New Writing Contest (Page 2 of 5)

One of the most famous contests every year is the "It was a dark and stormy night..." contest. I absolutely love those contests. Some of the entries are extremely funny, and some a entirely sober, but so inept and inane that you have to laugh. It's a great way to let off steam and get all the bad writing out of your system.

Here's is the LINK: http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/

My $0.03 (adjusted for inflation)

~Tom

Fanfic is theft of intellectual property. Salinger, et al. vs. John Doe, et al. U.S. District Court, NY. (2010)

Another case addressing  Alice Randall's "The Wind Done Gone" had an opposite ruling. The link provided below highlights the difference between the cases for anyone interested. Take care. Vern

http://reporter.rit.edu/views/fanfictio … creativity

The distinction dithers on the parody/satire/criticism exception that almost never applies to Fanfic, and Salinger is a later decision, though not to the Appellate level,  and dismissed arguments for parody exception -- which in detail was obvious, for it was an unauthorized sequel, and The Wind Done Gone is obviously a distorted, exaggerated version to emphasize contempt for GWTW.   

To meet this legal bar, the specifics of the contest would have to require a parody/satirical nature.

Why double-post me, Charles? Wouldn't once have made your point? I mean, starchy is one thing, but a full-court press is another. Writing is supposed to be fun, not a Doctoral dissertation. Loosen up a little.

~Tom

Oh! I'm feeling sooo very bad right now! I enjoyed Gregory Maguire's Wicked both at the theatre and when I read the book. Had I known it was L. Frank Baum's morally stolen material, I would have stayed away from it.

I also feeling sooo disappointed because the society, by and large, acclaimed it as a Broadway hit. How deep has society descended if it praises moral theft? That should be the reason why Trump got elected, our society is upside down.

But, who am I to complain? A one girl who should have had a regular American name had she been American? Another of the TNBW authors who must consider looking up the proper use of italics in the CMS? One of those incompetent authors who hires editors?

Tsk, tsk. Just thinking I wrote years ago some Cats fanfic makes me suicidal.

Kiss

Gacela

I like the old joke about finding two corpses on a damp rug surrounded by broken glass. Turns out they were goldfish and the cat tipped over their bowl.

The closed room idea has merit. I'll have to think about that some.

~Tom

I am not surprised that any other's individual right to life, liberty, and property is not something rolling around in your head. Baum's copyrights to his books started in 1900 have expired, and the practicality of eternal ownership of an ephemeral property like an idea after death is as arbitrary as law can be in its recognition of it, but the right of property and the recognition of an idea as a kind of property is so crucial to individual liberty in moral principle, it was put into the U.S. Constitution in the outset before the Bill of Rights and the right of free speech and due process of law, for what is moral is not the opposite of what is practical.

Do you mean the distinction between corporate trademarking of an image which is perpetual and an individual's copyright of art that can have a long life but not perpetual after death because the assumption is that a corporation is chartered into perpetuity and a human being cannot be so? Why is a drug patent seven years and Disney's Micky Mouse copyright was 96 years? A patent on a product is seen as most productive within a short time span, but the economic benefit from art may not accrue even within the lifetime of the artist -- in traditional sensibility, that is, and not in the phenomenon of Pop music which is rather more like a patented packaged manufactured product.

I thought a lampshade plot point is a silly, arbitrary turn in plot because the story dead-ended. TV dramas going into a second season often do this within that season because the concept for the pilot only had enough story to get the show purchased. Dallas famously had to declare the entire season in which Bobby left the show by dying was a dream.

Disney just happened to be a beneficiary of the Sonny Bono Law which extended all copyrights to his entertainment-industry pals.  LIMITED TIME can mean a century if that is what Congress wants. Too bad SCOTUS did not give the absolute constitutional prerogative that belongs to Congress over citizenship, too.