Archive of Our Own ^beta

I. LEGAL ADVOCACY

It was a busy month for the OTW's Legal team, beginning with a post to mark Fair Use/Fair Dealing week, which ran this year from 25 February to March 1. The week is coordinated by the Association of Research Libraries and celebrates the laws that permit fans to create transformative works based on copyrighted content.

Unfortunately, the rest of the month was less celebratory as EU lawmakers voted on March 26 to pass the "Digital Single Market Directive," which contains fan-unfriendly proposals related to the use of copyrighted material. The good news is that AO3, as a non-profit, will not be affected by the legislation; but other platforms may have to make more adjustments. Legal wrote a post for the OTW blog, which explains the ruling and its implications in detail.

The OTW is committed to advocating for the rights of fan creators, and the Legal team also took action this month to make sure that our voice is heard as part of these debates. They joined the Horizon 2020 European Advocacy coalition, which will conduct research and advocacy in Europe, and submitted a comment to the US Copyright Office regarding the definition of "commercial."

II. NEW ISSUE OF TRANSFORMATIVE WORKS AND CULTURES

The latest issue of the OTW's scholarly journal, Transformative Works and Cultures, was published on March 15 . This issue, themed on "Fans of Color, Fandoms of Color," was edited by Abigail De Kosnik and andré carrington. It features articles on the Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, and How to Get Away with Murder fandoms, amongst others, as well as reviews of a number of recent fan studies publications. As always, the journal content is free to read and download.

III. AT THE AO3

Policy & Abuse received approximately 1000 tickets this month. Support received 1118 tickets, 188 of which were translated by Translation. In February, Tag Wrangling wrangled over 201,000 tags.

IV. GOVERNANCE

OTW users, members, and volunteers were able to pose questions to the Board at an open Q&A session on March 14. If you missed out, don't worry - there will be another Q&A in the not-too-distant future. Stay tuned for more information!

The Board also approved the 2019 Budget, which is now available to view online.

V. IT'S ALL ABOUT THE PEEPS

As of 26 March, the OTW has 755 volunteers. Recent personnel movements are listed below.

New Committee Staff: Erlkoenig, Frost The Fox, Irina, Jen S, Metro, JessicaLovesSocks2658, Ranowa (all Policy & Abuse) and 5 other Policy & Abuse staffers
New Communications Volunteers: Szabó Dorottya
New Tag Wrangler Volunteers: Aprilcake, ArianaR, August, Aya, Bianca, bookscorpion, ellimac, erinaconyx, faultystart, GloriaRoies, Hoang C., Jazelock, Jessz, JoJo, JSaintJ, Karma, KeepCalmAndPlayDumb, LizS, mammaria, Marisa Poulsen, Mierke, mimi, Mimo, molars, Novic, raunchyandpaunchy, Rebeccaheather, Rebecca Snyder, romanticallyinept, Sarah Konersmann, Seas, Summers, Sunshijne, Tirnisse, Vokova, woyo, Zerovirus, Zixin Zhang and 1 other volunteer
New Translation Volunteers: Upasana Das and 6 other volunteers

Departing Committee Staff: Rebecca Snyder (Translation) and 1 other Translation staffer
Departing Tag Wrangler Volunteers: c_doves, DebetEsse, JanOda and 9 other volunteers
Departing Translation Volunteers: 1 volunteer
Departing TWC Volunteers: Mara Greengrass