Story reuse licenses

[Corin]

Story reuse licenses - what they are, and why

Every story on the site now carries a reuse license: a short statement of what,
if anything, other writers may do with it. The author decides. The default is
All rights reserved, exactly as before.

Your story is still yours

Nothing about ownership has changed. You keep your copyright, and you keep every
right you had yesterday. If you do nothing at all, nothing about your stories
changes - doing nothing grants nothing.

That is the point. When we discussed continuing dormant stories, the strongest
objection was the right one: silence is not consent. An author who has not
answered has not agreed, and we were not willing to build anything that assumed
otherwise. So we built the opposite - a way for authors who want to open their
work up to say so, in advance, in their own words.

Why we bothered

This site has stories people still talk about years later, whose authors have
moved on, gone quiet, or simply stopped reading their mail. Readers ask what
happened next. Writers ask if they may pick it up. The honest answer used to be
"ask the author” - and when the author cannot be reached, that is not an answer
at all. The permission dies with the inbox.

A license set in advance survives that. It lets an author say yes once, while
they are still here, and have it mean something a decade later.

The three options

• All rights reserved (default): nobody may use your world or continue it
  without asking you first.
• Shared world: others may write their own stories set in your world:
  continuations, side-stories, or something entirely new that just shares the
  setting. With your characters or without them.
• Shared world, translations allowed: as above, and your story may also be
  translated into other languages.

What no license allows

None of them lets anyone repost your story. Not on another site, not in a
collection, not anywhere. They permit new stories to be built on yours - never
copies of yours. Your text stays where you put it.

Every open license also requires credit and a link back to your original,
forbids commercial use, and requires that anything built on your world carries
the same license, so it stays open for the next writer too.

Changing your mind

You can change the license on any story whenever you like, under
User → Story Reuse & License, or per story when you edit it. One honest caveat:
a permission you have already given cannot be taken back from stories already
written under it. Going forward it changes; retroactively it cannot. That is why
the choice is yours to make deliberately, and why we will never make it for you.

Full terms: Story Reuse Licenses Explained

[MonsterMash62]

This is awesome! It gives authors control still while allowing them to signal when they are ok with others playing with their story worlds.

Thanks for adding this!

[d-boi]

A valid compromise, though its nature naturally defeats the original reasoning behind why this all began, as those old stories by abandoned authors are now permanently sealed away. At least on this site.

[Nocturne13]

I just got this prompt and it defaulted to shared world and when I selected all rights reserved it didn’t seem like it was taking so I haven’t applied the change yet.

Edit, a few minutes later. I went in through the main menu and it was able to apply All rights reserved correctly. Just not through the automatic prompt.

[Corin]

Just tried it again, and it worked fine. What happened exactly? And what made you think it didn’t work?

“All Rights Reserved” is the default, so if you never answered that dialog, all stories will always show that license.

[Nocturne13]

When the site prompted me to select a default going forward, licensed for other people to use was pre-selected. I clicked on all rights reserved, and it did not take. So then I clicked decide later.

Then after letting you know that the default didn’t come up selected for me, I went back to the life site and the prompt came up again and it was still defaulting to license for other people to use. (And it still didn’t take when I tapped on all rights reserved.)

At that point I went to my user account settings and manually selected all rights reserved, when I tapped on that selection there it selected properly. And then I saved my change.

[Corin]

Does anyone have similar issues? The license selection is just a simple drop-down box.

@Nocturne13 Were you on a mobile phone? If so, which one?

[Nocturne13]

I’m on a Samsung, I was using Chrome.

[Piko]

Something close. When I entered “Shared world” was the default. I was able to change it easily, from the prompt in the “Your Stories” section and from the Story Reuse & License. (Edit, all this on a PC browser).

On the side, I can’t see an option to select which series have what license. Is that something that has not been developed yet? If so, is it something you may feel inclined to develop?

Thank you because this seems like a really nice idea and probably a great way to tighten our community We queer people have always shown our admiration by writing stories inspired in mainstream fictions (Supernatural, DC Comics, etc.). It’s so great that authors on this site can now decide and show whether they want their own admired stories to be part of it or not.

[Corin]

In all story lists (including “Your Stories”) you’ll see a badge for the license if it’s not “All Rights Reserved” (which doesn’t show a badge):

If you open a story, the license is written out in text:

And finally, if you edit a story, you can manually select the license individually.

[Piko]

Ah! I see now!

Thanks! I see you have all the bases covered

[Marik29]

I am really pleased to see this compromise. With that said, unless I overlooked it, I am wondering what serves as proof that a license is permitted? And what about stories that are from authors who are no longer active or responsive?

[Corin]

I’m not sure what you mean with “proof”. We cannot check every story published whether it violates a license, but if we’re informed (by the original author or a third party) we will check and act (how we act depends on the violation, we might simply ask for a rewrite or we might have to take a story down).

We cannot change the license for old stories where the author is no longer around, I’m afraid. Some authors were really not happy about our initial idea to force an owner of a story to actively opt-out if they don’t want their story to be extended or continued. So unless the author is still around and actively opts-in, our hands are tied.

[Mafisto]

In terms of official actions, there is a difference between a contest, which carries with it a certain degree of official endorsement, and just the normal act of publishing a story.

People hate grey zones, but most of life is within them. It is not possible for us to do a full sweep for every story and make sure the author who publishes it has the rights to it, that’s for sure, but I know that the minute something is suspected on a particular story, we act quickly.

For old stories where the author is no longer around, I’m speaking from experience as an author who did complete or rewrite certain stories. The author is responsible for making the best effort at getting consent. I did so with many stories I adapted, like straight stories I rewrote as gay. I contacted original authors and got their permission. But with some stories I never was able to contact the original author, and proceeded anyway.

This carries an inherent risk I am willing to accept, because all my efforts don’t actually change the fact that I don’t have the permission. At any point, any of these authors could come out and send a cease and desist letter to me and to any site I published on. I’m ready for that. I would just take down the story immediately from everywhere and never post it again.

Making this grey zone loophole standard policy for an official contest though would have been sketchy. But as much as we love drama here, there was a little too much of it, as it was clear that the idea was presented in good faith. We had a discussion, those who reflexively recoiled at the idea got to say so, and things were made right. As people should have expected from the start.

I appreciate all efforts by GSS to clarify the legal standing of its authors, and I believe it is nice that authors who would appreciate adaptations, sequels and such based on their stories to have the means to tell people they’re ok with it.

[Jack_Parker]

Fantastic idea, love it!

[Stroppy_Author]

I think I’d like not to open them. Do I have to click on something to opt out? Regardless, I think it’s a tremendous offer for most authors here and a wonderful opportunity for a reader or readers to immerse themselves in a fantasy world that appealed to them. Another great option, Corin!

[Corin]

The default is “All Rights Reserved” which is the same as opting out. So if you don’t do anything, you already have the “opt out” option.

But the license selector will keep popping up until you decide on a license for your back catalog and future stories. You have to answer it at some point. So just click on the license selector in that pop-up dialog and select “All Rights Reserved”. And then “Save”.

If you’ve already saved that dialog and want to change the value, you can get it to appear again through the menu “User → Story Reuse and License” (close to the bottom of the menu).

[DerekWilliams]

Great job. Thanks!