Dude there’s not “sides.” These people aren’t responsible for my comments. This is a discussion. And if you think what we’re saying doesn’t have weight you can just like ignore it and not care.
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Look, I actually wanted to stay out of this discussion, as I don’t see myself as a judge or mediator on a topic where opinions obviously differ widely, and the emotional involvement is very strong.
But I see that emotions are boiling over, and people are starting to get under each other’s skin. This has always been a very peaceful community, and I’d like to uphold that. Please always remember that there is a person on the other side, with feelings and emotions, and even if you don’t agree with them, they deserve your respect and good faith when you address them.
I totally understand that many authors see their work as a very personal thing, as their creation that belongs only to them and that they share with the world is already a matter of opening up and trust.
I’ve learned by now that the legal status is much more complicated than I thought. In fact, my initial posts in this thread were factually wrong. Copyright does include a general idea and does prohibit someone else from extending, continuing or adapting a story written by someone else.
The funny thing is that this is violated on a daily basis, to an extreme extent. The community happily violates the rights of “big” players, may it be George Lucas, Tolkien, GRR Martin, Marvel, DC, Disney, JKR… And of course Disney themselves only too liberally help themselves to old fairy tales (granted, where any copyright has long expired).
So, yes, I think at least some people in the community are having double standards. Not everyone, of course, but the community as a whole is very generous in taking and justifying that (not just with stories, I’m thinking digital media in general) as long it’s not their own property that’s (ab)used.
I don’t want to generalize because, again, only some people do that, but still way too many in my view. They’re all shitting on other people’s properties, as long as they can justify themselves, “it’s just the big companies” they’re hitting.
Sorry for ranting, back to the topic at hand. Here, we’re talking about how we handle the stories, and my most important goal is to ensure that both readers and authors feel safe and comfortable sharing their work. And that means that the authors can be assured that their stories remain theirs when they post them on our sites.
So my decision is: By default, all stories belong to their authors, who are the only people allowed to extend or continue them. The current copyright disclaimer, which is automatically added to each story, will be extended to explicitly include that fact.
But I will add an option that will allow an author to switch to a Creative Commons License for each of their stories individually. The main difference between these CC Licenses is that while the stories still remain theirs only, it would allow others to build upon them (extend or continue them) as long as it’s non-commercial. I think many authors can live with that and even like the idea that their stories are inspiring other stories, that they are extended and continued.
For this to mean anything, I will add a dialog that prompts all authors to make a decision when they log in to the site. They can choose to keep the default full copyright restriction or switch to a more lenient Creative Commons License for their past work.
This is not ideal because many old stories no longer have authors logging in to the site, which means those stories will always remain out of reach for use as the basis for the contest, as Asis has suggested. But I think this is the only way to go and to make sure that the authors posting here can feel safe about their material and to keep their trust in us, the stewards of this site and their work published here.
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If anyone has checked out the last comment posted to someone’s story, in the lastest comments. Things are getting a bit nasty cos of this topic by the look of it. Not good.
The comment @Glennyboi has been referring to has been deleted.
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Thanks @Corin. 
If I may: the legal reality is actually even more complicated than that, and there is actually a legal basis for fanworks. I talk about it some in this comment; the long-and-short of it is that the Fair Use doctrine, which governs non-infringing uses of works otherwise covered by copyright, likely protects most fanfiction on the basis of two of the four fair-use pillars:
(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature; and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
One component of the first pillar is the transformative nature of the work; non-commercial use is also important, but the nature of the work itself, and what it does with the existing property, would be considered in any infringement suit.
While I do think that the stance of emphasising an author’s right to their own works is a great one for the site, I want to be clear that I’m looking at this from a cultural/community perspective rather than a legal one. The relationship between a fan and a property owner, whether that’s the individual author of a book series or a megacorp like Disney, is fundamentally different than the relationship between two fans in the same fandom. GKS isn’t strictly a fan community, of course, but it’s much closer to that than between a fan and the owner of a fandom IP. Accordingly, any prohibition against continuing another’s story, or otherwise using that person’s creative work, should IMO be rooted in the idea that authors should feel safe posting stories without worrying that someone else will come along and do something unwanted with it somewhere they can see it as a member of this community, which is not something that can happen to, for example, Disney or George R. R. Martin. Unless George R. R. Martin is a member of GKS, which… would surprise me for several reasons, and also reading fanfiction of his own works actually opens him up to other potential legal issues…
I do include “inactive and not around the site anymore” in “could come along and see it”; for my part, I feel exceptionally weird about the idea of continuing a dead author’s work, but if someone is known to have passed away, I don’t view it the same as someone who’s just not active on the site anymore, and I don’t think that’s unreasonable or a double standard.
