Into The Omegaverse: How a Fanfic Trope Landed in Federal Court

Is there a place to get the uncensored readings from the beginning? Dan Olson's readings are... amazing

Cristeal

As far as I can tell, from the information in the video -- because Zoe Ellis failed to continue prosecution?

phastinemoon

Hey, Lindsay I've been watching your videos for some time, really enjoying them and marveling and your information and insight. But hadn't joined your Patreon before because I'm an aspiring writer of meager funds. This video, though, put you over the top as far as I'm concerned. I'll buy your novel, but that must wait until next month--because meager funds. However, I linked this video to my FB feed, and won you at least one other fan so far. She says she is buying your book--this month. So, keep up the good work!

I now have a serious question on the actual legal case(s): why was Kane not prosecuted for perjury?

Twit In A Hat

Did anyone else substitute the bleeping out of Kane's real name with something really rude?

Twit In A Hat

Can't tell if Lindsay is trolling us or if something happened

stompanie

Is there a secret link, because all I get is the Bane Wild World video?

Samori Augusto

You merely adopted the wolf porn...

apocalypsethen

Yah, i got a BANE "wild world" video. I found the link, tho

Derrick Jones

Same. Weird! This link should work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhWWcWtAUoY

RSS

Uhhhhh...I'm getting an add for a Batman movie... *scratches head*

Kait Hatch

This episode blew my mind. How stupid can the world get ? There is nothing wrong with the omegaverse (apart from the popularisation of false ideas about wolf packs). the issue is with the hypocrisy of the authors and publishers ! It's mind boggling how a system can allow this type of nonsensical and damaging behaviours to go one for so long. Great job, as always ! :D

Diana.H.

What a trip. I don't know how I feel about knowing this but that stuff didn't start with Supernatural it started in the Inuyasha fandom. I remember back in like 2002, 2003 reading a bunch of fanfic that featured a lot of those dynamics, especially on adultfanfic and media miner. This is not good knowledge, but there you go. I wouldn't worry about it in the video but just thought it a little nugget of disturbing knowledge that I should unleash on the world. What was I doing in Uni ? XD

Reo Scrolls

By... by the way... could you add, to your list of trigger warnings, "spraying confetti over delicate electronic equipment"? I even have one of those monitors that pairs with a stylus for drawing... so I'm thinking, "Is that stuff going to come off? Will there be residue?"

Tim Hammack

There's a podcast on KCRW (NPR station) called "All the President's Lawyers" that tries to explain what the press usually butchers with respect to current events. As a lawyer, you might enjoy that (the co-host is a former state of California prosecuting attorney--his deadpan wit and general exasperation (especially with the lack of professional conduct (or outright stupidity) among recent high-profile lawyers is amusing and informative).

Tim Hammack

Longtime watcher, first time patron, longer time lawyer. The vast majority of media that attempts to speak law fails miserably. The ones that get it not-wrong are rare. The ones that get it right are even rarer. This writing team got it super, super right. Brava!

oh yes, they are coming next week!

Lindsay Ellis

I know it's a silly request, but would you release the uncensored readings, please? They are so funny! :)

Fostena

This was amazing and way better than the NYT article! I do have to disagree about the Patricia Briggs books. There's no tropey wolf biology stuff other than the alpha and omega thing, which itself isn't sexual... They're just cute werewolves who solve mysteries. T_T But I'm in awe of the voicework you managed to get for this, and the cameos, and your ever-changing, hilarious PC wallpaper.

Ashley Rodriguez

I love how much fun you all clearly had writting and editing this video.

Mel Miniatures

After this video I feel more sorry for the wolves than the humans.

Elder Dog

What a wild and strange time to be in the throws of fanfic litigation. As much as a bad rep writing fanfic has, I'm a firm believer in the importance of allowing people to post their quirky little hobbies on the internet for fun (fanart, fanfics, etc). I fear the day when you'll have to make a video essay on some sort of bad fanworks court ruling- I'm a tad pessimistic and think that one day someone like Disney will be able to get fanfics/fanart banned or something >.<

luvkirby4ever

After this video I have no choice but become a patreon :)

I was laughing into my arm at 2am listening to her read these lines.

Mister Joshua

glad this version is still fuctional

Bryan Whiteman

it's almost like Addison was.... crying wolf...

Don Bright

This is, uh, interesting to say the least. Makes me feel a lot better about myself as a writer, lol. I will say though that a writer trying to copyright tropes is like a musician trying to copyright chords. Went to the author's page out of curiosity. Her fans are... uh... wow!

Daniel Wright

Yeah, that was a thought I had too as a Briggs fan. Not a big deal, but she's a much more standard PNR/urban fantasy author.

Quilly

This is a great video!

Tori

“Yeah, I know plenty about copyright law, but I don’t know anything about wolf pornography.”

Yeah, Harold, that was my interpretation of what they were trying to do, too. It’s not their strongest argument and even so, the way they asked her about it was very much confusing omegaverse with a cinematic universe.

