Come for the "knotty" puns, stay for the copyright and DMCA discussion.

October 27, 2020 10:37 AM

There's an update on this previous post about fanfic tropes that the NYT wrote about this past May, about a situation involving copyright law and DMCA takedowns and accusations of DMCA takedown abuse within publishing for a somewhat niche genre. ('Omegaverse' wolf-related porn.) Author Addison Cain and her publisher levied accusations of copyright infringement against author Zoe Ellis, and hijinks have, as the kids say, ensued. Media critic Lindsay Ellis (previously), no relation to Zoe Ellis, posted this video about the whole situation last month, which lays things out pretty well. Addison Cain's lawyer mailed her about it with further accusations of copyright infringement and sent DMCA takedowns. Lindsay Ellis has posted her video response.
posted by rmd1023 (14 comments total)

Addison Caine really reminds me of trademark troll Tim Langdell way back in 2009. Both of them never met a problem that couldn't be solved with a questionable understanding of the law.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 11:08 AM on October 27, 2020 [3 favorites]

Wow - I'd forgotten that. Definitely similar energy going on.
posted by rmd1023 at 11:31 AM on October 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

Romance author, law professor and former Supreme Court clerk Courtney Milan was asked her opinion a year ago and gave it. Addison Cain then filed an ethics complaint against her with the RWA.

Many of my friends that don't do fanfic OR romance have been introduced to both genres through this suit. I had to tell them that Omegaverse is not a mainstream part of romance.
posted by rednikki at 1:18 PM on October 27, 2020 [2 favorites]

I watched both of these Lindsey Ellis videos the other night. I found the situation irritating because copyright trolls, but I didn’t go away angry like I do with some of these stories, because Lindsey Ellis did the hard work of keeping the thing fun. She’s really good at what she does.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 1:19 PM on October 27, 2020 [17 favorites]

The EFF has done a post on it as well: Defending Fair Use in the Omegaverse
posted by mogget at 1:29 PM on October 27, 2020 [3 favorites]

Romance author, law professor and former Supreme Court clerk Courtney Milan was asked her opinion a year ago and gave it. Addison Cain then filed an ethics complaint against her with the RWA.

What's wild is that I guess either right after this or around the same time, another bad actor filed an ethics complaint about Milan with the RWA, while Milan was on the ethics committee. (Milan tweeted about racism in a book, author accused her of bullying.)
posted by damayanti at 1:51 PM on October 27, 2020 [9 favorites]

Well worth a youtube-dl.
posted by joeyh at 2:17 PM on October 27, 2020 [16 favorites]

ALAB podcast had a pretty phenomenal episode that dives into the specifics of what happened in the Cain/Zoey Ellis case
posted by Ultracrepidarian at 3:05 PM on October 27, 2020 [2 favorites]

Thanks for posting this. I thought about doing it a few days ago and then thought, "I don't want Addison Cain to sue me" and didn't.

I absolutely thought the same thing about the timing of Courtney Milan's own Christmas drama bomb last year... HMMMMMMM.
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:33 PM on October 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

ALAB podcast had a pretty phenomenal episode that dives into the specifics of what happened in the Cain/Zoey Ellis case

Lindsay Ellis notes this in her video and notes that they didn't get harassed, possibly because they called Addison Cain "hot." She also notes Addison Cain paid to have artwork made based on an idea referenced in that podcast, that artwork being her drinking the blood of her enemies.

So yeah, the whole added misogyny aspect of this is so so unusual too, since she seems to nearly exclusively attack women and promotes a anti-women-on-women-bullying organization. I mean the whole thing certainly is a ride.
posted by deadaluspark at 4:42 PM on October 27, 2020 [5 favorites]

It also needs to be said that the second video has an all-star vlogger cast, including Jenny Nicholson as Addison Cain and LegalEagle as himself.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:45 PM on October 27, 2020 [2 favorites]

LegalEagle showing up to weigh in was incredibly entertaining. If Addison Cain could stop being a narcissist, she’d see how clearly she was outclassed and it’s no surprise that Patreon was like oh hey, we will actually give you our legal team because we must squash this bullshit.

And YouTube not even doing the initial DMCA takedown at one point is the most pointed shut the fuck up with this nonsense imaginable. DMCA takedown is supposed to be all but automatic to shield liability. They saw so little liability they just went NAH DUDE WE GOOD.

As usual, if you go through life and your story is a long, convoluted series of “they’re out to get me” maybe you’re just a huge asshole.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 8:50 PM on October 27, 2020 [15 favorites]

The 'fanfic deep state' hats Lindsay Ellis is promoting as an alternative to monetizing either video are kinda cool, I know a couple people who bought one.
posted by subdee at 7:06 AM on October 28, 2020 [3 favorites]

I'm pretty late to the party, but after watching both of Lindsay Ellis's videos last night, I came away disappointed. Ellis's strengths are in film analysis and history, and reporting on fandom drama, much less legal drama, is quite a different ballgame. I don't think she succeeded in presenting the material in a compelling way, and there was a whole lot of long passages of text read aloud that could have been cut down without sacrificing necessary context. I also wasn't pleased at all the half-joking jabs at kinks and furry fandom (which, to her credit, she did seem to acknowledge in the second video).

All this could be forgiven, except that the second video seems to be the most heavily merch-pushing video she's ever released. Pushing the merch itself isn't so bad, but what's annoying is how she tells her fans not to harass Addison Cain, but then asks them to buy merch with mocking quotes of Cain herself, thus encouraging the sort of feeling of righteous superiority that leads fans to harass in the first place. (Personally, it also just seems like a really reckless move for Ellis to antagonize someone she portrays as a paranoid narcissist, when Ellis, a woman on the internet with opinions, has extremely obsessed haters who could easily troll Cain into believing that Ellis was waging a campaign of harassment against her. But, as Ellis is the expert on her own life and dealing with her haters, I can't tell her what to do.)

The impression I got was that Ellis is stepping way outside her wheelhouse and deliberately involving herself in messy drama, while taking the opportunity to sell merch from it. I haven't been subscribed to her Patreon for a while, but I'm glad that my money didn't end up supporting this.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 10:55 AM on November 9, 2020