By the same virtue, offering authors an integrated opportunity to use a CC licence is a fantastic choice, or even a site-specific license, as that could cover use within the GKS environment but not necessarily open authors to outside people coming along and using their works. If GKS is interested in a site-specific licence, I’d be happy to assist; I’m not a legal professional (just a decently educated layperson), but I do have significant experience writing policy and dealing with IP licensing. The one thing I’d recommend is not enforcing a specific CC licence if that’s the route you go, as part of the advantage of the CC licences is their flexibility. If it’s not to strenuous a feature to add, the option to pick between adding a CC licence or a site-specific licence, particularly on a work-by-work basis rather than having to flag all of your works with one overarching licence, would be huge.
Quick Edit: I had missed ‘individually’ in Corin’s post on my first read, so feel free to ignore the bit about work-by-work vs. all works in the last paragrapgh; that’s already been addressed!
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THIS!
This is totally what I was hoping for in this conversation. Thank you @Corin
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Tigerjay
I have been reading your responses. I want to thank you for your advocacy and understanding about the situation. Your words have mattered to me.
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Thank you! It, uh, feels a little weird that this has been my first contribution to the site.
One of the biggest things, I think, and one that can be hard to see in the moment when opinions are so polarised, is that everyone in this discussion really does want the best for GKS. What “the best” is clearly looks incredibly different to each person but that’s why discussion (rather than debate) is so important - it’s not about ‘winning’ for one side or the other, it’s about finding a solution that works for as many people as possible and that helps build the best, strongest future for the site.
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Well I agree with a lot that you said I do disagree that the admins were being disrespectful or dismissive. If you read through this entire over 100 comment thread and you would see that the disrespect were with a lot of the original comments from people that were against this idea. And they didn’t present it in a professional manner like you or Wesley or some of the other authors.
Thus while they may have been a few curt responses because of the disrespect being shown them; I still truly don’t believe they went as far as you had described in your comments of them and that it was a bit unfair a description. That being said I am very happy that they have adjusted their plan and people can opt in.
Once implemented I plan to go back to several dead favs of mine and leave comments on those previous stories asking the authors to please continue them or to make them common license and then wait and see what happens.
I mean, it never hurts to ask them directly ourselves. Maybe after a few months the Edmonds can post a list of the authors that have opted into the common license so we can all see who is participating and allowing fanwork of their series.
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I really like this idea a lot. I’m considering opening up all of my work to the community. My only request would be to have my story linked in the new stuff people write. If they do continue.
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Yes indeed this debate has gotten heated haha. But as @Tigerjay said, we all want whats best for the GKS community. It’s honestly very heartwarming haha. I can reassure everyone that Corin and I have not had our spirits or commitment to service rained on by this outcome, quite the opposite. The cancellation was not an admittance of defeat, but instead a tactical retreat to rejigg our approach and come back with much more respectable and coherent forum posts written with a lot more sleep than I had when I wrote this original one 
.
I will say, I’m very glad we’re having this conversation. I pitched this initiative to Corin when I first started as challenge manager and have been sculpting it since, and I am further emboldened and encouraged by so many authors in the “opposing” camp, upon hearing the cancellation, essentially going “well… don’t kill the whole thing!” haha. As my late mother used to say, “it has legs, it’s just walking really wonky”.
Corin and I love you all, despite some of the mud-throwing (which I am just as guilty of - Australians never miss an opportunity to take the piss out of someone tee hee 
), and we hope you all know your passion fuels us and inspires us.
For me especially, I find my original post hilarious. By far one of the funniest things I think I’ve ever written purely because I did such a poor job, and actively remember questioning a lot of my word choice (necromancy, official canon continuation, story steward, grave robbing) and going “I’m sure they’ll know I don’t really mean that” because I was so keen to get to bed that I didn’t put two and two together that my sarcastic-tone would not translate over written text lmao. Like was I on something? Guys, we never intended to treat the winning story continuation as the official canon continuation, I just meant it would be recognised as the continuation liked most by the community HAHA why did I call it official canon continuation that was never the plan. Anyway, sorry for that horror show, in hindsight, pretty funny on my part lmao.
Something I am particularly proud of, and Corin can attest to this, is I always wanted the Fuchsia pink to be heavily attached to story continuations, and that was an explicit choice I made because I wanted a clear colour coded indicator that a story was NOT the original authors and was in-fact a continuation by another author. Like I wanted story continuations clearly branded and demarcated and impossible to be confused with as the original authors work, and that if original stories had any reference to story continuations, those buttons/links be in Fuchsia pink. Quite literally the only programming I asked Corin to do for the initial sub-challenge was change certain things to Fuchsia pink. I did not mess around with having a branding miscommunication, and I hope that speaks to the lengths at which I wanted to ensure that the original stories were clearly marked as originals and continuations as seperate, inspired works.
