Attn: Talented but poor people: Two ways to help relief efforts in Japan and the Pacific

[nenena]

help_japan on livejournal and help_japan on dreamwidth are two charity auctions where you can offer fannish (or non-fannish) gifts such as fic, art, food, graphics, audio, video, and all sorts of other services in order to raise money for tsunami relief efforts in Japan and in other affected parts of the Pacific as well.

If you would like to contribute to relief efforts but don't have money to donate at the moment, offering your talents in one of these auctions might be a good option. Past experience has taught me that these sorts of auctions can sometimes raise a lot of money (heck, somebody once paid $28,000 for some Twilight BNF's offer to write Edward/Bella porn!) and all of the proceeds go directly to charity.

I am participating in the LJ auction and offering both fic and a doujinshi translation service. :) Hope to see some of y'all there, too!

Comments

[aiwatan.livejournal.com]

Thanks you a lot for the heads up!

I already participated in this kind of auctions when Chile's earthquake and was wondering if there would be a similar thing this time since my economy sucks atm.

[chiikaboom.livejournal.com]

Thanks a lot!

Do you think the legality of making money off amvs would be an issue in this case? Cause id totally be up for doing it and the money wouldnt be going to me anyway.

[nenena.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's illegal. So is raising money from fanfic or fanart. Believe it or not, charitable causes are not included under the Fair Use provisions of international copyright law. BUT a copyright holder would have to be out of their mind to actually try to C&D a charity auction like this and, to my knowledge, none ever has.

Well, okay, one time. Many many years ago, when I was involved in Girl-Wonder.org, we organized a charity auction to benefit a comic artist who lost everything when her apartment caught on fire. A bunch of professional comic artists were offering fanart and such, but then DC Comics actually smacked us down and said that nobody was allowed to use unlicensed art of their characters to raise money in any way, even for charity. Assholes.

But that's just one instance. Given all of the fannish charity auctions that have happened since then without any of the Powers that Be shutting them down, I don't think that copyright infringement is something to be particularly concerned about.

[chiikaboom.livejournal.com]

Wow. Assholes.

Ok, ill still have a go at it. Thanks again for the link!

[lukadia.livejournal.com]

I'm in. I'll post this on my comic LJ and boost the signal. I meant to do my own charity thing but I got jumped by a head cold and everything's going jibbity jibbity jibbity.

[darjeeling]

I put up an offer too. I wish I had money of my own to give. :(

[(Anonymous)]

I'm glad to see so many people who want to help online. The response has been huge.

[shinigamishi.livejournal.com]

Oh! Thank goodness... Right now we're living off mum's temp jobs and I wanted to help SOMEHOW. Definitely put up an offer. Might do more.

[symbolswriter.livejournal.com]

Thanks for clearing up what these auctions are, I was getting a bit confused.
Japan's all over the news and what's going on there is just horrible. Hope they'll be able to get the atomic plants under control at the very least.

Ughhhh... I don't know... Maybe I'll participate too, I'm just not sure what can I do...

Did you Hear?

[(Anonymous)]

Hey, Thanks for this post! I didn't even know that these sort of things could help! Did you hear about the check-in list that the Anime/Manga/Game Industries sent out? Everyone that I know had checked in. Although i can't read japanese at least they checked-in.