OTW Fannews: Staying Vigilant

• The Japan News posted a story about how a Trans-Pacific Partnership crackdown could affect fanfiction publishing. "[T]he 12 nations engaged in the TPP negotiations are building a consensus that would allow for prosecution of copyright infringement without the need for a formal complaint, but instead based on reports from third parties or an independent judgement by an investigative authority." This contrasts with Japan's current system, "copyright infringement can only be investigated after a formal complaint from the creator of the original work or its rights holder."
• Changes to their system would also allow for many false claims to result in takedowns. Kotaku reported on the widespread action against videos that had no connection to copyrighted content. "Last week, the anti-piracy firm Entura International, which frequently works with Pixels distributor Columbia Pictures, filed a big old DMCA complaint—as first reported by TorrentFreak—that goes after a bunch of videos not for pirating or violating copyright in any way, but for using the word “Pixels,” which it turns out was invented in 2015 by Adam Sandler."
• The Daily Dot reported on an alarming development connected to Windows 10's End User License Agreement. "Microsoft won't hesitate to make sure the programs and games you have installed on your computer are legitimate, and if not, it has the right to disable them." The agreement includes preventing "unauthorized hardware peripheral devices" but who determines legitimate use could be a problem.

What areas do you think fans should remain vigilant about? Write about them in Fanlore! Contributions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent OTW Fannews post. Links are welcome in all languages! Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a Fannews post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.