Various Fannish Bits

Time Agency fanfic of doom has reached the highly annoying stage of 'ticking along nicely, while tearing itself apart'.

I really like the premise, and the characters and some of the plots I've jotted, but there's some gaping bloody great things wrong with it and I don't know if I'm smart enough to fix them.

Still, as mentioned before, I've got a great setup for a tabletop RPG, if nothing else - but I'd rather not settle for that.

Brain is fizzing on other ideas, but they're even more frivolous and wasteful of time. To hell with them.

***

I finished listening to Orbis - ( minor spoilers, ahoy! )

***

Speaking of twitchy, yes, I know that Torchwood's "third series" looms and, yes, I'm annoyed about BBCA playing silly buggers with the airing dates. But, honestly? I haven't finished watching S2, yet...

It started out as "I'll save those eps for an afternoon when I want a treat" and then became "I don't know if I really want to end this series yet, it's been such good fun" and finally "Oh, yeah. I'll get around to that one of these days..."

It's odd. I really liked Torchwood's second season and think it's an order of magnitude better than the previous one but... I can't seem to find the motivation to finish the bloody thing. Given how all my Torchwood fan friends have told me "OMG! You'll love the story!" (because of the historical costuming, I s'pose) my reluctance rather baffles me.

Things I Will No Longer Mention On Twitter, #437: Content Theft.

Dear folks on various places of the internet,

Don't complain to me about how come you have to pay so much for a boxed-set of Doctor Who.

You want the show for less money? Watch it when it airs on the telly. Put the sets on your birthday gimme-list. Borrow them from friends. Don't tell me that because you can't afford the product, you're justified in stealing it.

I can't afford a Jaguar convertible, but that doesn't mean it's okay for me to steal one off the street.

And, to the person who says "I want to be able to participate fully in fandom. It's only fair": how is it fair to deprive media creators of royalties/revenue? I understand that you want to know what's going on in your favorite show and keep up with discussions of ditto but that's what sites like TWOP and other review sites are for. You can learn about the plot and keep up with discussions WITHOUT crossing a line. Granted, it's not nearly as satisfying as seeing the show but life's like that sometimes - deal.

Whilst I think that there's far too much money-grubbing in the world, the sad fact is that the media industry is not about entertaining you. It's about making a profit. Said naked money-grubbery is why I don't lie awake at night worrying about the poor Sony CEO being deprived of his profits when someone DL's a movie, but there *is* a principal involved, too. Until the rules change, swiping something off the 'net before it airs in your region is a bad idea.

As I've said before and will continue saying, I agree that modern communication has outpaced copyright and distribution regulations and a change *must* occur, but it takes a hell of a lot of money and effort to create a movie/album/TV show and if we all steal that content, rather than paying for it, then there won't BE any content to enjoy. Ask the guys at Big Finish, for a start. What was their estimate for the percentage of "regular users" not paying a penny for their content? 90%, I think it was (J. Haigh-Ellery mentioned this during a panel at Chicago TARDIS, last year, and I'm sure he's mentioned it elsewhere. Abundantly so.)

Besides, what a nasty thing to do to the creative minds involved "Hi, Mr. Writer! I love your TV show! I can't be arsed for you to get your residual for it, though!" - money being the sincerest form of flattery, and all.

Sigh...