Icons, announcements

[cleolinda]

Okay, a couple of things:

1. People have started asking if they can perform and tape "Twilight in Fifteen Minutes." I've gotten several requests like this with POTO and various Harry Potters, and you know what? As long as you don't find some way to turn a profit, I say go for it. Here's the one thing I need you to do: due to a really, really weird

Comments

[ravenbabe21]

Loving all your icons

So is there no need to credit? I'm totally ok with doing that since I'm probably going to save all of them to use at some point lol

[cleolinda]

Well, crediting will probably help you remember where to go if you or someone else wants to find them again--"cleolinda" or "m15m" will work.

[ravenbabe21]

hee hee already bookmarked :P

Thanks so much for taking the time to make all of these btw. I'm seriously out of the icon making business since I haven't in so long. Trying to get back up to speed with all the programs and what not that are out there now before I even dare try to make my own again lol

[cleolinda]

Hee, no problem. And I'm just working with an old copy of Photoshop 6.0, so it's not like I know what I'm doing either. I have two or three fonts I use as crutches, the same basic style most of the time, etc. So I'm hardly l33t. But it's relaxing, and it's fun to hunt down pictures that match the words. So there it is. : )

[cyranothe2nd]

You're not being anal, you're protecting your own work.
And I heard about the chick on FF.net. *sigh* We 'net writers all face the same problem. Some authors combat internet theft of their work by copyrighting it. I've never gone that far (since all I write is fluffy fan fic) but I would suggest that you do. That way, you would actually have a legal case against anyone who ripped off your work without crediting you.
Just a thought...

[cleolinda]

Well, see, the thing is--I think the expression is "copyright flows from the pen"? You don't have to "copyright" something; you already own the rights to it from the sheer act of creating it. Any kind of paperwork you pursue or whatever mostly just establishes proof that you had it first--dates, and posting publicly on the internet establishes that just as well. I mean, I can change the date on this entry, but I can't change the dates on the comments. Once y'all comment, I have proof that "Twilight in Fifteen Minutes" existed as of November 23rd. If someone delusional wanted to argue ownership with me, they would have to pony up unalterable evidence that they had written the same piece before that date (which they would not be able to do, obviously

[cyranothe2nd]

LOL, TMI is always okay. Yes, I remember the HP Lexicon case. Fan fic writers have the same problem because we cannot make any money off of our works, so while the creative rights may belong to us, the *rights* rights certainly don;t. I have had plenty of friends who has published in zines or fan sites, only to find their work under a different name on some un-authed site (sometimes even if a different language!).
Again--its one big grey area. But the 'net usually polices itself just fine, especially if one knows the writer...

:)

[cleolinda]

Hee, thanks.

And yeah, I don't know if you heard the podcast I did last weekend, but at the end of the Twilight discussion I basically said, you know, I don't know how she did it but she wrote something that just hits you straight in the id like a bullet, and we as writers need to sit down and figure out what she did, how she did it, and how we can incorporate it into our own work. I have a few theories, but at this point I'm keeping them to myself... ; )

[profbutters]

I think one thing is. . . she has no shame. Most writers engage in some kind of self-censorship before an idea is even fully articulated. "Bella Swan? NO WAY I can get away with a name like that. I'd better come up with something more subtle." She's not afraid of being obvious or overblown or drippy. And we see it coming down the street like a 30 foot tall Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, and our first thought is, "no frickin' way. That is not real." Our second thought is ". . . mm. MARSHMALLOW."

The lesson I'm taking out of it is "do not be afraid to be obvious. People obviously like obvious."

[cleolinda]

Yeah, one of the things I got from it was the very similar "Do not be afraid to be sappy or melodramatic. People apparently like that."

[pirho_maniac]

Why does everything look like it was shot though some kind of greyed-out lens?

Also, stealing the animated "SAY MY NAME BITCH", duly credited, etc.

[cleolinda]

Well, the screencaps look like that because they're crappy. Everything else was... shot through kind of a blued-out lens. So. Um. I don't know?

[sucrelefey]

It's not just your legal rights one needs to mind but also the rights of the original works you yourself are fairly parodying. Documentation saves a lot of butts.