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Divided by Zero

@cynthetic / cynthetic.tumblr.com

Grace. 27. Black. She/her. Lover of skateboarding, TV/movies, video games, K-pop, J-rock, ska, etc.
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Beautiful One Piece fan art by @futanekoya on Instagram 🏴‍☠️🧡

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awardseason

KE HUY QUAN Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture, “Everything Everywhere All At Once” 80th Annual Golden Globe Awards January 10, 2023

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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!

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Did a deep dive into American apps that give you access to free stuff with a library card so:

  • Libby: my personal fav and go to for digital library ebooks and the one with by far the most flexibility. Catalog depends on your local library, but if you have multiple cards you can stack them and access multiple catalogs (and check out / place holds on multiple books/audio books between them)
  • Hoopla: More geared toward comics/manga/movies/tv shows, and also dependent on library catalog. A bit harder to browse imo and you can't swap libraries as easily as Libby but still great
  • CloudLibrary: Another online book/audio book catalogue. I'm new to this one but it seems to have a more limited selection of libraries in America but I can see you can pick libraries in different countries so it's possible it's more widely used outside of the states. Not sure on the functionality, but you can add multiple library cards (though I was only able to sync up one out of my 5 active cards that are on Libby)
  • Freading: Another online book/audio book catalogue... with a twist! Here you can download any 3 books a week and keep them for two weeks with no wait. Unfortunately this one also seems to have someone limited availability across the world. I wasn't able to connect with any of my cards but it's worth checking out!
  • Freegal Music: A music streaming service for library card holders. Has a limited selection but allows users to download a number of songs each week to keep. Logged in with one of my libraries I personally have unlimited streaming time and 5 personal downloads a week for songs, but according to the website this can vary between libraries. I'm new to this app as well but will be checking it out over the next few weeks!
  • Kanopy: A free movie (and some TV) streaming service covered through libraries and universities with an emphasis on documentaries and foreign/non-American films. I have yet to try it in depth but it seems like they have a huge catalogue with some items that shift monthly but there's LOTS to choose from. Monthly you get 10 "play credits" to watch whatever you want - note that I'm not sure if a play credit counts the same for a TV show as a movie, but that's still a good amount if you ask me. Also not sure if the number changes depending on the library, but I think the overall catalogue is independent of your library so you have access to everything with just a card

Overall Libby is the MVP when it comes to digitally accessing your library as well as being the one I'm the most familiar with, but the others are all worth a look as well! All of these listed above can be accessed on the web via computers or mobile devices but also have their own dedicated apps for tablets and phones too. Some, like Kanopy, can even be accessed on TVs/streaming devices! Don't underestimate the benefits you can get with just a local library card :)

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Riddle me this, #Toonami fans: “When is a secret suddenly a rumor? When is a rumor suddenly a fact?”

Witness the season finale of #Primal as it starts off the lineup! Then two Bat-movies #BatmanHush and #BatmanMaskOfThePhantasm. It all starts at midnight!

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