Desiderius Price

Spent several hours talking with a friend (real life), guess my characters need to watch out.

Held him in my arms the whole time, it'll help, I guess.

The house always feels empty once your beloved pet is no longer there.  I’m sure you gave him a really good life.  That’s always something worth remembering.

Held him in my arms the whole time, it'll help, I guess.

I am so very sorry, Des. I lost one to kidney failure, and my heart goes out to you both.
 

Thanks @WillowDarkling He’s more of a hider, so he’s in the closet right now.  (That he lets me reach in and pet means he’s in distress.)   This morning, I dedicated my chapter post to him, and trying to distract myself with a bit of writing before I have to collect him.

I’m so sorry to hear that, Desi. Give him lots of hugs and love, and a little kiss from me. And have a  for yourself.   
 

So, next story from you will feature one of those capsules and the journey it goes on?

So, next story from you will feature one of those capsules and the journey it goes on?

Was debating that when my doctor was pushing me to get a colonoscopy… went with the “mail-in-sample” route instead, no special prep required.  (I’ve never gone under general before, bit spooked by it, and finding a “responsible adult” to babysit me for 24 hours afterwords is difficult/impossible.)

Good puns are appreciated here

@Deadman My issue with finding platforms for posting is usually in the TOS/guidelines that more or less forbid the type of material I write.  Thus, I find places like AFF & AO3 due to the openness afforded in terms of content allowed.  So any cyberattack on one of these platforms irritates me because it stomps on an avenue I use for my speech.

@BronxWench “Money attracts lawyers” is my more succinct way of putting it.  If @Deadman wants to pay a copyright lawyer to sit in their conference room learning the finer points of copyright law to research a theoretical loophole … I’m guessing there’s better ways to spend time & money.
Me personally… I don’t seek money in my writing, so exploring into copyright & fair use is more of an academic brain teaser for me.  I do keep my fanfic and original pen-names distinct, so there’s less to muddy if I were to setup a Patreon for under my original writing pen-name.  BUT… I do have a good day job with vacation/insurance benefits so monetizing writing isn’t a necessity.

@Deadman Channeling Mad Eye Moody’s rant about keeping constant vigilance, stay out of trouble! 

We don’t allow Patreon here, exactly because there’s no way for us to be sure that members are only receiving donations for original work.
It is a clear and distinct violation of copyright law for anyone to profit from copyrighted material without written permission from the copyright owner. So, a toy company can make a Harry Potter game, as long as they receive permission from JK Rowling, but if someone sells Harry Potter merchandise without having obtained that permission, the lawyers will swoop in, and generally the person violating copyright law gets to pay their lawyer and the copyright owner’s lawyer, substantial fines, and possibly could receive a jail sentence based on how much they earned.
The same thing applies to fan fiction. If someone sets up a Patreon on a fiction archive, and publishes both fan fiction and original work on the archive, there’s no way to tell what the patrons are donating for. The patrons might think they’re doing the author a huge favor by donating, so the author can work on that fan fiction they love so much, and if they mention in a review that they donated for that reason, well. I would not want to be in that author’s shoes when the copyright owner finds out.

@Desiderius Price Yes, that’s essentially what I was suggesting. It gives you the option to put individual things out for free. So each piece of fanfiction will be free and available to anyone without paying. But there is a patreon type option for people. You can put everything out for free but if people want to pay you, can do so.

@Deadman  Even if the platform offers the option to monetize, definitely don’t enable it on fanfiction.  That’s my advice to avoid a lot of hot water over very little gain.  Consider the fanfiction a free loss-leader, a teaser to entice readers to cross over to your (monetized) original fiction.  Anything stronger, like a Patreon or similar, talk to a lawyer on how to word it such that there’s no money being exchanged for fanfiction.

@Deadman Unless you’re wanting to make court proceedings your pasttime, it’s way easier to avoid the legal hassles than it is to try to make a buck with fanfiction.
By its nature, fanfiction is a derivative work, and is 99.9999% of the time unauthorized (so, you can try to contact the all rights holder, ask them to sign a contract giving you permission to monetize likely in exchange for a big-cut/fee).  IF all IP rights are in the public domain, then you may be in the free and clear.  In either case, you’d want a copyright lawyer on call to cover your arse, and be prepared for an expensive fight.
A lot of fanfic writers claim “fair use” … one test is whether the use is being done commercially or non-profit educational.  But “fair use” is technically a defense used in court, you’ve already paid for a lawyer at this point.  And a hazard is that a court rules that fanfiction is *NOT* fair use at all, ever; not to mention other conditions that could arise.  Take Star Trek, after a big fanfic film involved lawsuit, CBS released some “guidelines” on fanfic films, restricting them to 15 minutes or less (no sequels), among other restraints – there went that fanfic studio’s dream of releasing a movie-length fanfic film.
Bottom line, serious threats loom once you monetize fanfiction.  It’s simply better to avoid it, make your money in original fiction instead.

@Deadman Keep it separate… fanfiction remains free, can even be a bit of a teaser to originals.  A monthly fee to the original content is your call.
Fanfiction is enough in that gray shakey legal area, where some people do argue fair-use, charging angers most authors.  JKR’s famously gave an approving nod to Harry Potter fanfiction so long as it was not-for-money. 

Let’s not defame sharks by associating them with lawyers…
More seriously, @Deadman money attracts lawyers.  Moment you take payment for fanfic is the moment you knock out a pillar of the fair use defense, and any money you make ain’t worth the lawyer fees you’ll incur.  (Think $100k to start.)
If you’re talking original writing where you own 100% of the copyright and the IP, then taking payment is alright.

@Deadman I’m hoping that this new site you found isn’t allowing payment for fan fiction, but only for original content. Payment for fan fiction crosses all sorts of legal thresholds, and I wouldn’t recommend anyone stick a toe into those waters. There’s a very good reason lawyers are compared to sharks...

@Deadman 9 times out of 10, I go to a website that claims “sexual material okay”, only to read the TOS/guidelines and realize they forbid quite a bit, which usually includes what I write.  Anyways, I’ve got a day job, so that’s why I don’t worry about collecting a paycheck from it.  (Of course, a jackpot style payoff would be nice, but I’m not sure I wanna write with deadlines & having to worry about “marketability”)

@Desiderius Price I suppose that is true. Though I have found that on this new platform, they allow for erotica. I probably won’t post my stuff from here on it but some of my longer form content, I probably will.

@Deadman My issue with finding platforms for posting is usually in the TOS/guidelines that more or less forbid the type of material I write.  Thus, I find places like AFF & AO3 due to the openness afforded in terms of content allowed.  So any cyberattack on one of these platforms irritates me because it stomps on an avenue I use for my speech.

@Desiderius Price Yeah, not necessarily looking for help. Just kinda pointing out why I’m not on the platform. While I’m sad for the writers who can’t post their content and make some fans, I can’t see myself ever joining or posting my content. I've recently come across a newer platform. I got a chance to ask the CEO about their view of fanfic and they said they are okay with it. The place also has the option for people to pay writers.