elbales

You're viewing

elbales's journal
Create a Dreamwidth Account Learn More

Reload page in style: site light

There's a creepy person in the UK somewhere who is selling fanfic. Other people's fanfic.

Yuck. Just yuck.

The sad part is that there's really not much the writers and artists can do unless they're willing to risk the wrath of the big media conglomerates over their own (let's face it) copyright violations. And don't go getting mad at me; I've written fanfic too.

Tired. Going to bed very soon.

Current Mood: exanimate

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

kevinvaughn.livejournal.com

You can give it away, but you can't sell it.

It's not a usually copyright violation unless you are trying to make money off it. At the very least, it's one hell of a gray area. Usually, it does the brand a lot of good. I'm thinking how Starfleet Corps of Engineers has given fanfic a good name and involved more fans. Hell, any Voyager and Enterprise fanfic have to be better than the actual shows.

Now, if someone were mean (or p'oed enough), I'm certain they could tip off the people whose intellectual properties this person is peddling and they would take action at him and not the people who wrote the fanfic. *nudge, wink*

From:

elbales

Fanfiction is, by the letter of the law, a copyright violation. The characters and situations on TV shows are copyrighted, so it's illegal to take those same characters and situations and create derivative works.

The dodge with fanfiction is that the author isn't making any money off it. Some copyright holders are cool about this; some aren't. Like, say, Fox. They go after X-Files fanfic sites all the time, last I heard, because they want to control those characters and situations and haven't gotten the clue that fanfic can actually stimulate interest in a show. It was fanfic authors who made it viable for the Star Trek franchise to crank itself up again decades after TOS went out of production. Next Gen probably wouldn't have made it out of the starting gate if not for fans.

So anyway, yes, the copyright holders are going to ream this guy. Apparently, in addition to selling fanfic, he's selling stuff like scans of Playboy pics. He is so dead. I just hope that the fanfic authors don't get sued as well.

From:

kevinvaughn.livejournal.com

Let's hope that he selected good fanfic and it gives some of those authors who want it, a break.

You're write about the place of fanfic. It definitely has boosted some franchises and stimulated interest in ailing ones (*cough* Star Trek *cough*).

That sucks. I was thinking along the lines of that guy who made the great Batman/Aliens/Predator film for a demo and it became all the rage among the fanboy lot. But, you're right. You can't get around violating someone's intellectual property.