Barely Ever There
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The wild thing about the whole “we’ll pay you for one day’s work to scan you and use your likeness in anything we want forever” is that they aren’t even offering the same licensing expectation you would give to a font.
(via @Coelasquid on Twitter)
This is now happening to writers as well. Publishing companies are now adding a clause to their contracts that will allow them to sign one book, and then scan it into AI to reproduce similar books with no compensation to the author.
This isn’t the future. It’s here now. And if we don’t stop it, it will continue.Is there a comprehensive list of the publishers engaging in this activity?
No, I think because contract negotiations are happening right now it’s all very sensitive. But Maureen Johnson said that she new a Very Famous Author who is as we speak arguing about it because they don’t want to sign a contract with that in it.
She says she will say more when she can, but can’t yet. See thread starting here:
ALTThe implication though is that major publishers are doing this, and if a Very Famous Author can’t say no to it, the rest of us will be screwed.
See also the actors who did not even have being scanned in their contracts, but we’re forced to do it anyway. I don’t have the tweets saved, but one extra said she only got out of it by feigning illness, and one member of crew admitted he was charged with rounding up actors and forcing them to go to the scanning booth.
Things are alextremely underhanded and bad.
I hope the naming and shaming of said publisher (or publishers) can happen sooner than not, because that’s extremely disconcerting.
So I have absolutely zero inside intel. This is a guess. A semi-educated guess, but no more.
I would be willing to bet cash the author is either Stephen King or Mercedes Lackey.
Both have large back catalogues spanning several decades (fifty for King—yes really—and three and a half for Lackey, although she writes like a woman possessed and has released over 140 titles). Both are cornerstones in their genres—horror for King, fantasy for Lackey. Both have spoken positively of fanfiction (including King indicating he’s written it, pointing out that he’s written stuff directly set within the Cthulhu mythos), which is definitely a hill where this battle is going to be fought.
And both are elderly.
King is 76. Lackey is 73. And King has the physical damage one might expect of someone who spent several decades as an alcoholic and chain-smoker who also did coke, and then like a decade after getting off all the junk got hit by a car. Both are pretty well-to-do and can afford the best of medical care, but how long do you think they both have left? Ten years? Fifteen? Maybe twenty, for Lackey (I’d love to believe Steve has it in him, but I don’t see him reaching 96). How much of that time will they be writing?
And once they’re gone…no new books. No new “by bestselling author Stephen King,” no more “by Damon Knight Grand Master Mercedes Lackey.” The golden geese, so to speak, will be dead.
I kind of hope it’s King. Because holy shit, when he’s finally free to speak, the fur will FLY.
(via mercuryhomophony)
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OTW elections are coming up and if you’ve donated $10 in the last year, you’ll be receiving a ballot in August. Audrey Richards is a GOP candidate who’s been involved in efforts to “save children” from queer media, so for the love of all that’s holy DO NOT VOTE FOR HER.
(via mercuryhomophony)
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LOOOOL
It’s also his actual son’s name, he’s like a child or a comic book writer who thinks the letter’s inherently cool or something
PREV 😭😭😭
(via gothiethefairy)
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pssst. the movie’s available on dvd for $14 and the entire collection’s for $47. buy physical media, support the wga/sag-aftra strikes & fuck david zaslav & company
None of the studios/companies come out lookin’ good in all of this, so it’s genuinely quite impressive that Zaslav really does just keep finding ways to look like The Absolute Worst of the whole bunch of them.
(via gothiethefairy)
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can we talk about the ups strike can we PLEASE talk about the ups strike
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ALTi know since writers and actors are already striking thats gonna take up most of the news space on social media but like. ups has until july 31st to meet the teamster’s demands and if not then theyre going on the biggest strike against a single corporation since the early 1900s. the uaw (auto manufacturers union) contract is up this fall, and i believe the alu (amazon labor union) is as well. there’s a huge possibility that they might strike as well, depending on how long the ups strike lasts.
im seeing a lot of talk about hollywood going down but i want to see more talk about labor rights and working class solidarity across the board… like A Lot of shit is about to go down
we’re about to see a lot more propaganda by more than just hollywood, we’re about to see a lot of bullshit political moves on local, state, and federal levels. dont fall for it. workers have power.
(via mercuryhomophony)
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happy disability pride month to people with BFRB’s (body focused repetitive behaviors) like dermatillomania, trichotillomania, nail biters, etc
BFRB’s are so hard to spread awareness and positivity for because, at least for me, mentioning skin-picking, hair-pulling etc can often just be triggering 😩 but know there’s no shame, and they’re SO much more common than you think. I have so many ADHD friends come up to me later and say “YOU have trich too??” and like. It’s so nice knowing we’re not alone in this, it just doesn’t get talked about often.
(via mercuryhomophony)
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That was somebody’s mom whose dream had always been to be a restaurant owner but sadly she married into the mafia and she was like the mom of someone important and moms are like the one authority italians recognise so when she put her foot down and said “NO. We are going to make them great food and give them the most lovely evening!” Nobody dared disagree and thanks to op she got to live her dream for a night she probably remembers them as fondly as they remember her
(via mercuryhomophony)
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Everyone should read their own fanfics recreationally tbh this shit fucking rules. It’s like the author knows exactly what I like.
(via mercuryhomophony)
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i don’t think people take me too serious when i say i’m legally blind. Like, guys I am legally never allowed to drive, I need assistance with a lot of stuff because I can’t see. People both irl and online tend to be like “oh but you’re not THAT BAD OFF” it’s not a thing of whether my eyes are “that bad off” it doesn’t matter, they’re still blind. i still use magnifying and screen readers. i’m learning braille because my eyes are getting progressively worse and I’d like to be able to still read.
I may not be totally blind, but that’s the thing, a lot of blind people AREN’T Totally blind. Blindness is a spectrum. and i don’t think a lot of people realize that. And I’m just as valid in my blindness as someone on the spectrum with better eyesight than me, or someone with worse.
(This is OK to reblog. I hope that sighted people who might read this really get it into their heads that blindness is a spectrum…)
(via mercuryhomophony)
