Fanfiction extracter/downloader

[nekokami]

@Redcard, I don't know enough about fanfiction sites to be sure, but based on a cursory inspection of fanfiction.net, I think you could write a script to do this, then feed the results through something like FeedBooks.

@HarryT, some fanfiction is illegal, and some isn't. When I just looked at fanfiction.net, I saw fanfiction based on the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald. I have a hard time imagining his estate coming after fanfiction authors (though after the debacle involving The Wind Done Gone, I guess I shouldn't be surprised at anything).

Even regarding contemporary authors and works, there are quite a few authors who have specifically or tacitly authorized non-commercial fanfiction, or even commercial fanfiction in the case of Roger Zelazny and the works published in Amberzine. This isn't nearly as consistent an issue as piracy of original works, and I don't think it should be covered under the MobileRead piracy policy.

[vivaldirules]

Just an aside. My understanding is that Harry is correct in stating that fanfiction based on copyrighted material not in the public domain is technically illegal in the U.S. without the author's permission. However, it is legal (or can be) to write parodies of such works. Parodies, and humor in general, are the spice of life and should not be forgotten. The only difficulty appears to be that it's a sticky business deciding what is and what is not a parody. Mobius Dick with Ishmael hunting creatures on a planet in the 4th dimension might be easily shown to be a parody (and it wouldn't matter since the original is in the public domain). But it might be impossible to put Harry, Ron, and Hermione in any setting or context without stimulating lawyers.

[JSWolf]

Of course if Sony every tried that, they'd only be cutting their own throats.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Redcard

*nods*

But anyway, back to my question.

Does anyone have a use for (or better yet, know of) this type of story downloader/sampler thing?

Do what others have done....

Create your program and put it up on another website and link to that site and anyone who wantsit an have it or not. That way, MobileRead cannpt get in any possible trouble and you can still distribute your program.

[Redcard]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Of course if Sony every tried that, they'd only be cutting their own throats.

Here's a little story about Sony.

Once upon a time, there was a site that sold imported games, controllers, and systems. This company would ship these imported systems around the world. They were so popular that well known Sony executives would use this site to ship their product for test to locations that Sony proper could not ship to for lack of resources or desire. When the PSP came out in Japan, literally, from Sony computers inside Sony UK, people ordered the PSP to ship TO Sony headquarters. The same occurred with the Playstation 2 and a variety of games.

This company shipped Sony Japan's products all over the world, to Sony USA bigwigs, to Sony UK bigwigs, to Sony Canada bigwigs.. everywhere. And yet, through all this, Sony shut them down through repeated threats of court order. Despite the highest ranking Sony employees in Europe praising this site on Sony Europe's own site at the time.. they financially destroyed this other company.

So, when someone tells me that Sony wouldn't cut off their own throats, I point them to Lik-Sang.Com. When Sony cuts their own throats, other people bleed.

[nekokami]

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

Just an aside. My understanding is that Harry is correct in stating that fanfiction based on copyrighted material not in the public domain is technically illegal in the U.S. without the author's permission.

Yes, it's just that many authors have given either explicit or tacit permission to fans to do this. (Rowling is not such an author.)

[Redcard]

Regardless, I banged out a tool in python that can do just what I wanted. Course, it dumps it in txt files and then concatenates the text file, but it's exactly what I wanted to see.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by nekokami

Yes, it's just that many authors have given either explicit or tacit permission to fans to do this. (Rowling is not such an author.)

Oh yes, I'm well aware of that. The most popular fanfic, however, is probably Star Trek and Harry Potter, and that's not "legit". I remember when Paramount had a "purge" of all the Star Trek fan web sites about 5 years ago which were using copyrighted material - literally hundreds of them got shut down.

[Redcard]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Oh yes, I'm well aware of that. The most popular fanfic, however, is probably Star Trek and Harry Potter, and that's not "legit". I remember when Paramount had a "purge" of all the Star Trek fan web sites about 5 years ago which were using copyrighted material - literally hundreds of them got shut down.

