Question

[paraka]

So, I've spent most of the day reading up on what people are saying about the OTW are saying. Mostly from non-fandom people, and it's kind of making me want to shoot things, but I was wondering:

What do you think about the OTW? Would you like an archive? A written fannish history? A wiki (OMG, I can't tell you how much I'd like a wiki for fandom, although I can see it being vandalized a lot)? Do you think it's a good idea to have a legal defense fund? If the OTW were ever to go to court, would you support them?

I'm planning on making a post sometime about how I feel about it, but I'm really curious as to what other people on my flist think about it. I think so far only one person on my flist has really written about it, but I spent a couple months away so could have totally missed something.

Also, I am having a bitch of a time working on a mysql database, any one know enough about setting up eFiction to want to help?

Comments

[paraka]

Hmm, ok, I want to add a little as to my reasons for supporting the legal defense fund. I wasn't going to, but now I can't stop thinking about it, and I'll sleep better if I just get it out. :P

I think the days of "staying under the radar" are kind of over, or will be soon. Fandoms like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, have made if much more main stream. We're not so much flying under the radar as we're in the radar but pretending to be rocks. Things like Fanlib, especially put us there, since they're going to the copyright holders and getting them to donate prizes, while fandlib makes money off of fic writers. Things like the offical stargate novels are written by fandom writers. Things like the official fanfic contests are going on over at certain offical webpages (I think CBS and Battlestar Galactica were mentioned, but I'm not positive on that).
Now those things may sound positive, and they are to some extent, but once we show our hand to them, and they accept certain ones, then they are well on the way to rejecting others. They don't want us to have complete freedom with their characters and concepts.

This can really impact all areas of fandom that aren't gen or established ship. Slash? Good luck. Kink? No way in hell.

There's also the fact that copyrights themselves are rapidly morphing from their original conception. Thanks big businesses like Disney, copyright is now life +70 years. They can now trademark characters which are protected *forever*.

Look at things like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The copyright holder can come in and demand you remove content from the internet without court approval. This has already been abused so that legitimate content has been removed, sometimes *against* the copyright holder.

In Canada the big shots are currently trying to change our copyright laws so much so, that you can be violating copyright if you listen to something *the wrong way*. You can get fined or jail time, even if you *paid* for the product. (Actually, I think someone made the comment, that under the proposed law, you can technically be violating the copyright terms if you get up to go to the bathroom during a commercial break).

If we don't take a stand and say no, the big shot copyright holders will take *everything* and what little protection we had will be gone. We, the people (not just the fans, but definitely the fans as well) need to join in a united front and *stop* them, because they won't stop on their own. We need to be ready for when they do finally start dragging us into court and make sure that it's on our terms, that we get a say.

[munchkinofdoom.livejournal.com]

Oh, I agree! The days of being under the radar are long gone, if they ever existed at all. There are tales from the 1980's of the 'sacred' Grandfather clause' which was why there has never been a test case for fanfic. Why it has only ever been C&D's as long as no profit was being made. I very carefully said profit being made rather than money changing hands, as the existance of zines was politely ignored by most copyright holders.

I've been googling 'grandfather clause fanfiction' and not getting much, but from memory: I think there was a legal opinion going around zine fandom in the earlyish days that if a copyright holder was going to go after a zine producer they would have to explain in court why they had chosen that particular zine producer and not the numerous zine producers before them. So, in effect, the copyright owners of Star Trek would have had to go and prosecute the zine producers in chronalogical order if they took such a case to court.

Not sure how viable that stance was, but it was something that had been bandied around fandom for years. So yes, we've never really been below the radar, but both sides have used that as a polite fiction to cover the situation.

With zines being very much on the wane and the transparently free fanfic economy of the internet, I suspect that polite fiction became even more entrenched. With so much fanfic out there, it is interesting that there is still not a test case. Yes, fans do succumb to C&D's, but it is interesting that no copyright holder (and there are some vitriolic ones out there) has yet taken it beyond a C&D.

[paraka]

I don't think a grandfather clause, as you're explaining it, would really work. People try that with speeding tickets all the time (I wasn't the only one speeding! There were people going faster than me!). Also, a lot of the time, when a copyright holder goes after a zine, they'll go after all the zines they can find for their works.

With so much fanfic out there, it is interesting that there is still not a test case. Yes, fans do succumb to C&D's, but it is interesting that no copyright holder (and there are some vitriolic ones out there) has yet taken it beyond a C&D.
Well, unlike things like music downloading, fandom doesn't hurt the products. So the right holders aren't stupid enough to take it beyond C&Ds and fans, so far, haven't been stupid enough to not listen to the C&Ds.
That said, I still think we have a chance of winning if we do take it to court, and I think something like the OTW is a good group to do it, because they'll have the power of a large chunk of fandom behind them, rather than just being some disgruntled fan who decided not to give in, and tries to represent themselves.