(via theouthouseblog)
[video]
Reading Realms: Amazon Launching Licensed Fan Fiction Publishing: Kindle Worlds -
It seems like a great idea initially, but I’ll be interested to see how this plays out. Offering a chance for fan fic writers to get paid for their work and to have some sort of relationship with the rights-holder to the work is potentially a great thing. Once you start officially putting your work under the umbrella of someone else though, you begin to give away your own rights. Sure, you could never make money off of someone else’s concepts by writing fan fic before, but the trade off is that they can now make money off of your idea as well, with no compensation to you.
“Amazon Publishing will acquire all rights to your new stories, including global publication rights, for the term of copyright.”
“We will also give the World Licensor a license to use your new elements and incorporate them into other works without further compensation to you.”
So remember, if you offer up a great concept in your fan fic, you are also offering the rights of that concept to the publisher as well. They could spin off official books and even movies and you wouldn’t see a dime from that. If you are content to give up some of your rights in order to get paid a small amount for your fan fic, then by all means go for it. We just hope to make folks aware of the fine print. This is not, legally speaking, a very good deal to sign up for, but if you truly have no worries about your rights with your fan fic, then it may be for you.
Amazon also has guidelines about things such as pornography, which will leave a piece of a very popular segment of fan fic out in the cold, slash fic. Not to mention, it will depend on who they get licensing from going forward. Some authors may never want to have people semi-officially writing in their world. I remember George R.R. Martin saying he wasn’t a big on fan fic, preferring people to put all that hard work into something of their own. Crossover fan fic falls outside of the rules as well, so no Castle meets Gossip Girl.
Most of all, remember you will be opening up your work to possibly be judged, not as fan fic, but as any other piece of writing on Amazon. Prepare yourself for criticism in the ratings and comments, or even rejection from Amazon as they do mention basic quality standards.
Excuse me but Into Darkness has been out for a week, why are there no posts talking about the fact that Cucumberpatch makes the face that suggests he’s going to steal christmas
I mean really
Super Moon
— June 23, 2013
Be sure to look out for the Moon these next few months as it approaches Perigee, because the full moons during these times will appear exceptionally large. The Moon will be at its Perigee, or closest approach, in July 23 and it will reach full moon only a few minutes after it passes this point in its orbit.
These ‘super moons’ not only appear larger because they are physically closer but, combined with a full moon, the mind can play tricks on you to think they are much larger. This phenomena is called the Moon Illusion. Try to catch these full moons as they rise/set because the illusion works when there is an object in the foreground, like a tree, building or mountains.
(via we-are-star-stuff)
Hey everybody, the first trailer is now up for my new movie, Don Jon! I’m so curious to hear what you think of it :o)
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE!And all you talented gif-makers running around on Tumblr, like I know you are, I’m looking forward to seeing what you make out of this…
I confess to having pulled the “Good Vibrations” move at the end of the trailer.
(Source: girls-gone-wilde, via bookoisseur)
XBox One Questions Answered
On Tuesday, I talked about what I thought Microsfoft Could Have Done Better at the XBox One Launch Event, pointing out one of the biggest issues were the questions left unanswered in the official reveal.
Microsoft responded to inquiries throughout the day, through various people, getting answers to these almost universal questions every site and gamer was curious about. You can check out our formal write-up from the event for more info, but for the big questions, here we go (starting with the big one)…
What Microsoft Did Wrong at XBox Reveal
The XBox One is definitely a decent piece of hardware with solid software backing it up and as an XBox fan I was looking foward to todays reveal. Unfortunately, many felt they came up short for fans today and with Sony’s stock rising immediately after the XBox reveal, it wasn’t just gamers that thought the event was lacking.
I’m not here to talk about the appearance of the console, personally, I’d rather have something that blends into my A/V equipment than what we’ve been offered from console makers in the past. I’m not going to harp on the name, which is not that great (OK, I guess I harped on it a little). I won’t even talk about the fact that it’s not backwards compatible with old XBox games, a problem it shares with the PS4. I’m here to talk about the presentation itself.
This was an event they promoted the heck out of. It wasn’t just a stream for journalists or a presentation to stockholders, this was going out to everyday gamers. So what could they have done differently?
io9 addressed the tweets on Monday in a tongue and cheek manner, saying “Good. If we’re going to start blasting IMAX shots of naked medical/science officers for no reason besides because they could, at least give us a few Bones pics.” But was sure to add they thought the scene was ridiculous. My feelings wouldn’t be hurt if the scene wasn’t in the movie, but often notice there isn’t much of an uproar when the situation is reversed. My biggest issue about it was that it was used in a viral video campaign for the movie, putting the scene in a spotlight that made it stand out. If you are going to point to the men being half naked as well, yet not highlight them, you can’t be surprised the scene would get extra attention from fans.
What I found more interesting was a blog post from actress Felicia Day about the movie where she took notice that the movie was lacking in strong women. Feeling Carol Marcus (pictured above) served as little more than damsel in distress and Uhura mostly only served to humanize Spock. Mainly she points to the scene where Kirk and all the Admirals are sitting around the big table and get attacked, not seeing any women there. I think she is on the money with that specific point and think they could have been well served by having a woman or two sitting around the table (unless there was and both her and I don’t remember).
That being said, I do think the female leads have some good qualities as well.
[video]
The new system will have 8GB of RAM, an 8-core CPU, 500GB hard drive, Blu-Ray drive, HDMI in and out ports, USB 3.0, 802.11n wireless and a new version of Kinect.
The new Kinect will have 1080p capture capabilities and better movement detection, being able to notice the “smallest turn of the wrist.”
The controller is very similar to the XBox 360 controller, which is a good thing in my opinion. They changed the countours of the handles a bit, hopefully that doesn’t change the feel for the worse. The rest of the control looks pretty much the same with the exception that the battery compartment is integrated. Not sure how I feel about that when I remember how often I had to swap out batteries when playing for a long time. The triggers are supposed to have direct feedback integration, but the best news they mentioned is for the D-pad, which has been reworked.
John Green:
Nintendo’s announcement (and YouTube’s acquiescence) is a disaster. It hurts Nintendo, and it hurts the independent creators who through their Let’s Play videos create a unique and valuable experience of a game.
I completely agree. Nintendo is being greedy, stupid, and shortsighted. Nintendo makes money by making great games and systems to play them. YouTube makes money by selling advertising and nurturing an environment where creators can share their creations.
Nintendo is, surprisingly, grabbing a small amount of money (relative to their earnings) and alienating countless customers.
YouTube is, unsurprisingly, being cowardly and not supporting the content creators who have made it worth billions. YouTube is, once again, on the wrong side of an issue with regard to its content creators.
Comic Book Reviews in 140 Characters or Less!
News of the World: Peter Dinklage Will Rock You in X-Men Set Pic