I just want someone to animate the voice overs Jenny Nicholson & Dan Olson are hysterical

Arrogant cum trucks

Woof. I usually post my comments on your youtube to try to help the help where they stand in the algorithm, but uh posting this one here because I do not like to advertise that I'm a prolific fanfic author in such public spaces. Excellent video, been watching all of this on the sidelines from the start (even though me and Mrs "Omega Verse Belongs to ME" run in very very different social circles in the writing community) and this video is a TRIP and very very well summarized the events and digested them for an audience that has no idea about the crazy that is the Omega verse (I dont write in it personally, but I will say the fact that het stories seem to be more... violent, is an uncomfortable truth I've noticed just from browsing descriptions on AO3 and hearing from friends that read it, not to say the slash stuff is usually much better on that front but I let bygones be bygones, not my genre to read but I'm not going to yell at some one else for being into it) Excellent video, loved it, the cameos where amazing and Jenny deserves an oscar for that performance.

Is Patricia Briggs' 'Cry Wolf' really considered Omegaverse? Despite the "Alpha and Omega" moniker it doesn't have any of the characteristics mentioned, save perhaps mating for life. No betas, claiming bites, heat cycles, knotting, mpreg...it's also definitely not erotica, and I personally wouldn't even consider it romance. Just thought I'd ask, since Briggs is one of my faves. I don't mind if it's technically sorta Omegaverse, but it seems unlike the others. P.S. Loved the video overall.

Sibre Collard

That was a damn masterpiece.

Dean Hacker

Really good video! I remember when Nostalgia Critic did a brief video on this subject as pertains to Channel Awesome's videos. It's fascinating seeing it in the literature ("literature?") universe. Nothing makes me happier than when the cold factual worlds bump into the dirty playgrounds of niche markets. *Chef's kiss*

Adventuress

Since this is about the topic of law, I was genuinely expecting the video to end with the Law&Order sting and "Executive Producer: Dick Wolf".

Jubei

Hi, Harold Feld, primarily a telecom lawyer but I do some copyright. Also go back in fandom a long way and, yes, used to write ST:TNG fanfic. But to get to the point of the post, here is what the lawyers for Ellis were probably thinking when they went after the fanfic element and why it is potentially relevant here. Fanfic is a "derivative work" under copyright. That means that the rights holder has the copyright and can control all uses of derivative work. There has been a lot of academic discussion of fanfic and its copyright status. But the key point is that the author of the fanfic (we'll call her Mary Sue) cannot claim any ownership of the characters or elements lifted directly from the original work. Even where a fanfic qualifies as fair use, Mary Sue cannot claim any copyright ownership in the things that she herself did not develop. Thus, while Mary Sue may have a fair use argument for her Next Gen fanfic, she cannot claim that the elements she parodied belong to her, and therefore may not sue someone else for writing Next Gen fanfic -- since you can't claim a right to what you don't own. (The recent case around "Oh the Places You'll Boldly Go!" illustrates this. The work itself is a fir use parody, and may therefore be copyrighted. But the authors cannot prevent other people from writing similar parodies-- either setting Star Trek to other poems, for example, or using Babylon 5 instead of Star Trek -- because they do not own either of the sources parodied. I suspect Ellis' lawyers were trying to set this up as an alternate argument. That being wha lawyers do. So their claim would be (a) Cain can't claim copyright because these are tropes f the genre; and, (b) she can't claim copyright because the characters aren't hers. To be clear, if you have successfully filed the serial numbers off a work, then there is no claim. The Magnificent Seven may have been inspired by The Seven Samurai, but there are enough differences that what they share are common themes, tropes and ideas -- not a derivative expression of a copyrighted book. This is why there are so many versions of the Romeo and Juliet story out there, none of which violate the copyright of West Side Story.

I’m so down for the legal schadenfreude. But very glad that I wore headphones while listening to it at work!

"The more you know..." I now know that I know more than I wanted to know about Omegaverse.

If Lindsey does get sued by Ben Shapiro, there are only two people for the case. LegalEagle (obviously), and Olly as Tom Gently.

Thanks! This was actually super informative and helped me think through some things around the game I'm writing! On a different note, I wanted to say I finished Axiom's end and really liked it!!

Vladimir Barash

I think I know how those lawyers felt when they learned too much about the omegaverse. I learned too much... awesome video!

I can’t help but hear the name Addison and think of Addison DeWitt, the conniving behind the scenes manipulator of All About Eve. Boy was I happy when that detail proved to be a weird bit of parallel foreshadowing.

Sean Hannan

So this is the "Blurred Lines case" of literature?

Emanuel Alfredsson / Lemanic

I was straightfaced through the porn-reading. The balloon was the moment I lost it.

One of your best yet! Fantastic work on the editing (my god that must have been a process) and fingers crossed it stays up!

Emma

Angelina outdid herself on this one; I don't pretend to know the difference in editing styles between the two of you, but the credits and interstitials, etc were incredible. And Jenny Nicholson for best performance in a V.O. in a Youtube video, for sure.

