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I was super thrilled to see that my copy of the Bourne Legacy came with a digital copy, to download at the Universal website. I find digital copies much handier than DVDs so off I go, to download my complimentary copy. But when I go to their site, this is what I get:
"Sorry, but this Digital Copy title is not available in your region."

What the FUCK. I bought a region 2 DVD. Absolutely legally, at Amazon. The code was in the bloody DVD box. Why would you morons at Universal include the code for a region that isn't eligible to use it?

eta, Small print says download only from the UK. Never mind Germany and UK are in the same region. ARgh.

This is not how you discourage piracy. FU.

I was browsing the most recent RPF tinhatter wanks in SPN and One Direction fandom but I barely found it in me to roll my eyes at the crazy. Well, okay, I did. But what really did it was this tangential statement (in the comments at the second link): It's the internet and there's no copyright on Tumblrs. Once you put it out there, it's out there and no one needs any permission to repost anything you've written or created.

WRONG. OMG so extremely wrong. Not that I don't think this is a prevalent view but that doesn't make it better. One quick look at tumblr's TOS confirms:
Ownership:
Subscribers retain ownership of all intellectual property rights in their Subscriber Content, and Tumblr and/or third parties retain ownership of all intellectual property rights in all Content other than Subscriber Content.
You retain ownership of any intellectual property you post to Tumblr.

What you do when you sign up is give a non-exclusive license for others to reblog your content. On tumblr. (See "Subscriber Content License to Tumblr".) You still retain the copyright to your work. (And reblogging content from outside tumblr is in many cases copyright infringement but that's a slightly different matter.)

I'm ignoring fair use exceptions here. The important thing is: internet does not equal public domain.
Man, I feel like I should write that last in all-caps and bold, with sparkles.

[edit for new readers, 04/30: this post was part of a wider hypertext debate and focuses on but one aspect of it. Please read my previous post for context.]

Once upon a time, there were two guys, Joe and Jerry, who wrote a story about this super awesome dude who jumps as high as the tallest building. And he flies faster than a plane. And he's got strength up the wazoo. And he's using his power for good (because he's awesome like that) so he's fighting crime.

Everybody knows how the story goes: eventually they found a comic book publisher and the story turned out to be this huge success and the start of a giant franchise, triggered an entire genre and made a ton of money.

The story about the guy who is the strongest guy on Earth is at heart the ultimate boy's wish fulfillment fantasy. Pure and unfiltered. I read the first issue once and thought that quality-wise it was pretty clunky. If it was fic, I would've thought 'badfic'. But hey, the target group loved it.

Eventually he got more backstory, more characters to fight and otherwise interact with, and more character. I haven't read a lot of Superman but I think it's safe to say that he's a more rounded character than he was when he started out. The writers had the chance to develop the character over time.

If we are talking Sue, Action Comics #1's Superman would be the definitive one. But I think that would miss the point. He's not a Marty Stu, he's a hero. Heck, he's a Superhero.

Then after a while we got Supergirl, and after Batman there was Batgirl, and a bunch more but I'm not that into superhero comics so I can't list them all. Whodathunk: girls like wish-fulfillment fantasies too. (And the female form of hero is heroine. Not Mary Sue.)

No one has the right to tell girls that, no, they don't need self-insert fantasies, because they're perfect the way they are. So they shouldn't indulge in those. It’s for their own good!

Know what it sounds like in my ears? Don't dream big! Know your place!

Thanks, but that's a world of No from this dreamer.

... This post was brought to you by more than one poster saying that Mary Sue fantasies are sexist and should be opposed because they teach young women that they have to be perfect to be loved. I think that is getting it completely backwards and is super-unhelpful. I think the opposite is the case: these fantasies can be very empowering and dammit, they’re fun and girls have as much a right to them as boys.

yes, yes, I haven't even answered all my comments of the last few days but this post came to me as I was running, so I had to jot it down quickly and now I might as well post it. I hope I'm done with the meta now.

[eta: anonymous comments are screened]

I'm with monanotlisa: yahtzee63 is my heroine. That post, and reading the comments was good for my soul.

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In other news, my book about *mumblemumble* is now finished. :) Also, yesterday was the first time I really looked forward to French class, and the class was fun. (I mean, the previous evenings were fun, too, but I was strugging and flailing too much to properly enjoy it.)

Never would've thought I'd say that I enjoy French class. What I remember from high school wasn't so much fun but rather mindless drilling of grammar and vocabulary. High school French sucked all the fun out of the language.

I wonder how people would feel if they constantly got comments like "I had to grit my teeth to get past the McShep but otherwise great story" or "Obviously I skipped past the McShep parts because that pairing is just wrong, but great fic!" or "Rodney is such a terrible character because [list of reasons why Rodney McKay is a terrible character] and I hate him on the show but you almost made me like him here!"? Because people comment like that on fanwork that contains McKeller All. The. Time. All the fucking time.

(I just saw another one first thing this morning.)

Or how would they feel about fic requests at genrefinders phrased "since obviously Sheppard and McKay are both straight, the slash makes no sense and it's OOC so I'm looking for Rodney/Katie and John/Larrin."

You know what all this looks like to me? Like a discouraging tactic, to actively discourage people from including any hint of Keller or Rodney/Jennifer in their fanwork at all. Maybe that's not the intention, maybe it's just thoughtlessness, but that's how it's starting to come across to me.

Seriously, is it so terrible to have a bit of diversity in fandom? Is another pairing so threatening? I don't get it.

vid rec: Sweet Apocalypse by zap99nad (Artist: Moby)
Action/Drama, AU; can be read as gen or McShep; Characters: Sheppard, McKay, supporting characters: Kolya, Elizabeth, Carson, Wraith
Summary: Kolya is a bounty hunter working for the Wraith in exchange for a steady supply of Enzymes. John's next on the list. This is what happened...

Constructed Reality, very convincingly done. A cool, fun, atmosperic vid with great storytelling and pacing. I enjoyed watching it a lot; it was much like reading fic.

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Page seven of The Long Way Home is inked, here's a little outtake. Not the funny kind of outtake... more like the 'guh, I'm an idiot' kind - I got carried away while inking and my thumbs tend to be on the vague side... just a few squiggly lines to indicate camera angle, balloon placement, not so much with the details. It didn't occur to me to check the script while inking, and when I finally did I noticed that the line in that panel has to go to Rodney. Ah, maybe I can find a home for my Shep someplace else.

It's amnesty month at sga_flashfic, and though I didn't find the perfect prompt to give meaning to my poor, half-finished McShep gen picture, I did get an idea for another prompt which I really like. It's a kind of Atlantis/Sleepy Hollow pastiche and I see the scene crystal-clear before my inner eye. So if time allows, I'll try to squeeze that in somehow before I go back to the comic. It's just one panel after all, albeit a fairly large, complex one. Still, could be done in a day or two. Now I only have to find a day or two.

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Once more I'm feeling this bizarre disconnect with the fandom because, once again, I quite enjoyed this week's Stargate episode (Infection), only to come online and find that most of the fandom (or at least my corner of it) is currently watching a different show than I am. I guess for the remainder of the season the only way to go is read the friends list heavily filtered on days following new episodes. I'm not making the mistake again of reading random reviews linked on the newsletter. Seriously, every time I see someone bash Keller an angel loses its wings I want to make Keller fanart. And I got enough ideas as it is.

(This mini-rant, by the way, was brought to you by LJ blacking out just as I was about to post.)