Fanfiction Authors: HEADS UP

Fanfiction Authors: HEADS UP

(Non-authors, please RB to signal boost to your author friends!)

An astute reader informed me this morning that one of my fics (Children of the Future Age) had been pirated and was being sold as a novel on Amazon:

(And they weren't even creative with their cover design. If you're going to pirate something that I spent a full year of my life writing, at least give me a pretty screenshot to brag about later. Seriously.)

I promptly filed a DMCA complaint to have it removed, but I checked out the company that put it up -- Plush Books -- and it looks like A LOT of their books are pirated fic. They are by no means the only ones doing this, either -- the fact that """publishers""" can download stories from AO3 in ebook format and then reupload them to Amazon in just a few clicks makes fic piracy a common problem. There are a whole host of reasons why letting this continue is bad -- including actual legal risk to fanfiction archives -- but basically:

IF YOU ARE A FANFIC AUTHOR WITH LONG AND/OR POPULAR WORKS, PLEASE CHECK AMAZON TO SEE IF YOUR STORIES HAVE BEEN PIRATED.

You can search for your fics by title, or by text from the description (which is often just copied wholesale from AO3 as well). If you find that someone has stolen your work and is selling it as their own, you can lodge a DMCA complaint (Amazon.com/USA site; other countries have different systems). If you haven't done this before, it's easy! Here's a tutorial:

HOW TO FILE A COPYRIGHT COMPLAINT FOR STOLEN WORK ON AMAZON.COM:

First, go to this form. You'll need to be signed into your Amazon account.

Select the radio buttons/dropdown options (shown below) to indicate that you are the legal Rights Owner, you have a copyright concern, and it is about a pirated product.

Enter the name of your story in the Name of Brand field.

In the Link to the Copyrighted Work box, enter a link to the story on AO3 or whatever site your work is posted on.

In the Additional Information box, explain that you are the author of the work and it is being sold without your permission. That's all you really need. If you want, you can include additional information that might be helpful in establishing the validity of your claim, but you don't have to go into great detail. You can simply write something like this:

I am the author of this work, which is being sold by [publisher] without my permission. I originally published this story in [date/year] on [name of site], and have provided a link to the original above. On request, I can provide documentation proving that I am the owner of the account that originally posted this story.

In the ASIN/ISBN-10 field, copy and paste the ID number from the pirated copy's URL. You'll find this ten-digit number in the Amazon URL after the word "product," as in the screenshot below. (If the URL extends beyond this number, you can ignore everything from the question mark on.) Once this number has been added, Amazon will pull the product information automatically and add it to the complaint form, so you can check the listing title and make sure it's correct.

Finally, add your contact information to the relevant fields, check the "I have read and accept the statements" box, and then click Submit. You should receive an email confirmation that Amazon has received the form.

Please share this information with your writer friends, keep an eye out for/report pirated works, and help us keep fanfiction free and legally protected!

NOTE: All of the above also applies to Amazon products featuring stolen artwork, etc., so fan artists should check too!

I'm actually really happy they extended Armin and Eren's final conversation in the anime and think it flows infinitely better than it did in the manga, but I also liked how it highlighted a very important aspect of Eren's character that alot of people in the fandom forget.

Above all else, Eren is a slave to his own childish nature and selfishness that stems from his need to be free. Regardless of how much freedom he will take away from others.

As much as he want's to believe that he committed such atrocities for the sake of his loved ones, it doesn't change the fact that he still put them all in danger, and people he cared about still died in the process. In the end everything that happened was because he was a slave to his own nature. His own selfishness to be "free" no matter who he had to hurt.

And that's the tragedy of his character, the moment he realizes this, it absolutely destroys him.

I also love how Armin's way of comforting Eren is way better than in the manga. He doesn't try to make him feel better over his actions or make him find some comfort from the results of those action, but instead he tells him that even if he'll find eternal damnation after he dies, he won't be alone. Armin will share that burden with him and follow him into hell after he is gone. His own sins are intertwined with his best friends, and he'll make sure that even in hell they will always be connected.

what do you mean jennifer saunder's shrek 2 cover of Holding Out for a Hero didn't play over the entirety of dressrosa arc

they have a particular way of solving problems

You know what's really screwed up about Eren's confession to Armin in the end? He admits to Armin that he knew only 20% of the human population would be saved, that 80% would perish, and even knowing that, he still went ahead and enacted the Rumbling. He knew the conflict wouldn't be solved, or ended, by enacting the Rumbling, because he knew the future, and knew that he wouldn't succeed in wiping out the entirety of humanity beyond the walls. He knew by enacting the Rumbling, he would only worsen the conflict and ensure its continued existence. He knew, in the end, that he was in fact dooming Paradis, not saving it. And he did it anyway. He did what he wanted anyway. That's why Armin gets so upset and angry at him, why he asks him so emphatically "why?", because he realizes what Eren is saying, what he's confessing to being. If anyone ever had any doubt, or actually thought Eren did it to save Paradis or the Eldian's or his friends, his confession to Armin at the end unequivocally proves otherwise. Eren did it because he wanted to. Because he wanted to see the sight of an empty, desolate world. That's what ultimately broke Eren, having to be faced with the truth of his own monstrosity. He couldn't hide from it, even as he initially lies to Armin and tries to tell him he did it to save his friends. Eren was a monster. Tragic for how he genuinely cared about his friends, genuinely loved them, but he couldn't put them over his own, selfish desires, and couldn't overcome his own, horrendous nature. Eren is a cautionary tale too, for what happens when we persecute others, and blame others and collectively punish others for things they didn't do. Eventually, it leads to someone gaining power who shouldn't have it. An idiot like Eren, a child like Eren. He never matured as a human being. He never grew. He retained the selfishness of a child to the very end. And we see then what a person like Eren does with that power. Truly terrifying.