POW fic stats

[feng_shui_house]

This morning they were down to 5,127. I forgot to post because I had house stuff to do, so I figured I'd check again just now. They're down to 5,104. If I were them, I'd be getting nervous along about now.

Am all sore from chipping out broken thin brick, peeling up vinyl tiles, releveling floor (probably still not right, but I tried), removing a bit of wood paneling & a piece of wallpaper (once you start destruction it dominoes.) So maybe will bathe instead of writing Pink Guy/Blue Guy slash. But I'll be thinking of them. (Only no because my bread maker and gluten-free goodies arrived. Unpacking and admiring is all I'm doing now. I may call the bread maker Moloch. Because that is how I reasoned it would look.)

EDIT: I looked at POW's forum, since they no longer have a FAQ to look at and found a couple words from the Chief Weasels.

davidbw wrote (in response to a 5 star contributor who'd heard from FanWank & LJs that the POW TOS gave them rights to fanfic posted on the site):
There are some very valid points in these postings and we take them very seriously. We now realize our FAQ and Terms of Service are not good expressions of our intentions. This is why we are currently revising our FAQ and reviewing our TOS.

Our TOS and FAQ will be clarifying these important points:

a) We will never, without your explicit permission, create a another work from your submissions, such as a book, and publish it.

b) By posting to Pit of Weasels, you do not give up any ownership in your work.

We are posting this across multiple forums on Pit of Weasels.com since others have the same questions.

Stay tuned for more.

mimbo wrote:
I'd like to clear up some confusion around a Pit of Weasels brochure from 2004 that is being discussed. As a company, we have two distinct parts:

1) This beta site, Pit of Weasels.com (launched in March 2007)

2) Special fan-powered events. In this second part, where we actually started years ago, we work with other companies and sponsors to create special fan events around online storytelling. Each event is governed by its own clear rules and terms of service that are separate from those for the FanLib.com site referred to above. This is necessary because contests, sweepstakes, prizes etc. need their own rules and regulations. The brochure that people are referring to was written for potential companies and sponsors and relates only to these special events and not the Pit of Weasels.com beta site. At the time we published the brochure, our URL linked to a site that essentially described the events for companies and sponsors in more detail.

I hope that addresses the confusion.

Thanks,
The Pit of Weasels Team

Further EDIT: I keep forgetting that to see the full count of stories, you have to turn off the adult filter (it's tiny white letters against blue, hard to see). So they have 5646 fic including 541 rated 'M' which I suppose means mature.

The TOS is up again (or was it ever down? I think it's been slightly changed, but it's hard to remember). POW says they'll only use submissions 'in connection with' the website. They still have writers as solely responsible. As I understand the wording, by clicking that you agree to the TOS you are swearing that you either own the rights, have obtained permission for the rights, or can prove that it's a 'fair use' under copyright laws. (They are still making no acknowledgement that any other than US laws may apply. I think that the WORLD in World Wide Web hasn't sunk in with them).

This is nicely clear. Pit of Weasels expressly disclaims any and all liability in connection with Submissions. I wouldn't mind if it was just that, but the bit where you swear that you have the rights is *really* setting fen up. I'm not a lawyer, but I think giving false testimony has been a no-no for millennia.

They still mention 'fees' so they really do hope to charge for the privilege of Posting to POW or maybe for the privilege of reading? Either way, I never knew weasels had such huge huevos.

Comments

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to think, in the almightly kerfuffling that this has caused all over the place... if ANYone who wasn't actually paid by them had a good word to say for it all.

I don't think so.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

I had seen some 'what's the big deal, they're the same as everyone else, and I put my fic there'. I suspect these people don't quite understand the TOS and don't see the difference between a non-profit site saying 'we have no control over the fics put here' and a for-profit site saying 'the fanficcers swore they had the rights, go after them, not us'.

I mean, I don't so much mnd being conned if the conman smiles nice and doesn't kick me in the butt after ripping me off.

Incidentally, I can't post today, only reply to comments.

[meoinya.livejournal.com]

Ohh, keep up the count! It'll be interesting to see how much of the fanbase that has posted stories there removes them.

I took down the 6 I had there a few days ago.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

I can't update my journal, or I would post. :^( Something's up with LJ. I tried downloading a different browser, but it didn't help. I see that there are now a number of complaints of the same sort, so presumably LJ will try to fix it.

I'm glad you're out of the Pit of Weasels. :^)

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to keep up the count. LJ isn't letting me (or a lot of other people) post today. I'm going to try posting a very short post & see if that works.