In which I am Paranoid: Friends-Locking

[amari_z]

I don't think anyone will much notice, but I have started to friends-lock many of my old journal entries. Moving forward I may be f-locking entries that mention my personal life--either when I post or shortly thereafter.

Why? Well, certainly not out of any sense of megalomania. ; ) But I've been reading too many articles about privacy and the internet and it's making me a little crazy. So, doing this might improve my mental health. (And note that I said "might"--actually it's likely I will continue on as unbalanced as ever.) : ) Anyway, I don't think this will make all that much difference to anyone--but if there's someone who is interested in reading this journal and has not friended it, they might start missing more entries than before. Also, I guess friends are going to need to be logged in to read f-locked entries.

I should probably mention that anyone is free to friend me who so desires. I will usually friend back as soon as I notice.

As for fic, I'm not currently planning to lock any of it, although that might change at some point.

If anyone has any complaints, questions or a desire to tell me I'm being more crazy than usual, please do express yourself. : )

Edit: I forgot to say that if there’s anyone on my friends list who does NOT want to get the personal posts, I can filter you out if you just let me know (and I won’t be at all offended by the request).

Comments

[park-ave-pirate.livejournal.com]

Now that I finally figured out the whole friend-locking situation I can stop asking you about something you have already written. I may be slow...

I always get paranoid reading the articles about people getting fired for blogging about the work. That's why I use clever cover words like Giant Corporation X and Land O'Cubicles :o)

Jen

[amari-z.livejournal.com]

Ask me anytime! I don't mind, but it's good that you discovered the f-locking thing. : ) I love your name "land o'cubicles." I try not to mention any actual names in my LJ either but I think there are plenty of clues for any strange person out there to work with. Thus, the locking.

[darklyscarlett.livejournal.com]

You've gotta do it. I actually forgot to lock a couple of posts, and freaked out for a second or two. I also have created custom filters, so someone logged in as a maintainer of a community I've friended or joined, or people I've friended whom I haven't gotten to know all that well are barred from reading the more personal stuff. And I've got a KA filter for nonsense posts about knights-gone-wild, an stuff, just to spare the rest of the flist.

Anyway, got your email about the TImes article. So what does that mean for any potential settlement/suit? Are Alloy going to get off scot free, since she confessed to 'internalizing' the prose on her own?

I also love the way she's blaming everything on her 'photographic memory'. As someone who has a photographic memory, I can say that your recollections of things are infinitely nebulous, and any near-verbatim wordplay and association will always trigger a recall to the actual source (including the page, part of the page, font, context in which you first read the material, the damn color of the cover art, etc.). And like you'd miss those associations over forty times, and after countless edits and re-writes.

She's still playing the 'I'm too smart to even have thought of plagiarizing' card by not blaming it on cryptomnesia, which is a more plausible explanation.

[amari-z.livejournal.com]

It looks like her publishers are not interested in blaming Alloy, from the article anyway. But if the publisher's contract is solely with the packager, and the packager has the contract with the author, I'm not sure that her publisher would in fact be able to go directly after authorette, if they were to take legal action (which seems unlikely given the article). If they were to sue, and she is not a party to the contract, I'm thinking that their only recourse would be against Alloy. (To sue for breach of contract, you have to have "privity"--meaning you can only sue whomever you contracted with). There are exceptions, but it seems that Alloy itself would have to sue authorette. It seems odd though, that she would not be a party to the publishing contract—but I don’t know much about the publishing industry that’s what the article says.

I still think that the original author and her publishers can probably sue everyone—authorette’s publisher, her packager and authorette. ("The first rule of torts," one of my professors used to say, "is sue everyone!") It helps to think that the actual claim is copyright infringement--the publisher, by publishing the work, infringed the original author's copyright, regardless of who actually is to blame for submitting the material to them. I would think the packager would be liable as well, since they're profiting off of the copyright infringement.

As someone with a sucky memory, I can tell you that I do sometimes pick up phrases and usages from places and not even realize it, but, come on, so many times? Once, even three or four times, I could perhaps buy as an accident, but if she knew the book well enough to make that many lifts, then she should have known it well enough to pick up what she was doing--photographic memory or no. (And you really remember all that? That's neat (and a little scary)--I can't remember what was on the page before the one I'm reading).

