Around Here, We Call This Kind Of Person A Fucktard

Imagine that you've just written an entire fan fiction novel set in the Star Wars universe. (If it helps, imagine it's a world based on Willy Wonka, or Lance Bass, or The Greatest American Hero or Event Horizon or the Gilmore Girls or whatever you need to imagine in order to get yourself in the right creative frame of mind.) Imagine that hubris convinces you to self-publish it. (Maybe to pass out to friends? Sure, I can imagine that.) Imagine then that hubris turns into delusion and you decide to self-publish it and sell it on Amazon and B&N.com. Now, imagine you're my brother Lee and watch as his head explodes into tiny little razor thin shards.

Lori Jareo, a self-published author, is selling her fanfic STAR WARS novel ANOTHER HOPE as a print-on-demand title on the Amazon and Barnes & Noble websites. Apparently, neither Amazon nor Barnes & Noble looked at the book before they listed it for sale.  Jareo talks about the obvious copyright violation issues in a Q&A on her website:

Q: Having set Another Hope in an already existing universe, I find myself wondering if there was any concern on your part regarding copyrights?

No, because I wrote this book for myself. This is a self-published story and is not a commercial book. Yes, it is for sale on Amazon, but only my family, friends and acquaintances know it’s there.

Q: I also wonder how far a writer is allowed to write in a world and to use characters introduced by another author?

If it’s not a commercial project, I don’t see any problem.

It's not a commercial project...but she's selling it on Amazon and Barnes & Noble (and offering it for sale on her website). What a moron.  She even had the chutzpah to copyright her novel. She offered this disclaimer on the book:

The characters in this book are trademarks of Lucasfilm Ltd. The publisher of this book is not affiliated with Lucasfilm.

The first thing I have to wonder is how the fuck Lee heard about this. The second thing I have to wonder is when his blog will be inundated by 50,000 fan fiction writers calling him an asshole-for-pay-cocksucking-professional-soul sucking-writer. I'd say, oh, ten minutes from now. The third thing I wonder is when the author will find Lee's post and how quickly she'll threaten to sue him, because that's what normally happens in these situations.

Comments

[Matt Bell]

As if this woman wasn't bad enough on her own, wait until you check out the book's blurb from her website. Take a look at who wrote it: "Frederick Turner, author of GENESIS: AN EPIC POEM"-- Tell me that's Bible fan poetry. That'd be great.

Nevermind, it's even better. Here's a link to the book's page on Turner's website.

Any endorsement from someone who talks to time-traveling poets AND thinks the biblical Jacob was an expert in recombinant DNA (scroll down to the bottom) bears a lot of weight with me. I'll probably order ten copies right now.

[Miriam]

If you remember the last time someone tried to get folks to pay them for fanfic, this is one area where fanfic writers and your brother are in total agreement. :P

[Angela]

Lawsuits. That's when you know you're on to something!

[David K.]

Oh, believe me, fandom-at-large is in total agreement that this girl is an idiot. I think the relevant phrase is 'Get off my side, you make my side look STUPID'.

I'm also curious as to where he found it, though, as the F_W entry (which is where he references in Miriam's link) was written /after/ he posted.

[Alphabeter]

Lee's your brother, he loves you.
He'll send her to your post.

And he is loved which is why all those who completely endorse fanfiction send him this useful information lest he run out of blogging material.

You don't mind if I publish both your blogs in a special new book do you? Everything is copyright-free on the internet. And Publish America is giving me such a great advance!

[Harry Connolly]

Speaking of wacky people threatening lawsuits, the folks at Making Light just had this happen to them, when they publicized the name of an agent on a Twenty Worst Agents list. They include links to other sites where said agent demanded payment of $1 B for "illegally" using her name.

[Danny Barer]

I think the Empire will strike back.

[Theresa]

Just when I'd decided that fan fiction writers are logical, sane beings who don't go around publishing their fan fiction novels for 20 bucks and call it non-commercial, she showed up.
And I don't think your brother would be flogged by "50,000 fan fiction writers calling him an asshole-for-pay-cocksucking-professional-soul sucking-writer". Maybe by just a handful who are as disllusional as she is... there's always those.
The community of fan fiction writers are outraged by that atrocity.

[fic person, so shoot me.]

Hmm. Yes, I'm a ficcer.

Here I am, frothing at the mouth, banging on your virtual door, crying out that I ...hate Lori Jareo as much as you do, if not more? Yeah, that'd be about right.

I am of the opinion that a whole group of people should not be put down and shut out from the intellectual conversation merely for what you think of them.

No, ficcing is not the way to spring into professional writing. Nor is it really on the clear side of legal.

However, it is a community and in the best cases furthers writing skills. Most of all, it's fun.

So go ahead and laugh at poor stupid Lori Jareo, 'cause I am too, but leave ficcers alone. It's not nice to make fun of other people's hobbies. We all have the right to do what doesn't harm others, and by harm I mean economically as well as any other definiton one could name, do we not?

[Caerwyn]

She actually misspells "Lucasfilm" as "Luscasfilm" in her disclaimer.

Heh. Yeah, you're an editor all right.

And really, that's just the tip of the misrepresentation iceberg.

[name]

Assuming she actually has a degree from a "real" University and not a crackerjack box (or the kind you get spam from every day), I'd love to know which institution. If her ethics professor gave her a passing grade, TPTB should seriously review the syllabus and his testing procedures for that class!