the-mad-duchess:

jedihighcouncil:

cherryblus:

tariqah:

expatgirl:

the-mad-duchess:

Tumblr’s at it again, thanks to the new European Privacy Laws. There’s probably nobody who will read this, but it pissed me off so much that I decided to make a post about it. (Ignore the weird language mish-mash, depending on your country the language might differ.)

OK, so many of us get this screen when we try to access our dash:

Realise how the ‘OK’ button is a nice, attention-grabbing blue? If you’re like me, you’re not exactly into reading a 100 pages document and tend to just click it.

My tip? DONT. Instead click on ‘Manage Options’ right next to it:

Now you’ll see this page:

Still pretty harmless, right? That ‘Accept’ button is looking really attractive right now. Instead, click on Verwalten (Probably something like ‘Manage Options’ or something in english) and you’ll get to this page:

Now that’s not too bad, right? I just switched all the buttons to ‘off’, because I’m jealously guarding my personal information and don’t want Tumblr to go off and do who knows what with it. Looks like we’re done! But wait: There’s a SHOW option.

When we click on that one, what we will get is this:

A HUGE list with OVER 300 ENTRIES of companies that can use your data by default if you’d just clicked ‘OK’ on that very first page. Coincidence that this list is hidden that much? Me thinks not. They’re all switched on by default, but I am still a petty bitch that doesn’t want to give out her data, so I switched them all off. All 300+ of them. There is no option to switch them all off at once, and even if you disable all the options above, the companies are still switched on.

(If you wonder how i got that number, I copied the list into excel and looked at the cell number. No way am I actually counting all those entries)

I too, am a petty bitch who unticked every single one.

I did this like 90 times today

This is good, and while you’re at it, I strongly encourage you to install the EFF’s Privacy Badger browser extension while you’re at it, which automatically blocks connections to known tracking systems without you needing to do a thing! And don’t forget to install a good adblocker!

is it possible to undo it because i clicked ok like a stupid bitch 

Nobody’s being stupid here, except Tumblr! I welcome all of you into my cave filled with pettiness over privacy agreement violations. We can roast marshmallows and drink hot cocoa, but only over an electric grill, actual barbecuing is forbidden in my building.

Okay, here we go:

1.This seems to be an European thing. I don’t know if the same options have been implemented for folks from other areas, but comments suggest not. I recommend to still check your privacy settings and the ‘Labs’ section to make sure Tumblr didn’t secretly introduce and switch on any options you’re uncomfortable with. (Here’s a couple of links, I havent read them all myself so quality might be questionable X the law itself X )

2. A problem many people (including myself) have run into is that the whole changing settings isn’t working as it should – the options switch themselves back on, as soon as you leave the screen. Even when you’ve clicked the nice ‘Done’ button at the bottom. NOT COOL TUMBLR.

3. Privacy add-ons are always a good idea. I use Ghostery to block trackers, but unfortunately, those have their limits as well. Corporations are money-grabbing and greedy.

4. The whole ‘U want something for free you need to give ur data’ thing – I am aware that Tumblr needs to pay its bills somehow. But the sheer amount of companies the user data is sold to is ridiculous and completely out of proportion, holy shit!

5. Tumblr is apparently still changing things and switching the location of the settings menu for this around, so this might not work forever.

If you accidentally agreed beforehand, want to disable the bazillion options and don’t mind that Tumblr might switch them back on, here’s how you can do that:

Go to Settings -> Privacy Settings -> Disable Cookie Consent

Cookie Consent is mandatory to use Tumblr, but if you switch it off, you should be transfered to the privacy settings page mentioned above.

The Cookie Consent will switch itself back on automatically.

(
It’s in German, but it should look pretty similar in other languages!)

While you’re at it, check the Labs section, sometimes Tumblr introduces experimental functions that are pretty shitty concerning privacy as well.

There’s also a great youtube video by @buckysaur how to speed up the process with a little script:

Bless them for doing us this service

deadcatwithaflamethrower:

tuntematonkorppi:

boogiewoogiebuglegal:

ellidfics:

the960writers:

kayespivey:

I cannot emphasize enough how much you need to read thoroughly through the terms of any publication before you send your writing to them. It is mandatory that you know and understand what rights you’re giving away when you’re trying to get published.

Just the other day I was emailed by a relatively new indie journal looking for writers. They made it very clear that they did not pay writers for their work, so I figured I’d probably be passing, but I took a look at their Copyright policy out of curiosity and it was a nightmare. They wanted “non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, perpetual, worldwide license and right to use, display, reproduce, distribute, and publish the Work on the internet and on or in any medium” (that’s copy and pasted btw) and that was the first of 10 sections on their Copyright agreement page. Yikes. That’s exactly the type of publishing nightmare you don’t want to be trapped in. 

Most journals will ask for “First North American Rights” or a variation on “First Rights” which operate under the assumption that all right revert back to you and they only have the right to be the first publishers of the work. That is what you need to be looking for because you do want to retain all the rights to your work. 

You want all rights to revert back to you upon publication in case you, say, want to publish it again in the future or use it for a bookmark or post it on your blog, or anything else you might want to do with the writing you worked hard on. Any time a publisher wants more than that, be very suspicious. Anyone who wants to own your work forever and be able to do whatever they want with it without your permission is not to be trusted. Anyone who wants all that and wants you to sign away your right to ever be paid for your work is running a scam.

Protect your writing. It’s not just your intellectual property, it’s also your baby. You worked hard on it. You need to do the extra research to protect yourself so that a scammer (or even a well meaning start up) doesn’t

steal you work right from under you nose and make money off of it.

Exclusive publishing rights have to have a set time frame! Do not agree to anything that doesn’t clearly state “up to five years from signature” or something like that. 

What if the publisher goes defunct? What if they get bought by another publisher who doesn’t care to promote or publish your work? You still can’t to anything with it, you don’t own it anymore!

For a thorough overview of what you should be aware of regarding your intellectual property and publishing rights, please read through this collection of post [https://kriswrites.com/business-musings/contracts-and-dealbreakers/] by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. 

Protect your IP. Do not give away your stories.

Every writer needs to read this before signing that contract:

Writer Beware!

SIGNAL BOOST

@deadcatwithaflamethrower i think it might interest you (if not directly for you then it might be of interest for your followers)

This is one of the many reasons that you do not publish your work through Amazon. They contractually own your property in perpetuity, i.e. forever, if you use their publishing service. Theft, okay? Stuff like the above is legal theft. Watch your asses, loves.

(And it’s one of the reasons I’m so screamingly frustrated about not being able to devote any spoons to running Altered Nature Press, because one of its main tenants was I Don’t Own Your Work, You Own All Of Your Work Forever.)

thedevitoanditsown:

stabtown:

fromacomrade:

for you city slickers

yea and don’t forget it