OH yes, I remember that quite well.

And do you know the result of that? A lot of people now speculate that that is why we have no Star Trek shows on TV right now. That they literally sucked their massive core fanbase right out. Of course, Roddenberry LOVED fan-written material and was known to subscribe to a few of the "Star Trek Fan Fiction" magazines (which were more or less typed and then mimeographed) and wrote under some pen names for them.

And then he died.

On the flip side, Lucas has let his fandom grow and produce things, and now he's looking at an upcoming TV series, two more movies, and other things.

I'm not saying fanfiction is the reason that people like something.. but it DOES keep things moving in lean years. And Paramount's crackdown after Roddenberry's death resulted in a huge number of fans writing off Star Trek for good.

Trust me. I was one of them. I went to.. ironically, we called it the "Dark Side" .. but I went to Star Wars.

The roughest part of the whole thing was knowing that Gene LOVED things taking part in his world, and knowing that they were waiting for him to kick it so they could focus on the money. That hurt bad.

[Sunlite]

Originally Posted by nekokami

Yes, it's just that many authors have given either explicit or tacit permission to fans to do this. (Rowling is not such an author.)

As far as I know Rowling expressed a very positive opinion about fanfiction more than once. She only demanded that the stuff of higher rating (i.e. stories with sexual content) is kept away from the minors. She of course does not like other people trying to make money off her work.

[Redcard]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertain...ts/3753001.stm

Bam. Permission.

[JSWolf]

The people who are in charge of the Star Trek books do know of the fan fiction sites and are not trying to close them down. Things have changed since 5 years ago. In fact, there are even fan fiction based video series even and some of the TV folks are involved in some of this.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The people who are in charge of the Star Trek books do know of the fan fiction sites and are not trying to close them down. Things have changed since 5 years ago. In fact, there are even fan fiction based video series even and some of the TV folks are involved in some of this.

so it would seem that many or even all the fanfiction sites are posting legal eBooks so long as they are not commercial. Even if one site posts legal books we need to allow tools that can be used on legal sites IMHO.

Dale

[JSWolf]

In fact, one of the big Star Trek forums has a section for fan fiction and the powers that be 100% know of this forum as they sometimes post there. And a lot of authors post there too. So basically, if the powers that be wanted to kill off fan fiction for Star Trek, they would. But they'd also lose enough readers that it would kill off the books.

[Redcard]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

In fact, one of the big Star Trek forums has a section for fan fiction and the powers that be 100% know of this forum as they sometimes post there. And a lot of authors post there too. So basically, if the powers that be wanted to kill off fan fiction for Star Trek, they would. But they'd also lose enough readers that it would kill off the books.

Well, they did it once already, I assure you. I remember being good friends with a 12 year old star trek fangirl who was also a writer. She had a page of generic star trek stuff, as well as her writings. For a 28 year old, her writings were good. For a 12 year old, they were phenomenal. Most of them were not even about star trek, the two that were were more or less essays on Star Trek's effect on the subculture of fandom and a brief biography of Gene Roddenberry and Leonard Nimoy. When Paramount did their massive crackdown, not only did they order her ISP to remove the star trek page and the two essays, but EVERYTHING that linked off it. She lost her original writings too.

She never wrote again, at least all the way through middle and high school. She might have picked it up in college, but I lost touch with her. Not even the Internet Wayback Machine has her stuff, because Paramount also went to them.

This girl was good. She'd be a writer now had this not happened. It wasn't just that Paramount went around and asked people to pull down their star trek sites.. no, they literally went around demanding ISPs DELETE FULLY the star trek sites and revoke accounts for TOS violations.

So it happened, trust me, and I hope they learned from it. Now Star Trek isn't popular anymore amongst kids. The thing that kept it alive from the mid 70s to the mid 80s were the fans and their writings, drawings, and the like. When Paramount did that to my entire generation of fans, and then TNG went off the air, they might have killed the entire series.