Hi guys !
Just wanted to speak up for a bit about an issue I've seen on here. I won't give any names for obvious reasons, but I've seen users commissioning fics (asking for money against writing fics) and aside from the fact that it's against Tumblr's Policy, if you've been in fandoms since before 2020 you know why this is problematic for fandoms as a whole.
While asking for help is always okay to do if you're struggling, basically selling fics is not and if you don't know why (which is okay, the LADS fandom is fairly new and its fanbase as well so not everyone knows everything), let me explain it.
Fanfictions are and must remain free for the simple reason that, because it is based on existing licences to which we do not own the rights, profiting off of it is considered theft of intellectual property and breach of copyrights so it's, well, completely illegal.
The only reason companies are tolerating fanfictions' existence is BECAUSE it is free, it is a gift from a fan to their community. It is a work of love, not made for monetary gain but to share the love of a work with other fans of that work.
There have been instances of people trying to profit off of fanfics before, resulting in lawsuits that impacted the whole community of the fandom that it concerned (thinking about Anne Rice, Warner Bros, Patreon users being banned, the mature content purges on Fanfiction.net...).
The balance in fandom spaces is more fragile than we think, they are safe spaces because we created them with the same thought of protecting those spaces by respecting implicit rules of decorum, not profiting off of fics being one of those implicit rules.
We already know the original content of Love&Deepspace is heavily censored because of Chinese censorships and that Infold is greedy so imagine how they'd react if they knew people made money off of their work. It would not go well for anyone involved and the consequences for the community as a whole would be catastrophic.
Imagine if somehow this was the straw that breaks the camel's back and it brought some governments' attention on fanfiction, enough for them to make up laws to ban fanfiction altogether. No one wants that to happen. No one.
So please, if you happen to be one of those people and you're reading this. Don't be selfish. Think about the greater good. Don't ruin everyone else's safe place for your own personal gain. Thank you.
