[ SECRET POST #7029 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #7029 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 42 secrets from Secret Submission Post #1004.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

03. https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/709da491c5b2.png

Transcript by OP

[fscom]

My flabber is well and truly gasted. I've just noped out of a fanfic because they were censoring brand names. As in "I bought him a Sw*tch 2 and a Minecr*ft sword for Christmas".

This is the second fic I've come across where this gas happened, but I genuinely thought it was just a typo the first time! I cannot think of a single reason why you would bother to censor brand names in a fanfic of all things.

Re: Transcript by OP

[pengilly]

I think that copyright laws are stricter in Japan or something, which is why you'll often see "Wcdonald's" as a parody of McDonald's in Japanese media. Not sure why they would do that in fic though. Maybe the author just read a lot of manga or something, and it's a stylistic choice?

Re: Transcript by OP

[(Anonymous)]

I think it was originally about copyright, but now it's more of a parody thing. Censoring brand names is like a normal part of Japanese humor. It happens with celebrity names too, which can't be copyrighted. Sometimes it's under the guise of "no celebrities were harmed" but it's really just because bleeps and empty circles (more common in Japanese than asterisks and serve the same purpose) are "funny," there's no legal obligation to do it.

Re: Transcript by OP

[(Anonymous)]

You know, that doesn't bother me like Sw*tch does. Call it a Shift instead and that's fine, doesn't bother me. Call Brad Pit, Chad Trench. Whatever. That is kind of funny. But M*necraft irrationally annoys me for some reason.

[dinogrrl]

That is...certainly a choice on the authors' parts.

[(Anonymous)]

Omg I would be irrationally livid lol. The unnecessary self censoring is such a pet peeve of mine.

[(Anonymous)]

Why on earth? Are they trying to avoid DCMA takedowns or something? I genuinely do not understand this!

[iff_and_xor]

I’ve seen people online censoring certain terms as an expression of contempt or disapproval.

I wonder if that’s where this came from originally.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, but if that was the case they could just say "I bought a game console and a toy sword," no brand names needed.

[iff_and_xor]

Oh, definitely, I think there’s a big step being taken in any case.

I was just wondering if people got used to casually writing S*ny and Am*zon (or “the Fr*nch” or whatever), so it made its way into their fiction writing too.

[(Anonymous)]

I've read that fanfiction writers should avoid name-dropping brands and labels, but this is a new one!

[(Anonymous)]

Oh no. I honestly think I would quit reading over that, which sounds kind of petty, but I can tell it would really get under my skin. Like, you can avoid the brand names totally, or just use real ones, but this weird censorship ain't it for me.

[(Anonymous)]

I can think of a couple of reasons. It might have something to do with AI scraping - I mean, I haven't yet seen an AI answer that references fanfic but I feel like it is coming. And AI is pushing technology forward in some ways, like character recognition and digital indexing and searches, so market researchers and legal departments will probably be looking to utilize them. Though why you wouldn't just use 'video game' or 'handheld console' or whatever, I don't know.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, that is weird and would definitely take me out of the fic. Like, what is the purpose of that? What do they think they're accomplishing? Regardless of the explanation, I feel like my response is probably going to be, "Why would you disrupt the reader's immersion for that? That's dumb."