Not personal

Petre Otskheli (1907 – 1937)

Ok, by popular Twitter demand here is my extremely nerdy write up on breathing and breathwork in Our Flag Means Death, specifically looking at Ed and Stede’s “Your Wear Fine Things Well” scene. I’m a professional theater person and coming at this from a live performance lens, and this is film/TV acting, so take some of this with a grain of salt, but most of our best actors come from a theater background (I know Taika studied theater in college ). So fuck in, let’s dive in and overanalyze the hell of out something. 

Dear AO3 users,

We would like to bring your attention to an ugly situation with unauthorized copying of works posted on AO3.

A lot of works from AO3 have been copied to fanfics.me (we’ll call this site FFM for brevity’s sake) and are still being copied right now, either:

— automatically by a code specifically created by FFM’s owner for this purpose, or

— by unaware or unscrupulous FFM’s users via semi-automatic method (by inserting a link to a work from AO3 into a web-worm on FFM).

All works from AO3 — with a few exceptions (I’ll elaborate on this below) — can end up on FFM without authors even noticing. Even fanarts or podfics.

FFM doesn’t comply with DMCA which means that such reposts endanger fanworks’ creators in case the copyright holder demands to delete the fanwork.

Authors of the copied works do not have any control over them; if the work is edited it won’t be updated on FFM until someone manually updates it.

Additionally FFM’s owner makes money out of reposted free fanworks from numerous Google and Yandex ads on each and every FFM’s page by having people go to this site when searching for fics on Google etc. So we recommend using an Ads Blocker when visiting this site in order to prevent the owner from earning more. Ghostery or Adblock Plus work just fine, but you can use any other Ads Blocker that is convenient to you.

Oftentimes FFM even shows up before the original post with the work on Google search results.

The owner’s e-mail: [email protected].

The owner at AO3.

We are trying to bring AO3’s users attention to this situation and help authors with taking their works down from FFM.

Briefly about the website and its owner

Let me start from the very beginning as it will bring into the light the nature of FFM and give a good example of its owner characteristic behavior.

At first, some person with nickname Refery created FFM as a web archive where authors — mostly from Harry Potter fandom — could publish their fanworks.

Time passed, the site grew and added some features (blogs, pre-moderation and etc.), and all was good and well up till the moment when Refery decided that it would be a great idea to copy to FFM fanworks published on other Russian fanfiction archives — among them from the biggest and most known site ficbook — without asking authors for permission. Even those works that had “Ask me before posting the story somewhere else” mentioned in its text or summary were copied.

For some time nobody noticed, but when finally and inevitably this came out the authors were outraged. It took a lot of time to finally persuade Refery to at least not to copy fanworks bearing a special tag “Уточнять у автора” (Ask the author first).

But after some time Refery — without giving any notice — violated his own promise and resumed copying to FFM fanworks that had the agreed upon tag. The authors complained again, so very reluctantly and after many painful discussions this feature was reinstalled.

So FFM has been notoriously known, mostly amongst Russian fandom, for claims on re-posting fanworks without the consent of the authors.

We’re mentioning this situation just to give you a detailed portrait of a person we are dealing with here.

Not only fanworks are copied to this website, but original works, too. Even those which were already published. There were all 7 of Harry Potter novels (both original text and translation), The Hobbit: There and Back Again (translation) and Vorkosigan Saga (translation) available for everybody to read and download. They were taken down only recently due to the attention this whole situation had drawn, but nothing ever goes away once it’s posted online and you can access the proof via Internet Wayback machine. We know for a fact there are other books on FFM and some actions have been taken in this regard, but still it takes time to find published books on this site.

Recently Refery decided that Russian archives are not enough for him and started copying all fanworks into FFM without any permission from the authors from numerous sites, like AO3, fanfiction.net, fictionpress.com, fanfiktion.de and likely other web-archives.

Moreover, the authors of these works can not delete their works from FFM and/or manage them. The site is in Russian only and, hence, we strongly believe that non-Russian speaking authors even do not know that their works are reposted somewhere else.

As a Russian fan-community, we have tried to stop such activity of FFM many times; however, we have not been successful in achieving our goal completely. Our most recent achievement is that the FFM’s owner implemented the “Don’t copy to another site” tag created specifically for AO3 (here is the link to FFM’s owner post on his personal blog regarding this tag. Please use Ads Blocker!). This tag should be added to each work presented on AO3 in case the author does not want their works to be copied to FFM.

