J.Jasper wrote: > > Fides wrote: >>>>From a legal standpoint, fanfic is a copyright violation. It endangers >>>an author's right to work within their own creation. >> >>How? >> > > > If they fail to challenge the fanfic, and later come up with a similar > idea, the author of the fanfic can sue them and prevent them from using > their own work. It's happened before with a well known fantasy author. Most authors make a point not to read fanfic for that very reason. And I've seen a number of fanfic authors who expressively give the author the right to use any ideas should they read it for exactly the same reason. The case you are referring to (if it is the same as the one I read about) occured because the author (Marrion Zimmer Bradley) asked for stories to be submitted to her for a zine she was producing and adapted one of the ideas in one of the submitted stories in a later book. It has nothing to do with failing to challenge. This has everything to do with reading a story they have been sent for a collection they are putting together. The main problem writers (of whatever media) have is that now the internet has come along it is harder to show that they haven't read the fic which is why most writers have a policy of not reading anything thus avoiding the problem. The bigger issue for most authors is whether people will mistakenly believe that the fic was written by them. Since there are people who believe the moon landing was a fake it is unfortunate that there are people who will totally miss the large warnings and acknowledgements that are attached to all fanfic. Oddly enough some authors are more O.K. with zines (despite the fact that some money changes hands) then they are with the totally free on-line stuff for exactly those reasons. > The owner. In the case of Kung Fu, The Legend Continues, IIRC, David > Caradine was contacted, and the show's staff knew about the zines, and > were OK with them in the sense that they didn't challenge them legally. > It's a rather delicate issue because any legal acknowledgement that the > zines even exist is a danger for the copyright owners. So in fact we shouldn't ask them - 'cos that might get them into trouble? However it could only get them into trouble in that is suggests the *read* it. Copyright is not lost if you know about something and don't challenge. But presumably all of your objections don't apply to fanfics based on works that are in the public domain? Or don't you count them as fanfic? >> If they say no, respect their wishes. >> >>Which doesn't make it a tragedy. It just makes it illegal (unless of >>course it is a parady or otherwise covered by fair use) and, in your >>opinion, an insult. > > > Yep. In my opinion, poor manners are a tragedy. Sometimes you have to be rude. Even if it means a fatwah. I guess that is a tragedy. Ah well, sometimes tragedy gives rise to the greatest works. Fides