Richard Jackson

What a mammoth undertaking this video must have been. You guys knock it out of the park! Totally vibing the Knott's Berry Farm and Knotting Hill background. Also loved the subtle Ampersand symbol on the bookshelf. Angelina your editing and cut were just *chef's kiss*

Chelsea Monk

Awesome! One, drama in erotica novels small world was fun. Second, it explains to us quite a few things about the legal proceedings Third, it gives us the current state of affairs. On one hand, she perjured herself, so that should invalidate a lot of her credibility. Yet, on the other, she seems vindicative, and willing to fight dirty about her ownership of a specific genre ("heterosexual omegaverse"... ok, my next challenge will be to use that in a professional meeting, and see who reacts...). Anyway, I hope you are prepared to the backlash. Strangely, I wonder if that would not be the "good outcome": To lead the whole thing till the end, to make a legal, defined precedent. Please keep us informed.

paercebal

Everything about this--the excellent VOs, references, saxhorse, the whole insane story, the clear presentation of very serious legal issues, capped off with stanning the EFF and the wolf-credits--was absolute gold. Thank you all

Eli Bildirici

if you want to absolutely combust, check her author’s page on fbook. it’s bananas. and her fans are buying the whole victim narrative. she’s even accusing Courtney Milan of cyber bullying for commenting on the case. 🤦‍♀️

Waking up with a Patreon email in my inbox never felt so good!

Nooooo.... I was going to go to bed! I was going to pretend to be responsible! [hits play]

Justin Alexander

*turns on the vid* *spits out coffee; frantically reaches for headphones* can't say i wasn't warned

Eli Bildirici

If while watching this video you start thinking "what does that mean?", don't look it up because 1) you're better off not knowing 2) you don't want that shit on your search history.

Adequately Sized Dog

IT'S FINALLY HERE

Sarah Jesness

I'm still in awe that she tried to make the Tom Cotton/James Bennet debacle about her

I'm just happy that I learned enough from my copyright law course to go, "Oh, so you're saying the weird wolf kink stuff is scenes a faire!" before you actually got to that. Loved this video. I hope you don't get sued.

ArcaneVoid

...good god

Alissa

LOVING the various voice over talents and the Legal Eagle cameo. SLiGHTLY embarrassed that my name is attached to this video.

Lauren Steely

I watched through the meat of this a second time, and I still have a quick question: What the fuck? Like, seriously. How. Why. WHAT?

Kent Zacherl

Oh, WOW what a trainwreck. Also, I did recognize Princess' voice, hooray for all those It's Lit episodes!

Karel P Kerezman

...How much of that reading did you record, if it was 2 minutes long *after* you edited?

NEON725

I don't think that's accurate - we were going to cite this but we considered it overkill.

Lindsay Ellis

That broke my brain, in the best kind of "one to grow on" kind of way.

J.

Wow it's been awhile since a story like this pissed me off so

The audio sounded a little funny around the 40 minute mark. But man, what a ride. It could have been worse, but it's upsetting that the bad faith actor Addison didn't get punished or even learn her lesson. It shows how these laws favor huge corporations over people who could have their lives wrecked by this.

JackMagic

Yay! Natalie's back!

love playing the "recognize that other youtubers voice" game with these videos

Shiny Skunk

I love it when this kind of absurdity can be used to teach us things. Thank for the thoughtful copyright lesson and I am so very sorry you had to learn about mating urges.

Carla Hoffman

I just came to say the same comment; she is a fantastic voice actor!

Carla Hoffman

Brava! I don't think het is actually in the minority, tbh. It's just the minority in places that mark ship type because that type of metadata goes hand-in-hand with caring about filtering OUT het. So all fandom stats come from AO3 and AO3 is full of m/m (and has more f/f than other big archives proportionally). But places where it's hard to get stats, like FFN and Wattpad, are majority het, often by a very large margin. (Sorry, this assumption annoys the shit out of me because it's constantly used to shit on fandom without people realizing it's the equivalent of walking into the one gay bookstore in town and going "Why is it so gay?" while ignoring the fifteen B&N's down the block.)

Franzeska Dickson

This is the first time I realized that Omegaverse isn't fanfiction for the "Alpha and Omega" children's franchise and actually it makes me feel a lot better.

Lani Geiger

I came for the cringey tropes and fandom drama, but stayed for the crash course on DMCAs and copyright law.

Jesse

Loved it, thanks Lindsay

BorisS

I don't know whether to hate or love the Knott's Berry Farm monitor background, but it was a great choice either way

Lily W

brb pausing the wolf porn to go update everyone’s IMDB pages

Sarah L

The first 2:28 is the peak of everyone's who's present careers.

This is giving me 2d6 psychic damage every minute that I watch.

D E Wright

The Jenny Nicholson VO is magnificent. I WILL NO LONGER STAY SILENT. :'D

Molly Polsen

The censorship in the first bit is supposed to be for comedic value, right? I mean. I'm here for this "content", but WOW.

I am so excited. I wonder how cursed I will feel afterwards.

Bits

The first two minutes where a punch to the teeth that I did not see coming. Fantastic work.

Honestly I didn't /need/ to sleep

Casper Hope-Tindall

oh nooooooo (oh yes)

Nick Oswalt