We are of the opinion that no work should be taken without permission in the first place, but this tag is all we’ve got.

Please note that it seems that some time ago there was similar case of unauthorized copying with other site. Please check this link, they give useful advice.

How to prevent copying from AO3

If you check AO3 you may notice that “Don’t copy to another site” tag has hugely emerged in the recent weeks, but mostly amongst Russian users and there is a good reason for this: the owner of FFM announced this tag only in Russian and only on his private blog, so naturally there is no way for non-Russian speaking AO3 users to know about this — albeit non-satisfactory — solution.

There are no guaranties that the FFM’s owner won’t change the rules again as has already happened numerous times before (few examples we described above) and that works with this tag won’t be reposted in the future, but for now it’s the only quick and working solution besides making your works visible only to registered users, which is not ideal. 

This situation is highly unpleasant, but we ask you not to delete your works from AO3, because if the work is deleted from AO3 it will be nearly impossible to delete it from FFM: we won’t be able to refresh it manually and remove the text.

Please note that adding this tag won’t work for texts that have already been copied. Only users who have accounts at FFM will be able to delete them. Each work needs to be deleted manually.

However, the Russian fandom — except for the owner of FFM — strongly condemns reposts without the consent of the author, so feel free to contact our volunteers (through DM or Ask on our tumblr page) providing the links to the works stolen from AO3, so we could delete them for you.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to cover all authors and works manually. So, we contacted AO3’ Technical Team with the aim to bring their attention to this situation and inform about it all AO3 users, and hope that AO3 team will find a general solution to resolve this problem, possibly, in collaboration with the AO3 lawyers.

We are trying to warn as many authors as possible and recently started spreading this information via comments on AO3; but considering the number of works copied to FFM informing all authors will take considerable time, and we can easily miss someone, especially since the copying is still in progress and new works from AO3 are appearing on FFM every day.

Please help us spread the word!

We tried to make a comprehensive FAQ about this. Feel free to ask if anything is unclear!

FAQ

Q: Can I check if my work was copied to FFM?

A: Yes, you can.

FFM makes money on Google and Yandex ads, so we recommend turning on the Ads Blocker of your choice before visiting this site.

Please follow this link, insert the title of your work or your AO3/other web-archive nickname into the field containing the words “insert-title-nickname” and hit “Искать” (Search).

For works rated Mature or Explicit you will be able to see only the caption “Текст произведения доступен только зарегистрированным пользователям старше 18 лет” (“The text of the work is available only to registered users over 18 years old”), but FFM users are able to read and download the story.

Q: My work from AO3 was copied. How can I take it down?

A: First of all add the tag “Don’t copy to another site” (without “ “) to the stories you want to be taken down.

Actually we would recommend adding this tag to all the works you don’t want to be copied.

Contact one of our volunteers (through DM or Ask on our tumblr page) providing links to your works or send an e-mail with your deletion request directly to the FFM owner at [email protected] or at AO3. 

There is a third option: to register on FFM and delete the work yourself by hitting the refresh button, but considering that the site is in Russian we do not think it will be very convenient to those who do not speak Russian language.

Q: I got the message that my work has been deleted. How can I check if it is true?

A: You can go to FFM, search for you work, click on its title and scroll down.

After the summary there is a field that should look like this for those fics that have been deleted.

Basically it says that the author of this particular work has forbidden its copying and that only the information on its title, author’s nickname, rating, pairings, summary and the link to original post on AO3 are available. 

For works that are still available on FFM this field looks like this (if the work is open for non-registered users).

Q: My work copied from AO3 was deleted, but FFM still shows some information on it. Can it be deleted?

A: Even though the text of the fic is not going to be on FFM anymore after it has been deleted, the fic’s title, author’s name, rating, pairings, summary and link to original post on AO3 will remain there.

The deletion of this leftover information can be done only by the site owner himself.

Some Russian authors tried to make him to delete it, but in most cases the FFM’s owner refused them mentioning that publication of such information is in line with fair use concept and doesn’t violate authors’ rights.

We are yet unsure how to delete this leftover information. In case you need it as well, try contacting the FFM owner at [email protected] or at AO3. Maybe e-mails of a large number of authors will work, but unfortunately we can’t guarantee anything. In case you need it, we can provide Russian text for you to send by e-mail (please contact our volunteers through DM or Ask on our tumblr page).

