Meyers fanfic writer's *conditional* apology

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Gillhoughly

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Lady Silly Potatohead is at it again with a new press release.

She's leaving the future of Russet Nooner to S. Meyers.

Mighty big of the Syb, ain't it?

I'm thinking the Potatohead is still desperately longing to hear from Ms. Meyers directly and thus find a morsel of validation for her existence.

Ahh, but there are conditions! She wants to print 50 copies to hand out as freebies.

Ms. Meyers, I recommend a resounding NO to this moron.

Quoted in full before the Potatohead removes it:
Lady Sybilla Apologizes to Stephenie Meyer for Writing Russet Noon.
On April 30th, Lady Sybilla sent a letter of apology to Stephenie Meyer. Today, the letter is declassified for the first time since it was sent.
Declassified. That's rich. Read on to more hilarity.

May 10, 2009 – Much controversy has surrounded the tribute novel Russet Noon since its upcoming publication was announced. According to blog reports, Stephenie Meyer's reps at Little, Brown in the U.K. are "well aware" of the novel already (http://twilight-to-breakingdawn.blogspot.com/2009/03/rus ...).

For this reason, Lady Sybilla made a final decision about Russet Noon and left its ultimate fate in Stephenie Meyer's hands. She wrote Ms. Meyer a letter of apology and let her know that she would be willing to shut down the project permanently if she asked her to.

The AV Paranormal team decided to give it a few days until the letter arrived at the New York office of Little, Brown to disclose it. Now, for the first time since the letter was sent on April 30th, 2009, it is released to the public. The letter is as follows:

Ms. Stephenie Meyer
c/o
Little, Brown and Company
Hachette Book Group, USA
(Address Omitted)
New York, NY 10017

Dear Ms. Meyer:

My name is Glorianna Arias and my pen name is Lady Sybilla. I understand some of your fans may have been contacting you to complain about my novel, Russet Noon.

First and foremost, I want to apologize to you for having started such an uproar. In all honesty, I never imagined there would be so strong and massive a reaction on the part of Twilight fans all over the Internet.

I want to assure you that my only intention was to pay tribute to you and your story by turning Jacob into a superhero.
(Not to mention making a mint off your work by selling this fanfic ripoff illegally on Ebay and from my Russet Nooner website!)

I know I had no right to do this, no matter how much I loved your characters. I have no excuse for my actions. From the bottom of my heart, I am truly sorry.
That you got caught.

By this means, I want to ask if you would please allow me to publish Russet Noon as a paperback.
This woman's got more nerve than a bum tooth.

I assure you that I will only print 50 copies to give away to people for free.
More than enough for an enterprising Twi-fan--such as the Syb herself--to scan and upload it onto the Net for all to read. Thus she grabs the attention she craves while allowing her to wail, "Some fan stole my words!"

I will cover all publication costs and will never try to sell it. Let this letter attest to that.
Let this post attest to the fact that you're about as stable as the San Andreas Fault.

However, if you prefer for me to shut down the project altogether,
It's something we would ALL prefer--never to hear from you again unless you have a legit and ORIGINAL book to pimp.

I will understand your position. It is your story, and they are your characters.
Good heavens, was that the sound of the Clue Train smacking her in the arse?

If you ask me to shut it down, I will do so immediately. All I want to do at this point is make things right.
You already KNOW what will make things right. Shut down everything immediately, including the 50 copies, go write something YOU made up, and hope everyone forgets this idiocy.

Please let me know how you want me to proceed. Thanks very much for your time.

Respectfully,
Glorianna Arias
Founder, AV Paranormal Publishing
Phone: (Omitted)

End of letter.

So far, neither Stephenie Meyer nor her publisher has responded to the letter, so AV Paranormal is still moving forward with publication.
Bolding is mine.

Give it time, Potatobrains. They’re probably still laughing themselves silly at your magnificent gesture.

Consider just how much fan mail arrives at the publisher for Ms. Meyers every day. Add to that the countless manuscripts, submissions, and ordinary mail a large publisher handles on a daily basis.

Sometimes my fan mail doesn't reach me until two months after it was sent.

So please repeat this mantra: "I am NOT special...I am NOT special..." until it sinks in.



