30 minutes speedpainting…

I just realised recently that I’ve been drooling over environmental art just as much as I’ve been drooling over pretty boi art. Might make a few more attempts later.

I wasn’t going to make a Fanlib post, but couldn’t really help myself after seeing the nifty icons XD (eats Cleo)

If you’re not familiar with the Fanlib issue yet, Icaruscanlion made a great post summing it all, thanks to the sibling entity for the link. Basically, a group of people saw the amazing consumer potential of fandom and tried to cash in on it – thus Fanlib.com was born.

The ethical problems this brings up are almost innumerable, from Fanlib owners earning from the hard work of fanfic writers, to their TOS putting all weight of any possible copyright lawsuits on the fanfic writers’ heads. It’s pretty commonly known that copyright owners tend to turn a blind eye to copyright violations made by fanfic authors on the mere fact that these poor souls do not make profit from their creative works. Fanlib’s shameless commercial marketing of fanfiction clearly puts this unspoken agreement in legal danger.

Oh, and the marketing? Horrible, and completely off-track from the target audience.

Seriously, what the hell is that. Oh, and here’s another one…

(images from this post of telesilla’s)

Pretty irrefutable proof that the people running Fanlib have absolutely no idea who their consumers are.

One good thing that I think has come from this is that more people are being made aware that fandom is a primarily female-dominated subculture. I truly hate making men vs women topics of issues, but it’s rather hard to refute in this case considering Fanlib mostly has men under its belt, and most of fic writers are actually women. Quoting from Icaruscanlion’s post…

“The fact that FanLib’s founders were men counted against them as well with several prominent writers. According to one 2003 survey, 96% of fanfiction writers are women, and the exploitation of women writers is a current hot topic. Among the feminists, an attempt to make money off of women fanfiction writers with no compensation went over like a lead balloon.”

It doesn’t help that the responses Chris Williams, CEO and co-founder of Fanlib, have presented critics do not impress nor assuage concerned fandom members. The man comes across as extremely unprofessional and clueless about the very people he should be calming down.

Anyway, to read more on this topic, visit the following posts or communities:

“Article summing up Fanlib” by icaruscanlion
“Fanlib: Are You There Yet?” by stewardess
“Meta: Questions about FanLib’s FAQ; or Who With the What now?” by telesilla
Life Without Fanlib LJ Community

Oh, and if you have fic stored in Fanlib.com, then for god’s sake, pull it out. What, you want a T-Shirt? XD

Also, Cleo showed me a few clever icons made by AngelofSnow. Nabbing some of them and posting them here.

Check this post by AngelofSnow for more icons.

This FanLib issue also had me thinking on how differently people seem to consider fanart and fanfic. But let’s save that for another post.