Q: My work from fanfiction.net/fictionpress.com/fanfiktion.de/other web-archives was copied to FFM. How can I take it down?

A: Unfortunately, there is no possible way for us to delete from FFM the fanworks that are copied from web-archives other then AO3. Only FFM’s owner can delete these works, please try contacting him at [email protected] or at AO3. In case you need it, we can provide Russian text for you to send by e-mail (please contact our volunteers through DM or Ask on our tumblr page).

Please do not delete your works from the web-archive it was stolen from, because if the work is deleted it will be nearly impossible to delete it from FFM.

It really hurts me to witness his childhood abuse in that comic preview. Like, it really reminds me of my father own abuse somehow (of course on a lesser scale). I really recognized some patterns.

Abuse and insults for a small mistake (in front of another person no less)

Also, notice how little Armitage immediately apologizes and tries to fix his mistake. He’s trying to prevent any further abuse, because he KNOWS this will end up in further humiliation (or even physical abuse). How stressful this kid’s life must be if he’s gotta be careful of everything around his father, even for small tasks (which can lead him to more mistakes because of the anxiety: I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what happened here with the glasses).

Considering that at already 5 YEARS OLD, Hux knew FOR A FACT that he was unloved and unwanted by his own father, this boy’s life really is heartbreaking to me.

Not being able to rely on your father’s support when faced with mockery / threats

This small hopeful “father?” literally breaks my heart. Little Armitage is trying to seek some support and protection from his father to prevent the humiliation to come. Even when being ceaselessly abused, lots of kids still deep down believe their parents love and care for them somehow. But OF COURSE, Hux doesn’t get any support: Brendol stays silent, which indicates he wants Armitage to comply and be humiliated.

Never knowing what would please or appease your abusive parental figure

Hux thought that since his father didn’t say anything, it meant he had to obey Admiral Brooks’ humiliating order. But it ends up displeasing his father, who once again insults and mocks him, and makes him roughly stand up. Armitage clearly doesn’t know what his father wants and what would please him. Some abusive parents like to “test” their kids in complicated situations like these, not telling them what the good behavior is and then viciously insulting and punishing them when they do the wrong thing.

Also, with this use of “sniveling”, we know the poor boy was already crying on the floor while preparing himself to do this humiliating task (even if we don’t see his face in that panel). No doubt he probably was punished for crying afterwards.

Like, if his entire youth was so hellish, no wonder Hux ended up the vicious ruthless and cold general he is now. My father’s abuse, even if following the same patterns, wasn’t as intense, but it still deeply traumatized me, giving me anxiety and depression, and it took me YEARS to feel slightly better, and I’m still not over it. I can’t even imagine how fucked up Armitage became because of Brendol’s abuse.

This last panel is also really sad to me.

Hux literally has no friend (I saw one star wars writer say that once, but I don’t remember who it was)

He’s been used all his life: he’s only been saved from Jakku because he could be useful to rebuild the Empire (”the Empire needs children”), his father only takes care of him (the bare minimum at least) because he needs him to be useful (”I’ll teach him, you’ll see. He has potential”). Even Rae Sloane, who tried to protect him from his father’s abuse and probably is the more nurturing character young Hux ever met, was only nice to him not out of genuine concern, but because she didn’t want to be killed by Brendol’s army of orphans, and only Armitage could prevent that.

He’s been abused all his young life, both by his father and other officers. And then by other authority figures, such as Supreme Leader Snoke and Kylo Ren in TLJ.

The entire First Order isn’t a very nurturing regime: no doubt it’s full of judgemental and ambitious backstabbers, and any show of ‘weakness’ or positive emotions such as empathy or love, even when coming from high officers, must be harshly repressed and can be used against you. Even free of his father’s abuse, Hux probably couldn’t find solace with other people around him.

And what’s heartbreaking in this last panel is that Armitage probably believed and hoped for a second that someone genuinely cared for him, really saved his life in a selfless act. Which Kylo Ren immediately nips in the bud (I mean, it seems Ren genuinely was worried about Hux in the previous panels, but Hux doesn’t know that).

I love Hux with all my heart and I feel myself so heartbroken about his backstory. He don't deserve all this abusive shit even if he is a villain. 

Not to be weird considering this is Chernobyl we’re talking about, but I’m already tagging this as BROTP of 2019. Like I can’t even.