Reason.com has had some interesting posts recently.
One is on the subject of fan fiction vs. copyright. Does fan fiction count as a copyright violation? What should authors think or do about it? My response to the first question is: Who cares? Copyright is an illegitimate government grant of monopoly privilege that gives people legal ownership over that which cannot really be property, ideas, and which cannot be enforced without infringing on the prior real property rights (in one’s body and physical objects) of others. My response to the second question is: Authors should embrace fan fiction as community-building and free advertising. Fighting fan fiction only makes you a dick, a criminal (in my view) dick if you sue.
Anyway, now that I’ve worked that rant out of my system, check out the post Fan Fiction vs. Copyright – Q&A with Rebecca Tushnet and watch the interview below. Tushnet is “a member of the Organization for Transformative Works, Tushnet works to defend fan fiction creators caught in the legal debate between protected intellectual property and fair use.” I’ve previously discussed how Angry Robot Books is embracing fan fiction, if not as much as we libertarians and fiction fans would like.
Go behind the scenes of Atlas Shrugged: The Movie, Part II. The release date is October 12, 2012. Check out a previous behind the scenes update and Matthew Alexander’s review of part one. Here’s a short clip on the set of the current film:
Gavin Polone, producer of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Panic Room, Zombieland, and Gilmore Girls speaks his mind to Reason.tv about “the irritating and hypocritical preachiness of celebrities, why film subsidies are killing the entertainment industry and hurting the economy, the urgent need for the studios to adapt to new technology more quickly, and why he describes his politics as ‘more libertarian than anything else.'”
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