Fiddle-de-doo

[rinue]

I nearly twisted my ankle during my walk to the car this morning. That was novel. I also sent my third fax ever, so banner day. I'm tired and palid enough that I look like Mr. Orange in the later stages of Resevoir Dogs. Less bloody, forutnately.

I recieved a pleasant personal rejection from The Hat, which astonished me because I was sure they'd lost the manuscript; it's been a year. And they will be sending me a copy of the new edition! Thrilling. I love The Hat.

Comments

[valancy_jane]

Oh, man. I want to pack you off to Lollypop land. You need a good day.

[rinue]

Tell me about it. Literally every day this week has been materially worse than the day before it. Late last night, I learned that another festival was behaving unethically with my work and have to pull films and possibly sic several government and private agencies on them for violation of worker's rights, fire code, copyright infringement (of other people's films, since I have found this out but they haven't), and a host of other shit. I don't know why everybody woke up this week and decided it was okay to rip me off. I'm done doing favors for amateurs, let me tell you. I'd have to be an idiot if I thought after all this that it was worth helping out the little guy.

Anyway, I've been running on adrenaline for about the past ten hours and I think my heart's about to give out. But then who would caption CSPAN? So I soldier on.

[(Anonymous)]

Good God. Is it really that rampant in the industry, or just bad friggin luck?!

[rinue]

Bit of both. It's sort of like publishing, where there are real magazines that pay you money, sign contracts with you, etc, but there are other magazines that don't pay you, try to con you into paying them to publish you, etc., and then try to tell you that you should be writing because you love it.

But then with film there's an extra level of complication because it's collaborative, and many people who collaborated on the film become convinced it means they own part of it -- and when you're not me, you may not have had the foresight to sign clear contracts stating who the film belongs to when it's finished, and where it's allowed to show.

(Imagine, for instance, that you and I decided to put the XX rp into book format and sell it as a fundraiser for RE. Because, I mean, we were the gamemasters, and all the other writers should just be excited we're putting the book out there. I mean, we're the ones going to all the trouble of thinking of putting it in a book, and we have overhead to pay on the website. . .)

The fiasco around the DMA is characteristic of that second problem. The fiasco around the Hub is characteristic of the first, mixed in with just flagrantly illegal "I'm going to show films like I'ma movie theater, and charge people like I'm a movie theater, but I'm not going to pay to show the films, and I bet Warner Bros won't notice that I'm commercially profiting from illegal screenings of Blade Runner. I mean, it's really a compliment, because I love that movie."

Thing is, you don't do that stuff and then stupidly piss off someone who works in the industry (me) who will then contact their legal department.

[valancy_jane]

Good for you. And awful for them. Just...wow. It makes the publishing industry look frikkin tame, you know?