Continuations by people other than the original author/creator aren't worth getting worked up about.

[MelissaBaby]

Yeah, other people using your material is cross promotion. They are doing you a favor. It's deeply weird that our society pretends that it's the other way around.

And if someone takes a shit in your garden, you should thank them for the fertilizer, I suppose.

 

[RocketGrunt]

And if someone takes a shit in your garden, you should thank them for the fertilizer, I suppose.

"There's no such thing as bad publicity."
-P.T.Barnum

"People always say there's no such thing as bad publicity, and you always think they're right, because it seems self-evident: nobody's going to buy a magazine that nobody ever talks about, so people should want to buy a magazine that everybody's talking about."
-Rachel Johnson

Unauthorized continuations and tie-ins still send traffic to your work. You get more engagement than if the fanwork didn't happen. Even if it's bad. Heck, maybe especially if it's bad. If you're posting your work on a site like Literotica, it's because you want people to look at it and read it. And other work linking to yours is a strict increase in viewership of your own material.

It would be one thing if it was a rival writer crowding you out of newsstand space or whatever, but that's not what's going on here. Fanworks generate buzz for your stories. Links to your stories. It creates new fans of your own work. There's no world in which any work of Harry Potter fanfic made Joanne Rowling less money.

 

[Katie_Mae]

Yeah, other people using your material is cross promotion. They are doing you a favor. It's deeply weird that our society pretends that it's the other way around.

It's not even that really. It's a free site, my stuff is free, monetizing my smutt is a "hard no" boundary for me. All promotion can do is stroke my ego.

At best, the only benefits I get is my ego stroked, and the possibility of enjoying something (the one fanwork I've received was really well done, and I enjoyed it muchly.)

At worst, I might not gain something.

But I don't really consider it selfless because I might or might not gain something. It's more that there's nothing to lose. It doesn't harm me, I don't lose anything, I don't give anything away. If I'm not impacted negatively at all, then I don't see it as selfless.

 

[Voboy]

Unauthorized continuations and tie-ins still send traffic to your work. You get more engagement than if the fanwork didn't happen.

Lol. THIS is your argument? That getting my work ripped off is actually good for me? Because it results in, what, ten views per week instead of nine views per week on something I posted in 2019 or so?

My engagement is fine with me, friend. I get more than I ever expected, and as much as I need. My stuff that's still in the marketplace continues to sell some five years later.

With all that in mind... just WHY should I be clamoring to get my shit stolen? Hell, by your logic, I should establish an alt and rip myself off, just to "increase engagement."

Sorry, but nothing you're saying here makes any sense to me. Like I said, your opinion is noted. It doesn't mean you're right. I like what I write. It's MINE. It's not someone else's. I don't want anyone else trying to write it. If you don't feel that way about your own stories, well, cool... then go convince Laurel. Because she agrees with me, not with you.

 

[MelissaBaby]

"There's no such thing as bad publicity."
-P.T.Barnum

"People always say there's no such thing as bad publicity, and you always think they're right, because it seems self-evident: nobody's going to buy a magazine that nobody ever talks about, so people should want to buy a magazine that everybody's talking about."
-Rachel Johnson

Unauthorized continuations and tie-ins still send traffic to your work. You get more engagement than if the fanwork didn't happen. Even if it's bad. Heck, maybe especially if it's bad. If you're posting your work on a site like Literotica, it's because you want people to look at it and read it. And other work linking to yours is a strict increase in viewership of your own material.

It would be one thing if it was a rival writer crowding you out of newsstand space or whatever, but that's not what's going on here. Fanworks generate buzz for your stories. Links to your stories. It creates new fans of your own work. There's no world in which any work of Harry Potter fanfic made Joanne Rowling less money.

On the scale of things I value, the integrity of my writing is ranked a great many places above their popularity.

 

[AwkwardMD]

What's this? Green grass on the other side of the fence? I should go over there and check this out!

Other authors borrowing your work does not always mean traffic to your work or meaningful promotion of you as a writer. Sometimes they're so eager for recognition themselves that they stop pointing out, after a while(*), that they got anything at all from you. And their audience gets bigger than yours.

It's tedious the first time. It's annoying the second time. By the third time it happens, you'll be answering a much later iteration of this thread with the same cynicism some of us have, and wondering how you ever thought anyone would treat your ideas with respect if you don’t either.

EDIT: or sometimes very quickly

 

[IWroteThis]

An author has been unresponsive for more than a decade. Does that qualify?

