(no subject)

Merry Christmas!

(no subject)

I rather randomly just learned from honorh that one of my fave Christmas songs, "What Child is This?", has more and different verses than I originally thought! That's what I get for listening to pop renditions of hymn-y Christmas carols and never checking out the original. Although apparently other versions keep the proper choruses (where the numbers are marked) but use the last 4 lines of the 1st verse as a chorus for the subsequent two, swapping those 4 lines out accordingly. *wonders if this is in her mother's hymnal*

1. What Child is this who, laid to rest
On Mary's lap is sleeping?
Whom Angels greet with anthems sweet,
While shepherds watch are keeping?

This, this is Christ the King,
Whom shepherds guard and Angels sing;
Haste, haste, to bring Him laud,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

2. Why lies He in such mean estate,
Where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christians, fear, for sinners here
The silent Word is pleading.

Nails, spear shall pierce Him through,
The cross be borne for me, for you.
Hail, hail the Word made flesh,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

3. So bring Him incense, gold and myrrh,
Come peasant, king to own Him;
The King of kings salvation brings,
Let loving hearts enthrone Him.

Raise, raise a song on high,
The virgin sings her lullaby.
Joy, joy for Christ is born,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

~by William Chatterton Dix

AO3

Is anyone else on the flist using An Archive of Our Own or AO3 for short? Even if you aren't, does anyone have thoughts on the site? Anyone participating or following yuletide will know that the seasonal challenge has moved its archive over to the AO3 site.

If you don't know how I feel about it. I remember when the site started making self-announcements via various comms, and I wasn't sure what I thought about it then. If for no other reason than having to remember to post a fic in one more place is a pain in the petard, I was reluctant to join. However AO3 is affiliated with, or is the working arm of, the Organization for Transformative Works, or the OTW. My issue with the OTW lies partly with their premise of fanwork being a transformative work, transformative works being important and legit, and thus fanwork is imp and legit.

I have no problem with saying fanwork is transformative: it can be. I have no problem with saying fanwork is important: it can be. I am saying, however, that we are by and large treading on someone's intellectual property (as all you flist-y people know I'm a fanfic writer/reader, and I used to make very poor graphics), which makes what we do illegal to a certain extant. Hence all those lovely cease-and-desist letters that authors, corporations, etc., can send to sites and writers. So with that in mind, that fans producing fanwork are treading on thin mushy legal ground, I am wary of jumping on either the AO3 or OTW bandwagons, though I completely understand where they're coming from. God knows I have sometimes labored (perhaps much too hard) on some of my fanworks, and that I have read some stories that have deeply effected and affected me. My fanfic is important to me, but I realize the tenuous legitimacy it has.

And it this point it would have been nice for the OTW to clearly define "transformative" in it's legal terms, which are the ones it is using, vs. it's popular one. According to Wikipedia (that bastion of all knowledge): In United States copyright law, transformation is a possible justification that use of a copyrighted work may qualify as fair use, i.e., that a certain use of a work does not infringe its holder's copyright due to the public interest in the usage. Transformation is an important issue in deciding whether a use meets the first factor of the fair-use test, and is generally critical for determining whether a use is in fact fair, although no one factor is dispositive.

There are certainly court decisions, legal happenings and university studies regarding fannish work, but I still don't know what that means for the guys and gals on the internet street. Not in the long run at least. Some people, and by ppl I mean TV folks and writers and corporate folks, etc, don't seem to much care what we do. Or they encourage it b/c it helps ratings. I dunno. Other ppl care desperately--both for and against.

So...after all of that ( :s ) what do you guys think of AO3? Just another fansite? The greatest thing to happen to fan-writers ever? Something that's going to come back to bite us on the collective fannish butt some time in the future? Will AO3 even be able to sustain itself? Look at all the concessions and changes FF.net has had to make in its tenure that had less to do with fan and system-server needs, and more to do with legal pressures, etc.

(On that same note, since I am a member of AO3 (all '09 and future yuletide writers are) I have AO3 invitations if anyone wants one.)