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

[munchkinofdoom.livejournal.com]

I've been busy reading the new comments to this post before I knuckled under to answer you... *g*

A legal defence fund is going to have to look at a number of issues. And you hit one of them on the head in your reply to me. Vidding. That is another whole new ballgame when we are talking about C&D's. And I think it is a situation that OTW would be mad to use as their first test case. It is only my personal opinion, but I think that, on a sliding scale, vidding is actually the least defencible of our fannish works.

RPF/RPS is probably, from my limited thought on the subject, the most easily defencible as long as it is clearly marked as fiction. That would hopefully get around the libel/slander angle. There is usually no copyrighted material to be poached from, and RPF writers would hopefully only need to watch out for anyone who has trademarked their public persona. KISS would be a good example of this. Write about the band members, rather than their created characters, and libel/slander is probably all you'd need to worry about.

FPF/fanfic would be the middle ground, with fic based on material no longer copyrighted being safe, and a test case needed to decide if fanfic based on a copyrighted property is transformative enough to avoid being derivative.

But vidding, much as I love the artform, has a problem in that it uses a soundtrack with little change beyond cropping, and uses existing images to tell a new story. It is in the same medium as the source material, and is therefore harder to argue it is sufficiently transformative. Personally, I think the remixing of images is enough to make it transformative, but I think it is the music that is going to do us in!

cont...

[munchkinofdoom.livejournal.com]

So I think that there is a very good chance that, even with a legal defence fund, vidding may not be any closer to being protected. If I was running the fund, I'd prefer to test fanfic first and hopefully get a feel for the lay of the land. If we lose a test case for fanfic, we'd probably be dead in the water re a test case for vidding.

Argh! Talk about getting off track! *g*

[paraka]

Well, when I spoke to the OTW at their live chat, it seems that they're not going to take on any big corporations, they're going to wait until someone takes them on first. Since I'm pretty sure the fic archive is going to be the first possibly objectionable thing up, I have a feeling that's where it's going to come up first. But who knows.

They also said that they're not going to be going to court if they don't think they can win. They might have to give into TPTB demands.

[paraka]

I've been busy reading the new comments to this post before I knuckled under to answer you... *g*
:) Find anything interesting?
Sorry it took me forever to respond, I got swept up in the holidays....

Vidding. That is another whole new ballgame when we are talking about C&D's. And I think it is a situation that OTW would be mad to use as their first test case. It is only my personal opinion, but I think that, on a sliding scale, vidding is actually the least defencible of our fannish works.
I think on the transformative/fair use side, vidding is actually better off than fic. Have you seen this video? The real problem comes with the music we use. Because we use songs in their entirety, we're open to problems from the music owners.

RPF/RPS is probably, from my limited thought on the subject, the most easily defencible as long as it is clearly marked as fiction.
Yeah, I don't actually know that much about RPF/RPS period, but from what I understand they're pretty safe, in fact, I was linked not too long ago to a site that sells RPS books. Also, if things like the Enquirer can exsist and try and pass their crap off as possible truth, then I think fans are safe :P

FPF/fanfic would be the middle ground, with fic based on material no longer copyrighted being safe, and a test case needed to decide if fanfic based on a copyrighted property is transformative enough to avoid being derivative.
It gets me how people can write fanfics based on things that are no longer/have never been copyrighted, and have it published and be considered "real writing" or be considered "respectable authors" just because the original author has been dead for more than 70 years. The one that annoys me the most would be Anne Rice and her little tantrum over fans writing fanfiction for her books, but her recent book is basically bible fanfiction.