I. LEGAL ADVOCACY
Legal received some great news in October: the U.S. Copyright Office renewed the vidders’ exemption to the DMCA anti-circumvention provisions. In other words, we have won an additional three years of the existing exemption that allows vidders to decrypt DVDs, Blu-rays, or online sources for purposes of making noncommercial vids. Legal had previously submitted comments to the U.S. Copyright Office arguing for renewal and clarification of the vidders’ exemption earlier this year.
II. AT THE AO3
Open Doors announced the upcoming import of Of Elves and Men and completed the import of Gilmore Girls Adult Fic.
Policy & Abuse had a slight increase in tickets, with their numbers looking to be 2,400 new tickets by the end of October. Support received a typical number of tickets this month as well, with a special shout-out to Translation, who consistently provide translations for about 10% of Support’s tickets.
In September, Tag Wrangling handled more than 340,000 tags across 46,000 fandoms.
III. ELSEWHERE AT THE OTW
Development & Membership ran a successful October Membership Drive–By Fans, For Fans–with news posts coordinated with Communications that Translation translated into 37 languages. The OTW raised a total of US$195,009.65, far above our goal of US$40,000. 6700 fans from 77 countries worldwide donated to the drive, and 4786 of those donors chose to begin or renew OTW membership. Thanks to everyone who donated and signal boosted!
Transformative Works and Cultures is on track for the March 2022 issue. New editors Poe Johnson and Mel Stanfill are learning the ropes, as is new managing editor Christine Mains. They also recently recruited for copyeditors and proofreaders.
Finance held a public meeting on October 16th to answer questions about the updated budget report.
IV. IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PEEPS
From 25 September to 24 October, Volunteers & Recruiting received 133 new requests, and completed 122, leaving us with 41 open requests (including induction and removal tasks listed below).
As of 24 October 2021, the OTW has 1043 volunteers. \o/ Recent personnel movements are listed below.
New Tag Wrangler Volunteers: Alastaire, Arcadia, Avery Renee, Carbon, Clemantines, EJ Bell, FatalGrace, faultystart, Fin, friki, Gretal, Ibdreams, Juhos, L. Rex, ladyvgrey, lawly, Leevie, LilianaMelo16, Lix Song, Malini, marevitreum, Minnie, Moche, Morgan Y, Schnikeys, Sin, Skald, Stardreamer, Tay, Tobias, VioletC and 6 other volunteers.
Departing Directors: Lex de Leon & Natalia Gruber
Departing Committee Staff: Llyrianna (Translation), Sijing Xie and 1 other AO3 Docs staffer, and 2 Support Staff
Departing Open Doors Volunteers: 2 volunteers
Departing Tag Wrangler Volunteers: flamethrowr, Rebecca Snyder and 3 other volunteers
Departing Translation Volunteers: Aatreyee, acousticAlkonost, Adhara, ambercatfish, Bibiana, Blanca Rodríguez, EisRequiem, Kockožder, Novella, Sophie K, stellahibernis, weisswald & 6 other volunteers
For more information about the purview of our committees, please access the committee listing on our website.