Inkedfur.com’s Furry Friday: Insurance Will Ruin Your Convention

Welcome back to the long-awaited second part of the first part of the delayed Furry Friday here on Lawyers & Liquor! Once a month I take off my lawyer hat to put on my badger head and starting talking about some random legal issue or concept that has an effect on the furry fandom. Thankfully, Inkedfur.com has, you know, agreed to sponsor these things so I can act like I’m not totally a furry and only doing it for the sweet, sweet small amount of cash…but, we all know that’s a lie at this point.

So, my crazy creatures of all colors, including several that are most certainly not found in nature, let’s get started. When last I opened the doors to the rescue shelter and let you all run and romp, and do other shit (goddammit Bill, get the hose and spray those two) all over my legal lawn, we were talking about how the structure of non-profit corporations in general. As many furry conventions are actually registered and structured as non-profit corporations, I advised, they prevent one person from having a lot of fucking power. In short, what I said was “Even if they wear a lab coat and project an image of equal parts Machiavelli and Dr. Blofeld, they are still beholden to the determinations made by the furry equivalent of the a Board of Directors, which votes on matters affecting the corporation.”

…I have not yet heard from Uncle Kage concerning this characterization, although I’ve heard the term has become fairly popular among members of the board itself.

But the Board of Directors isn’t the only shadowy organization shooting down the idea for the Public Pup Play Meet & Greet in the lobby of a hotel the convention is sharing with a World War II veterans’ reunion. There are other, more sinister, factors at play that keeps you from publicly being a pound puppy, and we all know how that was meant. So, today, for the second part, allow the lawyer in the badger mask to explain how one particular non entity player can severely restrict the ability of a convention to do all the shit you think it should be doing as an attendee.

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Furry Friday: Con Chairs Aren’t God – The Factors of Convention Governance, Part 1

Hey you little neon-colored fauna of the world, it’s time for another Furry Friday on Lawyers & Liquor with the Boozy Badger nee Barrister.  On Furry Friday we start talking about cases or legal principles and considerations that pertain to the furry fandom specifically, or at least those that are tangentially related to it.  So, let’s fill up the dog bowls with some mac’n’cheese, slip on our giant deer heads, start queueing up the latest in music from an anthropomorphic animal, and get the ball rolling with the first of our multi-part series discussing the factors that govern the freaky, fun, friendly world of furry gatherings: the Factors of Convention Governance.

Today we’ll start by talking about the most maligned of mammals…or other groups of animals…the con chair.  That’s right, the mean motherfucker that takes your badge, stresses about fucking everything, gives statements, and ends up talking to a room full of party penguins at opening and closing ceremonies.  The bedraggled bastard that drags themselves through the convention space, desperately begging people to please for the love of whatever god they may believe in not leave a variety of “novelty silicone objects” in the lobby of the hotel.  The public face of the convention and the person who catches the flak.  The micro Mouse-o-lini that steals the joy of others while exerting massive control to make the trains run on time…and not the trains that go on at a “special” room party.

Fuck that guy, right?  They just run everything the way they want it, and the hell with anything else.  Why won’t they listen to the demands of the fandom?  Why aren’t they reacting and changing the convention as people want? Why do they insist on doing shit their way?

Well…

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InkedFur.com’s Furry Friday: FOSTA Parents Suck – Pounced.org and the Sex Trafficking Shutdown

Welcome to Inkedfur.com‘s Furry Friday here on Lawyers & Liquor, where it’s time to let out our inner technicolor zoo to run rampant over common sense and good taste. For one day one each month I, the Boozy Barrister, sprout the head of a badger and become the Boozy Badger to rant profanely about legal issues and news in the furry fandom. So snuggle up to your favorite, unconvicted-of-any-crime fursuiter, settle in, and let’s get this Dead Dog dance started with this month’s discussion of…death.

While March has seen a lot of death in the fandom, we’re going to be talking today about the death of the …what is this here…furry dating site called Pounced.org. A furry dating site? I thought that’s what Twitter was for. Huh. You learn something new every day, don’t you? You could probably see what furries get up too on websites similar to dosexvideo (https://www.dosexvideo.com/). I mean, with the number of furries showing their raging assholes on Twitter, I assumed…never mind. Let’s all turn into maw lovers and get right to the meat of the matter to discuss how the federal government swooped in to destroy the dating scene of those poor, lonely furs out there on their lonesome.

Go get a coffee or a cigarette. This is gonna take a bit.

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InkedFur’s Furry Friday: Hewwo Copywighted Wowks! Who Owns Your Commission, Part 2

Hello my fuzzy little horde of anthropomorphic intellectual property infringements! It’s time once again for another Inkedfur.com Furry Friday here on Lawyers & Liquor, where I pop open the gates and let the technicolor zoo roam the streets with wild abandon. This time, in a continuation from our discussion of copyright and your totally original and not at all Disney derivative original character, we’re going to go totally vore and get into the meat of the matter. That’s right, this time we’re going to discuss who, in all actuality, owns that commission  you just paid someone to draw of a giraffe named Gerald seductively eating an ice pop or something.

Look, I don’t know what you fuzzy little assholes pay people to draw. That’s between you and whatever god you’re currently making cry.

So last time we covered a lot of the basic of what a copyright is, how you register one, etc. etc. etc. You know, all that advice that you guys are totally not going to listen to because, goddammit, you definitely have better things to do with your time and money then protect your art and fixed tangible ideas. This time we’re going to talk about something a lot more personal: what if the only fucking reason the art exists at all is you paid your hard-earned money to get someone to draw it for you?

Well. That’s a horse of a different art style, now isn’t it?

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InkedFur’s Furry Friday: Hewwo Copywighted Wowks! – Who owns your commission, Part 1

Hey everyone, it’s time for an early InkedFur’s Furry Friday, due to the fact that last month I was a crippled mess of sobbing pain when it was time to actually get this thing up. So this month, as promised last month, we’re going to look at something everyone keeps asking about as they wag their tails expectantly and keep demanding I take their side in some dispute with an artist. Namely, we’re going to look at the concept of copyright when it comes down to who owns what in a commissioning relationship in two separate Furry Friday posts, the first of which we’ll talk about today!

And allow me to be blunt when I tell you some of you are going to want to walk into the vet’s office to have yourselves put to sleep when I inform you of the law surrounding this shit. Namely, the assumption that most people have regarding the ownership of anything related to their fursona or any other fluffy character they may create.  But to discuss THIS, we first need to talk about a few basics of copyright so…you know…we fucking know what we’re talking about here.

But first, a disclaimer!

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