Harry Potter & the Methods of Rationality returns with a fundraising twist

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/73/Harry_Potter_and_the_Methods_of_Rationality

by nico_h • 15 years ago

48 14 15 years ago

spicycat• 15 years ago

This seems a little dangerous. Does this seem like monetizing fanfiction containing copyrighted characters in a non-direct way to anyone else?

I do like the story so far, and I'd hate for it to go poof because of legal issues.

nico_h• 15 years ago

Only the release timeline would change, by a few days, not the writing or the releasing at all. But I am not a "copyright" lawyer.

cperciva2• 15 years ago

Copyright law doesn't care about whether this is "monetizing" or not. He's infringing simply by using JK Rowling's characters; he's safe only thanks to JK Rowling saying that she doesn't mind HP fanfiction as long as it's not obscene and non-commercial.

So the only real question here is: What does JK Rowling think of this?

nohat• 15 years ago

The actual fundraising bribe is a 6/5/4/3 day release schedule for $0/50000/750000/125000 SIAI donation challenge. Not holding chapters hostage or anything, as I was first afraid of.

Eliezer• 15 years ago

Here at the Singularity Institute, our motto is "Be less evil than Google."

HaloZero• 15 years ago

He's basically trying to help promote the non-profit he is working at which makes sense, not for his own monetary gain.

It's the equivalent of Stephen Colbert saying he'll do something silly if people help raise x amount of money for y charity.

yuvipanda• 15 years ago

I donated, but that's simply because I'm an incredible fan of the work (and most of his writing) - I figure it's my way of 'supporting' him. Wonder if this counts as 'monetizing?

whatrocks• 15 years ago

Dedicating my donation to the 'The Stanford Prison Experiment' sequence.

mcherm2• 15 years ago

Frustrating: I've been trying for 15 minutes now to make a donation. First, I had to search to find where to make a donation since the announcement didn't include a link. Then the Google Checkout button did not work. Then causes.com sat frozen for over 3 minutes the for getting me a message that there was an unspecified problem with my card. it's a good cause and a great work of fiction so I'm willing to try 1 more time.

perlgeek• 15 years ago

It seems that fanfiction.net doesn't allow links in the body text of books. I hope this is the correct link: http://singinst.org/donate/

endtime• 15 years ago

I think it's this: http://singinst.org/2011summerchallenge

Harry Potter & the Methods of Rationality returns with a fundraising twist

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