 

Kaiser-Kun

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I know I had no right to do this, no matter how much I loved your characters. I have no excuse for my actions. From the bottom of my heart, I am truly sorry.

nelson.jpg
 

NeuroFizz

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Oh, the situation is special all right.

Of course, even in the smallest room of the house, I occasionally drop one from rim level that earns my admiration for its special qualities. But it then earns the same dizzying trip through the S-bend as all of the other afterpieces.
 
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Pagey's_Girl

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Oh my. This is just getting juicier and juicier....

And does making dolls that look like your characters count as drawing them? 'Cause I have all of my major players in 3D cloth. (Okay, granted, that probably makes me sound as wacked out as Lady Potato, but oh well....)
 

Adam

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Good gawd. This woman needs institutionalising!
 
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Clearly at the back of the queue when the brainz0rz were handed out.

(Lady SillyBilly I mean, Adam, not you).

Everything she writes makes me cringe. It's like a car crash. I should look away but I can't...
 

alleycat

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We could make a game out of this and write fictitious letters to famous people explaining that we're using their properties unless they call and ask us nicely not to; although I don't think we can write one as funny as Lady S.

I could write a letter to George Lucas telling him I'm only using his Star Wars characters for a small indie film. Or a letter to Stephen King explaining that my new novel, Carrie Returns, is actually an example of "fan love, and fan love is the truest form of love there is". Or maybe John Grisham would like to hear my idea for The Firm / Return to Memphis. I bet he would! Surely the Beckett estate wouldn't mind if I wrote Godot Finally Showed Up.
 

Cyia

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Ha! Taterhead's about run sprout first into Smeyer's guard dog - A.K.A. her brother. He makes a habit of NOT passing along fanmail or questions or anything that might be construed as input or criticism.

Sorry, Tater, you're just a fic-writer like any other and Ms. Meyer doesn't owe you anything... not to mention the fact that if she DID okay those 50 free copies, she'd be opening her entire franchise up to every whacko who wanted to do the same. Smeyer's handlers are smart enough not to let her set a precedent of handing out keys to the playground.
 

Kaiser-Kun

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Ha! Taterhead's about run sprout first into Smeyer's guard dog - A.K.A. her brother. He makes a habit of NOT passing along fanmail or questions or anything that might be construed as input or criticism.

Sorry, Tater, you're just a fic-writer like any other and Ms. Meyer doesn't owe you anything... not to mention the fact that if she DID okay those 50 free copies, she'd be opening her entire franchise up to every whacko who wanted to do the same. Smeyer's handlers are smart enough not to let her set a precedent of handing out keys to the playground.

Just imagine your local bookstore flooded with published twilight fanfiction.

childhoodtitlle.jpg
 

Wayne K

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And yet here we are talking about her.

Moron that she is she will turn this into money somehow.

If she can write (I haven't read her nor will I ever) it would be nice. I'm tired of stunts that benefit bad writers.
 

BenPanced

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Why doesn't she just freakin' offer to buy the hounds airfare and send them links to the Google map to her place from the airport?! If she's that stoopid to take "no reply" as "yes", considering there are probably half a million letters ahead of hers, I'd hate to see her trying to navigate publishing down here on Planet Earth with the rest of us fools puny humans mortals.

Maybe she could write Martha Stewart for some handy hints for potential jail time...
 

emilycross

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God she's unbelievable!!! i'd love to know what she's smoking, if she things 'no reply' = go ahead. Hello, this is the publishing industry. no reply= hello no, get away from me!
 

Momento Mori

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PRESS RELEASE:
I know I had no right to do this, no matter how much I loved your characters. I have no excuse for my actions.

That right there is the sentence that Meyer's lawyers will point a judge to when they get their injunction.

PRESS RELEASE:
So far, neither Stephenie Meyer nor her publisher has responded to the letter, so AV Paranormal is still moving forward with publication.

And that right there is the sentence that Meyer's lawyers will point to when they ask for punitive damages, i.e. she knew it was wrong, acknowledged that she knew it was wrong and then went ahead and did it anyway.

MM
 

Mac H.

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From a legal point of view, though, it makes a lot of sense.

There is a principle in damages claims that says the person being damaged has a responsibility to mitigate damage. So if you scratch my car, I can get you to pay for the damages.