No. The copyright on works published under a pseudonym lasts for the lesser of 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation. If the author's actual identity is revealed, at any point in time, it converts to author's life plus 70 years, the same as if it was published under their name.

 

[RocketGrunt]

Lol. THIS is your argument? That getting my work ripped off is actually good for me? Because it results in, what, ten views per week instead of nine views per week on something I posted in 2019 or so?

Yes. If someone else does work that generates one extra hit per week, that's still advertising work that they are doing for you.

If someone is inspired by your work, they can either IP Scrub it and send zero traffic back to you, or they can not IP scrub it and send non-zero traffic back to you. Those are your only options. They either make Fifty Shades and don't link back to your work or they make Master of the Universe and link back to your work.

That's it. You're Stephenie Meyer in this equation. There is no option where EL James doesn't write her Edward and Bella as publishing house workers into BDSM fanfic. The only question is whether you allow them to advertise your work or they IP scrub it and publicly pretend you never existed.

 

[Voboy]

Yes. If someone else does work that generates one extra hit per week, that's still advertising work that they are doing for you.

If someone is inspired by your work, they can either IP Scrub it and send zero traffic back to you, or they can not IP scrub it and send non-zero traffic back to you. Those are your only options. They either make Fifty Shades and don't link back to your work or they make Master of the Universe and link back to your work.

That's it. You're Stephenie Meyer in this equation. There is no option where EL James doesn't write her Edward and Bella as publishing house workers into BDSM fanfic. The only question is whether you allow them to advertise your work or they IP scrub it and publicly pretend you never existed.

Popularity might be your goal. I don't give two shits about it. Storytelling is mine. No way would I trade my stories for one extra hit.

You have a pleasant evening.

 

[old_prof]

Not all publicity is good publicity. Associating a character or story with something the creator does not want it associated with is a negative. This is why most people respect requests from artists not to use their songs to promote things they don't agree with. Companies are VERY protective of their brands for this reason.

Let me try a different analogy for you. I have an extra chair in my living room that's not getting used. I'm not going to try to rent out use of that chair, so why can't a rando off the street come in and sit in my living room with me? There are no monetary damages to me to having someone do it, so why do I care? Because I want to be alone, I want my life to be the way I want it to be, at least as far as I can control. And by the way, there is a law called trespassing that allows me to enforce that. Just like there is a whole field of law called copyright that lets me control the characters I created. For the rest of my life.

Just because my chair looks comfortable or because they were too lazy to create their own place to sit does not give them the right to come sit in my living room.

 

[AwkwardMD]

Not all publicity is good publicity. Associating a character or story with something the creator does not want it associated with is a negative. This is why most people respect requests from artists not to use their songs to promote things they don't agree with. Companies are VERY protective of their brands for this reason.

Let me try a different analogy for you. I have an extra chair in my living room that's not getting used. I'm not going to try to rent out use of that chair, so why can't a rando off the street come in and sit in my living room with me? There are no monetary damages to me to having someone do it, so why do I care? Because I want to be alone, I want my life to be the way I want it to be, at least as far as I can control. And by the way, there is a law called trespassing that allows me to enforce that. Just like there is a whole field of law called copyright that lets me control the characters I created. For the rest of my life.

Just because my chair looks comfortable or because they were too lazy to create their own place to sit does not give them the right to come sit in my living room.

Even if that chair lives in my unfinished basement.

EDIT: see what I did there?

 

[MelissaBaby]

Popularity might be your goal. I don't give two shits about it. Storytelling is mine. No way would I trade my stories for one extra hit.

You have a pleasant evening.

If I craved more popularity, I could always just write in the more popular categories. I wouldn't need somebody who lacked the creativity to imagine their own characters to write a half assed Ranger Ramona sequel or The Gold Dollar Girls Collect Social Security.

 

[AwkwardMD]

If I craved more popularity, I could always just write in the more popular categories. I wouldn't need somebody who lacked the creativity to imagine their own characters to write a half assed Ranger Ramona sequel or The Gold Dollar Girls Collect Social Security.

If they can't recognize that Ranger Ramona needs her whole ass, they have no business messing with your work.

 

[MelissaBaby]

If they can't recognize that Ranger Ramona needs her whole ass, they have no business messing with your work.

"Hey, I was still using that!"

 

[AwkwardMD]

"Hey, I was still using that!"

Goddamn right she was

 

[calmlikeabomb]

The point was so high it went way over your head

There's no law that says if you pick your nose in front of the whole 5th grade class, you have to wear the nickname "Booger" till you move away, either, but 5th graders gonna 5th grade.

