets (just like Nine Inch Nails did with
<link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghosts_I%E2%80%93IV">Ghosts I-IV</link>).</simpara>
<simpara>There are other business models:</simpara>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<simpara><link xl:href="https://github.com/nayafia/lemonade-stand">nayafia/lemonade-stand: A
handy guide to financial support for open source</link></simpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<simpara><link xl:href="https://www.shlomifish.org/philosophy/computers/web/models-for-commerce/">"Alternative"
Profitable Models for Web-based Commerce</link></simpara>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<simpara>As inconceivable as it seems, I think a
<link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminator_%28franchise%29">Terminator</link>
spoof with Emma Watson as the evil terminator, and Arnold Schwarzenegger
trying to protect from her has a great potential. And I already have
written crossovers starring her in anything from an
<link xl:href="https://www.shlomifish.org/humour/bits/Emma-Watson-applying-for-a-software-dev-job/">attack
of the software industry’s hiring process</link>; to a
<link xl:href="https://www.shlomifish.org/humour/Muppets-Show-TNI/Harry-Potter.html">crossover</link>
of Harry Potter, Sesame Street and other sources of inspiration ; as
well as naturally
<link xl:href="https://www.shlomifish.org/humour/Selina-Mandrake/cast.html"><emphasis>Selina
Mandrake</emphasis></link> which is a self-concious parody of
<link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer"><emphasis>Buffy</emphasis></link>, mashed
up with Judaism and Israelism, as well as
<link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_Deep_Space_Nine">Star Trek DS9</link>,
<link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Princess_Bride_%28film%29">The Princess
Bride</link>, and <link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Musketeers">The Three
Musketeers</link>.</simpara>
<simpara>Hollywood will soon be terminated as an inefficient and lazy oligopoly
with relatively few remaining active franchises, few remaining able and
competent actors who quickly will follow suit, and a flood of
indistinguishable high budget comic books movies with incompetent and
unattractive actors who didn’t have the sense and competence to become
YouTubers, empty cinemas, and boring "original" films. Either that or
it too will convert to the amateur and
<link xl:href="https://www.shlomifish.org/philosophy/philosophy/putting-cards-on-the-table-2019-2020/">"open"</link>
models, which like the signed artists labels of the
<link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recording_Industry_Association_of_America">RIAA</link>
mostly get out of the way (minus some censoring of YouTube content, both
"copyright-violating" and legitimate, which I hope and plan will stop
soon).</simpara>
<simpara>If Taylor Swift was able to
<link xl:href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcIy9NiNbmo">depict</link> her female friends
and herself as bad-ass modern day female warriors, and still continue to
outsell her shows, so should
<link xl:href="https://www.shlomifish.org/humour/bits/facts/Emma-Watson/">Emma Watson</link>,
or <link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Michelle_Gellar">Gellar</link>, or
<link xl:href="https://www.shlomifish.org/humour/bits/facts/Summer-Glau/">Summer Glau</link>,
or <link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megan_Fox">Megan Fox</link>, or
<link xl:href="https://www.shlomifish.org/philosophy/philosophy/putting-all-cards-on-the-table-2013/">Jennifer
Lawrence</link>, or
<link xl:href="https://www.shlomifish.org/humour/bits/facts/Chuck-Norris/">Chuck
Norris</link>, or <link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Cruise">Tom Cruise</link>, or
countless other awesome hackers who would prosper more as amateurs,
rather than in the increasingly money-hungry, soul-sucking, and mind
destroying, professional Hollywood.</simpara>
<simpara>Hasta la vista baby! We will be back.</simpara>
<simpara>More real person fan fiction. I guess I must never do that.</simpara>
</section>
<section xml:id="commercial_fanfic">
<title>Addendum: Commercial use of characters, concepts and worlds</title>
<simpara>Before the current regime of copyright maximalism, copyright applied
only to text and its printing and reprinting rights. Following a
<link xl:href="https://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/cc-community/2013-February/008338.html">discussion</link>
on the Creative Commons mailing list I have placed
<link xl:href="https://www.shlomifish.org/meta/copyrights/#characters_concepts_plots_and_worlds">the
copyrights of my characters, concepts, plot elements and worlds</link> under
the CC-by licence.</simpara>
<simpara>It is well known that most creators of commercial worlds effectively
cannot and would rather not enforce noncommercial fan art (fiction,
videos, games, etc.) of their worlds. But why not also allow such works
to be sold commercially, be filmed, or otherwise make a profit?
<link xl:href="https://www.shlomifish.org/humour/fortunes/show.cgi?id=perl-petdance-thousand-flowers"><emphasis role="strong">Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom!</emphasis></link></simpara>
<simpara>For example, following
<link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Pratchett">Terry Pratchett</link>’s death,
his daughter <link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhianna_Pratchett">Rhianna
Pratchett</link> who is his inheritor, announced that she closes her father’s
<link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld">Discworld</link> franchise for
commercial and official sequels. But why not allow commercial and
<emphasis role="strong">unofficial</emphasis> sequels, prequels, fanart, crossovers / mashups, etc.? Put
the franchise under CC-by and tell the fans that they can build fan art
above it as they please and <emphasis role="strong">request</emphasis> (not force - see
<link xl:href="https://www.shlomifish.org/philosophy/philosophy/putting-cards-on-the-table-2019-2020/">Saladin-style</link>)
that a donation be made to the Pratchett’s estate, if there was a
substantial profit.</simpara>
<simpara>Yet another case of franchise copyrights abuse is that of
<link xl:href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jun/16/harry-potter-warner-bros-wizard-fan-festivals">“Harry rotters: Warner Bros cracks down on Potter fan festivals in US”</link> where
Warner Bros (who bought the rights to the
<link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter">Harry Potter franchise</link>)
demanded that Harry Potter conventions / festivals not use any names
from the books. I have no idea how this demand will be “good for the
people”, help make the world a better place, and/or
<link xl:href="https://www.jwz.org/doc/groupware.html">“help someone get laid”</link>. It
just seems like a <link xl:href="https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/wheatons-law">dick move</link>
by some overzealous lawyers.</simpara>
<informalfigure>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="./Talk_Like_a_Pirate_Day.webp"/>
</imageobject>
<textobject><phrase>Talk like a pirate day</phrase></textobject>
</mediaobject>
</informalfigure>
<simpara>And now for the other side of the coin, according to the English
Wikipedia
<link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Talk_Like_a_Pirate_Day">International
Talk Like a Pirate Day</link> (which is a fun holiday which I celebrate on the
Internet, and have also created some
<link xl:href="https://www.shlomifish.org/humour/bits/facts/">related fan art</link>), had
become successful in part because its copyrights or trademarks have not
been enforced, which led to a "viral" growth.</simpara>
<simpara>It is likely that creators of commercial franchises would benefit more
by making their worlds, characters, and concepts unrestricted, rather
than being territorial around them. Some of my Internet friends agree
with me that <link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaceballs">Spaceballs</link> is a
better film than the
<link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Trilogy">original Star Wars
trilogy</link>. However, being a parody and therefore
<link xl:href="https://www.shlomifish.org/meta/FAQ/#why_fan_fic">fan art</link>, it builds
upon the original work and depends on it.</simpara>
<simpara>We are all
<link xl:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_on_the_shoulders_of_giants"><emphasis role="strong">standing on the shoulders of giants</emphasis></link>,
so why not let others stand on ours?</simpara>
</section>
</article>