But if I don't repair the scratch and the car rusts away, I can only get you to pay for the original scratch ... I have a responsibility to take reasonable steps to mitigate the damages.

So by giving the original author an easy way to mitigate the damages, then the copycat can limit the damages claim. Sure, it will obviously be simple for the original author to get an injunction .. but it always was.

This way the copycat is making it no easier for the author to get an injunction, but basically preventing any large damages claim.

It really does make sense.

Mac
(Obviously I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice.)
 
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Momento Mori

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Mac H.:
So by giving the original author an easy way to mitigate the damages, then the copycat can limit the damages claim. Sure, it will obviously be simple for the original author to get an injunction .. but it always was.

This way the copycat is making it no easier for the author to get an injunction, but basically preventing any large damages claim.

I'm not sure about that (but I'm not a United Statesian IP lawyer).

I've sent C&D letters to people in the UK on behalf of clients. Depending on the infringement that we'd identified, we'd usually put in a paragraph saying that if the recipient accepted that they were infringing our client's work, then we would be happy to drop the matter in return for the recipient forfeiting all copies of the infringing work and making an account of any and all profits made (or provide evidence of any loss). If our client was really pissed off then we'd usually ask for an amount in respect of our legal costs as well.

If someone had come back to a C&D letter that I'd sent saying "You're absolutely right, I am infringing your client's work and I'm really sorry about it. But here's the thing, I'd like to go ahead and print 50 copies of my work and give them to friends and family. Please tell me what you want me to do" then I suppose she could try arguing that this was tacit consent. My argument would be that I don't have to do anything further because I'd be relying on my original C&D letter telling her to knock it off or else. My damages claim would therefore remain intact because it runs from the underlying infringement and because Potatohead would have to prove that those 50 copies were not intended for sale or resale (which I've seen some people try to use as a way of getting around an injunction).

However, I would imagine that the Meyers lawyers (once they've stopped laughing) will simply go back with another C&D letter that's a little tougher on the wording and if they think it's worth the cost, an injunction against the print-run. But I'm just guessing here, so don't sue me if it doesn't turn out that way.

MM
 

Alitriona

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This woman is turning into a serious stalker!

I wonder if the plan is to print off 50 copies and hope someone leaks it to the net, thus relieving her of responsibility for its circulation.
 

Nivarion

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I am so tired that all humor is currently lost on me.

I may get it latter.
 

Phaeal

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Don't you just hate these little yipping dogs that you know you should ignore but they keep nipping at your heels until you have to step on them?

Sure you do.
 

Gillhoughly

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I've sent e-mails to Ms. Meyers' publisher, but don't know if any have been sent on to where they will do any good.

The house doesn't have a contact addy to their legal department on the website, and I'm not involving my agent in this kerfuffle. She's busy with her job, as I should be.

It's just that the Potatohead has really gotten under my skin, and I shouldn't let it.

She is wholly unimportant, but she just isn't GETTING it that her grand effort to "immortalize" someone else's work is ILLEGAL.

Potatohead--Meyers CANNOT grant you permission to print 50 copies for your own use.

Doing so will be in breach of contract with her publishers and open her up to a lawsuit.


You are NOT getting that permission.

And you've gotten no reply because your letter is probably still lost in an unopened bag full of fan mail.

Read this aloud to yourself: "No one wants to read my Twi-fic. My Twi-fic is ILLEGAL under the laws of the country I live in."

Even the most fanatic Twi-fans are able to grasp that--why can't you?

Your refusal to accept this has opened you up to mockage and insult. Apparently you get off on that, though I can't imagine why. How does all that abuse turn into a release of endorphins in your brain?

There are more pleasant diversions in this world. Please, shut off your computer, get out, and find some. We're tired of you.
 

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At this point, I think Potatohead deserves to lose her home, her car, any savings, any any future income—these are all quite likely outcomes if she "publishes." I don't think she deserves prison, but that's up to the judge.

So let her go ahead and "publish" her travesty. She's managed to violate copyright, digital and non (and the DMCA fees are killer), trademark, and possibly even engaged in Internet stalking and harassment; IANL so I'll let the judge and jury decide.

Plus, she luuuuuuuves the attention.
 
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