Anyway love you all tee hee xo.
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Sorry @Corin I’m late to this discussion but firstly let me say what a wonderful idea you guys have.
How many stories are here that have never been finished or expanded?
I’m one of the worst offenders and have always been agreeable for anyone to continue one of my stories.
I think many saying the idea is flawed are possibly forgetting what this site offers. It’s free, stories written by generally non-professional authors wanting to show off some smut they are into.
As I hadn’t found many stories with fetishes I was into I started to write my own and they tend to be multi-part and really long. Many don’t get finished and I hate that as I know it annoys the shit out of me when I’m into another story and it stops short of even a part 2.
Now if as you said there would be a vote to see which earlier work should be continued that might even make the original author of the winner have a crack at a continuation. I know I would.
Any praise for a story has always been an inspiration and many do not comment on stories for a start. No wonder authors don’t continue.
I have many drafts, for continuations but rarely feel the need they are wanted. A few of my works have been continued because people are interested.
Hell, I’ve wanted to have a go at further parts to some of my favourite authors stories.
So please know we value your work here and keeping the site running. I have loved being a part of it even if I don’t complete all my stories.
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The tone of the conversation has changed greatly since yesterday. Yesterday I was on a match energy with the same energy angle. The disrespect that the con side was showing, I was out to match that same energy, hence you got me pushing being just as disrespectful and oppressive as the con side had been. There were ideas being pushed through (I can’t stop thinking about things), but the main goal I was on was to serve everything the con side had given back to them and if possible to serve more than that.
This morning I went walking and thought about the issues on the table. The con side has been pushing this idea of ownership and property rights and seeing the latest post by Corin those ideas have been accepted and now are the ground. I personally think the con side is severely misinterpreting those concepts as they apply to stories and literature, but I was willing to concede that point to them and give them that point. But something that any author cannot own or have property rights to is ideas and themes. If the con side says that an author has ownership of ideas and/or themes, then that is as bonkers as these music cases where lawyers argue that chord progressions are property of one artist and another artist is infringing on their client’s rights by using the same chord progressions. Ideas and themes are how we create stories and those are not the property of any one author. If that can be taken as valid, then a way to proceed become available. AsisAsio can go through past stories and see what ideas and themes appear and make those themes and ideas the elements to be chosen for the competition. In this way we can talk about how authors at the beginning of GSS handled these issues and compare how authors in the current moment handle the same issues. The competition becomes an opportunity to talk about where GSS has been, where we are now, and where we might go. So that’s my view on the subject and with that I take my leave Dean Winchester style singing “It was the heeeeeeeeat of the moment, the heeeeeeeeat of the moment, it was the heeeeeeat of the moment….”
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I Honeslty hope that you guys re-work this idea instead of abandoning it all together.
Maybe stories could have a “fan fiction” option, where it’s explicitly expressed that the chapter you are reading is not canon, and the authors next chapter gets priority if they choose to write it.
There’s a real creative opportunity here and I hope that the harsh and frankly over the top backlash doesn’t discourage exploring that.
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‘You can’t go home again’ - Thomas Wolfe
I think another problem with resurrecting stories / writing sequels is that it’s hard to re-create the quality of the original, especially when it’s not the same author. And then we’d get into battles of ‘who are you to decide that Jake does X, and not Y…” and so on.
Better that people who are enthusiastic to carry on a particular theme / particular kink to say so in their intro (i.e. I’m writing in the same world, but not seeking to steal the same exact character / story line). Really, that’s what most writers of vampire and werewolf writers do (based on the 1940’s horror films that created the original ‘rules’ of these characters of horror). Orcs as well (none before ‘Lord of the Rings’). and so on.
Author Bill Drake (creator of the ‘Cornell, Texas’ MPREG/incest series) allows others to write in his same world, and several have on GSS, for instance). I suspect many authors here would be open to it, if asked politely and directly.
(I wouldn’t mind more people pick up threads from my werewolf series).
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I think most authors do work respectfully with the worlds of other authors. I speak of stories as universes ever since I read Marie Laure-Ryan’s theory of possible worlds and narrative universes. So, I see myself as writing a new solar system or galaxy into existence and I’ll never try to mess with the base galaxy/solar system of the universe. I’ve enjoyed talking with authors and getting their permission to enter into their universes and create a new portion of it; jockboy51, the original author of The Cordz, and I had a long thread of sharing ideas that I really did enjoy; he even started a reworking of his original story because I wrote my take on his story. So, I see what was being proposed in that positive light.
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