Likewise, blaming one's weird and regrettable posts on intoxication will get regrettable reactions because internet gonna internet. It's not so much a de jure law as a de naturalis one. No police involved.

My hangover agrees with you.

So does my slightly more rational mind, now that I've had time to act like my username and calm the fuck down.

The morning seems so full of possibilities.

Clearly the issue was that I wasn't high enough to reach the point. I must remedy that immediately!

 

[Husky_Embrace]

I think no one disagrees with you:

<...>All these green-lit by companies which own the rights but which are written and made by teams who often had no involvement in the originals. <...>

They bought the rights, which is the original author green lighting they can do whatever the fuck they want with it, unless otherwise stipulated when the rights are signed over.

It is the equivalent of asking a lit author to continue a story.

It would be very different if disney would start the next trilogy while never having bought it from Lucas.

It is very different if you continue someone's story on lit if you don't ask for their permission first.

 

[VerbalAbuse]

Oh I am definitely planning to. Reema and her Pyaasi Choot should live again and again and again. I'm just raging (impotently) against the puritanical sanctimonious bullshit that sometimes passes for discourse here.

there was a thread in Story Ideas about impotent men. not enough featured on lit, IMO.

 

[TheRedChamber]

They bought the rights, which is the original author green lighting they can do whatever the fuck they want with it, unless otherwise stipulated when the rights are signed over.

My point is that the transfer of property rights between one legal entity and another means absolutely nothing to me as an individual and as a fan of whatever original. I've learned to 'reset my enthusiasm' and I'm going to regard anything subsequently produced as nothing more than 'fanfiction with a budget' Which is to say it will be as good or as bad as the new owner's talents allow.

 

[calmlikeabomb]

there was a thread in Story Ideas about impotent men. not enough featured on lit, IMO.

It should be though, right? Impotent, asexual, that's still on the spectrum of humanity. It's a part of the human experience.

 

[VerbalAbuse]

It should be though, right? Impotent, asexual, that's still on the spectrum of humanity. It's a part of the human experience.

I wrote and posted that story for you (it got approved instantaneously):

Impotent Men Fucked in the Ass by Puritanical Sanctimonious Big Cox

 

[calmlikeabomb]

I wrote and posted that story for you (it got approved instantaneously):

Impotent Men Fucked in the Ass by Puritanical Sanctimonious Big Cox

Thank you so much! I'm on a 10 hour rick-roll marathon, will masturbate to it and you after that.

 

[RocketGrunt]

If I craved more popularity, I could always just write in the more popular categories. I wouldn't need somebody who lacked the creativity to imagine their own characters to write a half assed Ranger Ramona sequel or The Gold Dollar Girls Collect Social Security.

In the hypothetical situation where you have inspired a fan, someone already writes a Ranger Ramona sequel. That is a thing that happened, the horse has left the barn. Nothing you can do will prevent that from having happened.

The only thing you can do is decide whether they post it as a Ranger Ramona sequel and give credit to you, or change the names to Ranger Rachel and pretend you had nothing to do with it. That's it. That's your only choice.

Someone was inspired by your work and wrote something based on that inspiration. Do you want to be given credit for that inspiration? Or do you want them to publicly pretend you never existed and pass off work inspired by you as wholly original?

 

[calmlikeabomb]

I wrote and posted that story for you (it got approved instantaneously):

Impotent Men Fucked in the Ass by Puritanical Sanctimonious Big Cox

Just checking, when you say Big Cox, do you mean Brian Cox the physicist, or the actor?

Either is fine, I just want to know before hand.

And thank you so much for taking the time to describe (very accurately) my sexual desires. The Rick-roll marathon is ongoing, but once it is done, I will be sure to open your link!

 

[calmlikeabomb]

In the hypothetical situation where you have inspired a fan, someone already writes a Ranger Ramona sequel. That is a thing that happened, the horse has left the barn. Nothing you can do will prevent that from having happened.

The only thing you can do is decide whether they post it as a Ranger Ramona sequel and give credit to you, or change the names to Ranger Rachel and pretend you had nothing to do with it. That's it. That's your only choice.

Someone was inspired by your work and wrote something based on that inspiration. Do you want to be given credit for that inspiration? Or do you want them to publicly pretend you never existed and pass off work inspired by you as wholly original?

I think being credited is the least of expectations. My characters (shallow fucks that they are) could still inspire someone to write something. Even if they change everything about it, I would still like to have some mentions.

But that's just me.