Places I've Never Been

2015-02-17 · letter vlog · John · 3:40 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube (also: Books & writing, Projects, Personal life) · mode: Personal essay · tags: self correction, self promotion, community lore

John tells how a line long attributed to his novel Paper Towns, and sold as a DFTBA poster, was in fact written by a 13-year-old Nerdfighter, and argues that his own failure to notice shows how broken credit, sourcing and copyright are online.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Greeting; after Nerdfighters compare his beard to Tom Hanks's in Cast Away, John has trimmed it

★ After his last video a Nerdfighter asked who wore it better, Tom Hanks in Cast Away or John, and a commenter said the puff had migrated south; John says he has trimmed his beard. (playful) — 00:00:01 · the Puff, Twitter

00:00:15 — The much-quoted 'Paper Towns' line John doesn't remember writing, the DFTBA poster, and how a copyright-subreddit post led him to search a pirated copy of his own novel

★★ John says the Paper Towns line 'I'm in love with cities I've never been to and people I've never met' has been quoted a lot, pops up all the time on Tumblr and has over 1,700 likes on Goodreads. — 00:00:15 · Paper Towns, Tumblr
★ John says the line is no 'If people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane', nor among Paper Towns' most quoted lines, but it is widely out there. — 00:00:27 · Paper Towns, Looking for Alaska (novel)
★★ John says there is even a poster of the line at DFTBA.com, designed by Nerdfighter Risa. — 00:00:36 · DFTBA Records
★★ John says he doesn't remember writing the line, but then he doesn't remember writing a lot of Paper Towns, which came out seven years ago. — 00:00:41 · Paper Towns
★★ John says he assumed the quote was in Paper Towns because people kept sourcing it there, admits he should have researched, and adds that most of us have failed to fact-check online. — 00:01:03 · Paper Towns
★★★ Last week (week of 9 February 2015) John found a copyright-subreddit post saying a friend's Tumblr line was attributed to him and sold as a poster; he illegally downloaded a pirated copy of his own novel, searched it, and the line was not there. — 00:01:20 · Reddit, Paper Towns, Tumblr

00:01:44 — The line was written by 13-year-old Nerdfighter Melody, who now gets hateful asks; royalties shared with her and Risa, and Melody's own artwork made a poster

★★★ John corrects the record: the line was written several years ago by a 13-year-old Nerdfighter, Melody, who often quoted his books and made art on her Tumblr; someone assumed he wrote it. — 00:01:44 · Tumblr, Nerdfighteria
★★ John says Melody now gets lots of hateful asks in her Tumblr inbox from people accusing her of stealing John Green's quote. — 00:02:01 · Tumblr
★★★ John says they have been selling a poster with a quote attributed to him that a 13-year-old wrote; Melody and Risa will now share its royalties, and Melody is being paid retroactively for posters already sold. — 00:02:14
★★ John says he liked an artwork of Melody's so much that it is now a DFTBA.com poster, available for pre-order, with the royalties going to Melody. — 00:02:27 · DFTBA Records

00:02:36 — Other misattributions (One Tree Hill) and what they show: credit, sourcing and copyright are screwed up on the internet

★★ John admits he is 'a bit of a grapefruit' for getting into this, and says it is not his first misattribution: a line from One Tree Hill's series finale is widely attributed to him on Tumblr, though he did not write it. (playful) — 00:02:36 · Tumblr
★★★ John says that a wrongly attributed author failing to notice the misattribution shows how screwed up credit, sourcing and copyright are on the internet. (hedged) — 00:02:52
★★★ John says we do a very bad job of acknowledging one another's work and checking our sources. — 00:03:02
★★ John hopes they have got it right now, but is sure someone's copyright is still being violated somewhere in all this. (hedged) — 00:03:11

00:03:11 — Crash Course intellectual property and copyright course coming soon; please support Risa and Melody by getting their posters; sign-off

★★ John says Crash Course will soon start an introduction to intellectual property and copyright law, of interest to everyone who cares about the internet and making things. — 00:03:15 · Crash Course
★★ John asks viewers to support Risa and Nerdfighter Melody by getting their posters. — 00:03:34

In the description and comments

★ The description says the poster by Risa (and Melody) is $10, as is Melody's own poster. — video description

Humor (significant)

On the Paper Towns set, John asks director Jake Schreier why a scene is happening, is told it's in the book, and asks how the book is anyway. — 00:01:02

“I hear there is a little bit too much Walt Whitman.”
To check whether the quote is in Paper Towns, John needs a searchable copy of his own book. — 00:01:38

“I illegally downloaded a pirated copy of my own novel”
Melody gets hateful asks accusing her of stealing John Green's quote. — 00:02:11

“I am the thief!”
Announcing Melody's new poster, John pretends to keep the money. — 00:02:34

“All the royalties go to me, no, they go to Melody.”

Threads in this video

told · John trims his beard after a Tom Hanks in Cast Away comparison (2015) — After his last video drew beard comparisons (Tom Hanks in Cast Away, 'the puff' migrating south), John says he has trimmed his beard. (00:00:13) → refers to Understanding Boko Haram
callback · John's 'the puff' stress habit (2007) — John reads a comment saying 'the puff' seems to have migrated south for the winter, i.e. to his beard. (00:00:09)
told · John discovers the 'Paper Towns' quote attributed to him was written by 13-year-old Nerdfighter Melody (2015) — John tells how a line long credited to Paper Towns turned out, after he searched a pirated copy of his own novel, to have been written by 13-year-old Nerdfighter Melody, who now receives hateful asks. (00:01:20)
milestone · DFTBA posters: Nerdfighter-designed posters sold at DFTBA.com (2011) — John says Melody and Risa will share the royalties from the misattributed-quote poster, Melody is paid retroactively, and Melody's own artwork is now a DFTBA.com poster on pre-order. (00:02:20)
restate · Should ideas be ownable, and is copyright law working? — John says his failure to notice the misattribution shows how screwed up credit, sourcing and copyright are on the internet. (00:02:55)
announced · Crash Course Intellectual Property: introduction to IP and copyright law (2015) — John announces that Crash Course will soon start an introduction to intellectual property and copyright law. (00:03:15)
asked · John asks viewers to support Risa and Melody by buying their DFTBA.com posters (2015) — John asks viewers to support Risa and Nerdfighter Melody by getting their posters. (00:03:34)

Where the stories that moved here went next

Crash Course Intellectual Property: introduction to IP and copyright law (2015) — proposed; last: looked back, 2019-02-01

Mentioned

Central: Cities I've Never Been To poster · copyright · I'm in love with cities I've never been to and people I've never met · Melody · misquotation · Paper Towns

Also: People: Jake Schreier · Tom Hanks · Walt Whitman

Projects: Crash Course · DFTBA Records

Works: Cast Away · Keeping the Promise poster · Looking for Alaska (novel) · One Tree Hill · Paper Towns (film)

Organizations: Goodreads · Reddit · Tumblr · Twitter

Terms: the Puff

Concepts: fact-checking · intellectual property · royalty payment

Only in the description or credits: Risa Rodil

Also centred on copyright: August 31: Copyright and Airports · Top 5 Reasons ████ ██ ██████ · Old Man Narrates Young Girl · On the Ownership of Ideas · Across Three Continents: A Tale of Tumblr, Copyright, and Excellent Posters · Who Owns a Monkey's Selfie? And a Song About Meningitis!

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