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Eclipse Phase CC license and novel writing.

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Wed, 2011-09-21 00:49
#1
Erenthia Erenthia's picture
Eclipse Phase CC license and novel writing.
Does the creative common's license apply to writing novels in the EP setting? And no I'm not talking about fan-fiction. Obviously you'd have to find a way to distribute a novel without charging for it (I'm thinking the Kindle store) but otherwise does it apply to fiction as well as gaming manuals? I've considered a format for a semi-open universe construction rules based on the multiple-worlds theory. Essentially it goes like this: I write a novel. If I'm the first, that becomes universe 0, and anything I write that has the same cannon is also universe 0. Someone else like's my plot, and wants to fork off of it. They are free to use my plot elements up to whatever point they like, but they aren't using universe 0. Instead their's would be designated Universe 0.1 Universe 0.1 has all of the same history as Universe 0 up to the point where it diverges. Another person could come along and either keep part of my history and rejecting the second writers novels gaining designation 0.2 OR use both as a source becoming universe 0.1.1 Someone else comes along and writes their own EP novel not at all using the same history. It becomes Universe 1. Actually in practice, the history of the setting as it's portrayed in the core books should primary. Perhaps by starting the designation "EP". So EP.0, EP.0.1, EP.0.2, EP.0.1.1, EP.1, etc Obviously this could get confusing, but hey this is EP we're talking about. The fans are smart.
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The end really is coming. What comes after that is anyone's guess.
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Wed, 2011-09-21 01:27
nezumi.hebereke nezumi.hebereke's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase CC license and novel writing.
Yes, the CC license applies to everything. It also cuts both ways, so while you can write an Eclipse Phase novel, as you pointed out, you can't charge for it. I don't know how the Kindle store works, if you can 'sell' books for free, but there are other sites that will let you. If it's really an issue that you MUST charge, THEN I would contact PHS to see about negotiating that out. However, as long as you're not charging, don't even worry about asking -- you have permission (you should, of course, tell them how awesome their product is and show them your finished novel so they can link to it on the site, though!)
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Thu, 2011-09-22 14:52
Erenthia Erenthia's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase CC license and novel writing.
The thing I'm concerned about is that, because of the CC license anyone else can use my characters or plot elements, which in principle I'm fine with, but could make for a very confusing cannon. I suppose people could just *not do it* by gentlemorphs agreement. Hell, why am I worrying about this stuff? I haven't even finished absorbing the rulebooks yet.
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The end really is coming. What comes after that is anyone's guess.
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Thu, 2011-09-22 15:56
nezumi.hebereke nezumi.hebereke's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase CC license and novel writing.
I can understand that, and yeah I believe that's part and parcel. But then the question is if someone enjoying your characters enough they try to add to them by playing them in a game or writing them into fanfic how upset should you be? There's no financial risk. Enjoy your fans :)
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Thu, 2011-09-22 16:24
Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase CC license and novel writing.
I look forward reading your book! on fanfiction, I have a personnal policy to boycott authors who are against fanfiction. That's why, when I learned that Georges R.R. Maritin is strongly anti-fanfic, I stopped reading A Song of Ice and Fire. I love the universe, and the show, but I refuse to grant satisfaction to someone selfish enough to deny other access to the universe created. I have some ideas for novels and stories, EP related and other, it is a dream of mine that one day someone would write fanfictions on my stuff.
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[center] Q U I N C E Y ^_*_^ F O R D E R [/center] Remember The Cant! [img]http://tinyurl.com/h8azy78[/img] [img]http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg205/tachistarfire/theeye_fanzine_us...
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Fri, 2011-09-23 08:49
nezumi.hebereke nezumi.hebereke's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase CC license and novel writing.
Part of why authors ban fanfic is because if a fan writes a fanfic story and publishes it (i.e., posts it on the web), and the author then writes and publishes a book which is similar to the fanfic story, the fanfic author may reasonably sue the author. Even if the fanfic author eventually loses, the process of fighting it in court is too expensive for most authors to manage. Many authors respond by making 'no fanfic' part of their license and leaving it at that, but courts rarely recognize a license which is not enforced, so it's lose-lose for the author. I think that's a major perk of the CC license, that it does permit fanfic, but the fanfic author then agrees that PHS can lift the fanfic story/characters without attribution or royalties. I don't think that license has ever been tested in court though.
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Fri, 2011-09-23 12:03
Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase CC license and novel writing.
personally, as a fanfic writer, i would be ELATED if a story or OC of mine was used in the source material. That alone is payment enough for me. The way i see it, ALL fanfictions, fanarts, fanvids and filks are de facto CC. Because it becomes part of the universe, the create should be able to use it without paying a dime to the fan. reciprocity. The fan didn't pay a dime to write in the created world, therefore, the creator doesn't have to pay the fan a dime to use something introduced in his or her universe
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[center] Q U I N C E Y ^_*_^ F O R D E R [/center] Remember The Cant! [img]http://tinyurl.com/h8azy78[/img] [img]http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg205/tachistarfire/theeye_fanzine_us...
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Fri, 2011-09-23 12:18
Erenthia Erenthia's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase CC license and novel writing.
OK, some clarification is needed here. I'm not at all against fan fiction, having written *plenty* of it myself. I don't even have a problem with people using my characters or events in official EP novels of their own. My concern is about continuity. If someone writes something using my characters, I don't want to be obliged to use it, and furthermore, it's quite easy for two people to take the same character and write about them having completely opposite things happen to them. The concept of forks makes this a *little* easier to deal with, but doesn't remove the problem entirely. That's why I suggested the "semi-open universe construction rules" in my first post. Essentially it *forks* the continuity in the same way EP characters fork their consciousness. It would allow people to use other people's events and characters without interrupting the continuity they are borrowing from. Of course if one author took a minor character from another author's universe and did interesting things to them, both authors might agree to even merge their universes. Is this compatible with the EP license?
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The end really is coming. What comes after that is anyone's guess.
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Tue, 2011-09-27 10:37
nezumi.hebereke nezumi.hebereke's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase CC license and novel writing.
If you took a character, say Jim, and ended with him dying, no, you could not enforce rules under CC to prevent me from writing a story about Jim coming back to life. HOWEVER, if you preface with a note saying 'hey, Jim is my character, and I'd appreciate it if you respect the continuity I write for him', I'm guessing you won't have an issue. This is a small, close-knit community, with a lot of respect for the responsibilities that come with CC. And ultimately, if you write Jim as doing X, and someone else writes Jim as doing Y, I as a reader will probably side with the creator and ignore the other version. In the end, I wouldn't stress too much. In the end, I'd say go for it :)
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Thu, 2012-12-13 18:44
OldSchoolGM OldSchoolGM's picture
Comics
Regarding canon, this article makes some interesting points about how it's handled in the comics world: http://www.comicvine.com/canon/12-55711/ Note the bit at the end about how canon works in the extended Star Wars universe.
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