- Members of OTW’s Legal Committee have proposed panels for next year’s South By Southwest (SXSW) conference on fair use and fandom. They are asking for fans to support the inclusion of these panels by either logging in to the SXSW official website and upvoting a session on its info page, or by commenting via Disqus on that session’s info page. The panels are Copyright & Creators: 2026 and FYeahCopyright and Fanworks.
- MediaPost discussed when and how creators should try to target fans in order to help promote a project. “The first thing entertainment marketers should do when looking to harness the power of fandoms is to understand what makes them tick…Go beyond the obvious appeal of a TV show – the characters, plot lines and themes – and dig into the details and nuances such as vernacular, recurring motifs and magical moments that empower fans and make them feel like part of something bigger.”
- Gizmodo provided a lengthy look at AO3 features as part of offering a guide to the “best fanfiction” available. One thing not mentioned were bookmark searches and the rec feature. However the post did mention how “[u]sers on Tumblr, Livejournal and other networks will often curate ‘recs’ pages of what they consider the best stories. So if the sorting options on AO3 aren’t enough, do a web search for a pairing or fandom and related recommendations, like ‘harry potter fic recs.’ Individual, dedicated archives in the older style still exist as well.”
What OTW sightings have you seen around the web? If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent OTW Fannews post. Links are welcome in all languages!
Submitting a link doesn’t guarantee that it will be included in a Fannews post, and inclusion of a link doesn’t mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.