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danglingdingle
25 July 2008 @ 08:32 am
How do we define canon in fandom?  

Now that we have had all the three movies and the extras and deleted scenes for a while, and unless there will be some sooper speshul edition with an 
inflatable!Jack and a jar of dirt (heart not included,) that’s all we’re going to get on DVD, so I thought I’d ask what people have come to see as part of the whole deal.

In addition to all the material in and with the actual movies, we have a whole lot of officially licensed books, novelisations and games, we have interviews with the actors, the director and the screenwriters both on the internet and in magazines of wide range.

Some people like to rely to history while writing a story, since the trilogy has been labelled as a period piece, whereas some people disregard history and choose to rely on modern day views and standards in their writing, because it is somewhat of a 21st century movie in a historical setting. 

And we have and undead zombie monkey and an immortal ferryman of souls, let's not forget...

With all that, my question is; What do we actually have here to play with? What‘s the general consensus of what is relevant enough to constitute as canon in this fandom?

Is it canon, that Jack has been a privateer at the EITC’s service because an official book has told us so?

Would it fit the definition of canon to take the deleted scenes into account, every last one of them?

Is it canonically correct that Will took to pirating to support Elizabeth because an officially licenced game has that bit of information in its storyline?

What about the details and ideas the screenwriters have shared online?

Should Johnny Depp’s vision of Jack Sparrow be considered canon?

From where do we construct our canon? What is the information that should be taken into account when figuring out the guidelines that define our canon these days?

 
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Veronica Rich
25 July 2008 @ 06:45 pm
Be on the lookout for your own stories - sans your name  
One of my f-listers and a writer in our fair fandom, [info]mamazano, has uncovered what appears to be plagiarism of her POTC writing. You can learn more through the link I've put in my own journal, as well as the links to a couple of other stories - one of the original writer's, and one of the alleged plagiarist's.


Note: I say "alleged" because while fanfic writers have no legal protections from this sort of thing, I would prefer to use these legalistic terms because the appropriator in question has indicated he "paid" someone else for these stories and if that's the case, he's still at least abetting a plagiarist. Nonetheless, it has been done.


I post here, and I'll be posting in a couple of other places, because this goes beyond an individual's character preference, their 'ship preference, or even their fandom preference. It's just bad business to take someone else's words without giving them credit (which is what disclaimers are FOR on our stories). The point of fanfic is to enjoy something with a tip of the hat to the entities what originally created it - we can bitch about Disney or T&T all we like, but when I sit down to write a fanfic, I at least credit the parent studio because without them, we wouldn't have it to write about.
 
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