Good point about filters--I didn't even think about that. : ) And why wouldn't you think that everyone would want to read about knights gone wild? I don't really understand that. ; )

[darklyscarlett.livejournal.com]

My memory scare the bejesus out of most people, although when I'm stressed, like right now, it takes a minute longer to 'boot up'. When I'm on, the recall it instantaneous, and also applies to stuff that I've overheard. Barely had to take notes in school; never wrote anything in a linear manner, but just sketched, well, nebulas of ideas, really. And when I took the English Lit AP without ever having taken the course (NYC public school said I was too young to be in a class of seniors as a sophomore, despite having a 5 in Modern European History under my belt), I wrote my final essay on Much Ado About nothing, which I had seen on screen (the Branagh version) three weeks prior. Got the only 5 in the school.

When I'm old, my biggest fear is that I'll retain my semantic memory of everything, but lose the autobiographical component, making me the most deranged pensioner on the planet. I'd been joking about that for years, and then Umberto Eco came out with his last novel, The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana (not very good, BTW), in which the protagonist suffers that exact affliction. It is pretty scary.

Speaking of knights-gone-wild, ahem! **whistles** Should I be prodding Ash at this point?

[amari-z.livejournal.com]

That's really fascinating. You'd make a great lawyer (if you were so inclined), since it's ALL about the damn details. But I'm not endorsing that job choice. ; ) My own recall is actually pretty poor. I tend to remember narratives better than details and I suck at remembering what my mind regards as info without context--names, numbers, lists, etc.

And no, Ashley was really great. She read it last night (and it's really long (for me)--nearly 30 pages!) I'm still editing a bit and mulling so maybe a day or so more.

And BTW, I might ask you to pre-read the fic after this, if you don't mind. I want to make sure I did not do too much violence to the London geography. ; )

[amari-z.livejournal.com]

ROTFL--I just noticed your icon!

No, sorry.

[darklyscarlett.livejournal.com]

Well, you know I had to ask in a very unsubtle way!

And yes, I'd be honored to give the next chapter (epic) a go. Ah, shopping! Ash will recover in time for that one, I'm sure.

I'm on a Doctor Who kick, so here's more of my sentiments in an avatar. Since we're in the US, I'm only up to number nine, but I love Christopher Eccleston to death, and have since Shallow Grave.

[amari-z.livejournal.com]

You know, I haven't watched any of the new Doctor Who, though I've been meaning to. Now that everything comes out on dvd after a few months, it really lessens the incentive to watch things while they're on. At least for me. But that doesn't mean I watch the dvds either. It's just knowing that I can, whenever I want, that makes me complacent.

Thanks for agreeing to pre-read. I haven't been able to sit down and go over the current chapter yet, so once I do that, hopefully that one will be done, and on to shopping!

[gwenn-b.livejournal.com]

Funny, I was thinking about doing exactly the same today, leaving just my works (writing and graphics) public. Though I don't really make personal posts often, I'd rather be sure I know who's reading my stuff.

Oh, and I must say that even though you might improve your mental health, I enjoy your unbalanced-self very much!

[amari-z.livejournal.com]

Thanks, but I don't think doing this has any risk of improving my mental health--just not letting it slip further over the edge (on this issue, anyway). ; )

The world is a freakish place, and while I never really thought (still don't really) that my little LJ matters to anything, it seems better to be safe than sorry.

[sarmajere.livejournal.com]

I'm here cause I discovered your fic and wanted to see it as it comes out. Feel free to filter me wherever you feel best putting a random stranger who's into your AUS.

[amari-z.livejournal.com]

I don't mind having you read whatever you like--it's entirely up to you. Right now you and everyone else I've friended are in the filter--just let me know if you'd like me to take you off. : )

[sasha-b.livejournal.com]

Damnit, now I can't stalk you!! :p

I had actually thought about doing that myself, except for the fic posts. We'll see.

[amari-z.livejournal.com]

Hah!! No, you can't! I've stopped you cold. Bwhahhha.