Cogent arguments, even persuasive arguments made by lawyers and academics can be both reassuring and dangerous, because they present what is considered a reasonable and fan favorable view, but in truth, they are still theory until they make to court. I may agree with them, or even think that anyone with half a brain should agree, but I'm not sitting at the bench in the LA courts, and I don't have the ear of the state appellate courts, or even the sure knowledge that the US Supreme court is going to see it my way.
Any more than I can assume that fellow fen are going to have my same ethical standards or limits.
(You know, and you said all this {G}.)
I'm honestly not trying to preach the gospel. But I do think Fans, in general, need to recognize (and be reminded of) their responsibility and the attendant (however minor) risks of doing what we're doing, and not pretend that they didn't know there were *any* risks. I don't have to be involved in a legal imbroglio to know that I didn't create the characters on Firefly. I don't have to prove fair-use when Fan A over there creates and original character that I really like and want to use to acknowledge that I didn't come up with that character. And I seriously, seriously don't want to be talking to the lawyer who is going to tell me that my interpretation of both the actions and outcome of an actual legal proceeding isn't the only one.
Holding the copyright of a derivative work is pretty pale reward if you are found in breach of someone else's copyright and you get hit for the attendant fines for that breach. So, I may own it, but honestly, how much is it worth *paying* for to prove it, if I can hold it anyway and with a little self-restraint and some caution, keep doing it with little interference until I drop dead?
I think it's worth pointing out, that in the recent brouhaha that prompted my original post, the struggle wasn't between fans and TPTB, it was entirely between *fans*. Fans who had differing takes on the issue of ownership. Fans who in their hot-headed desire to be right and to be treated fairly, went after each other and after each other's ISP's. At least three of the C&D's I know of were prompted not by arbitrary hunts by TPTB but by fans turning in other fans for personal grudges and petty squabbles.
It would be ironic if the actual precedent setting case that establishes the legal status of derivative works (in the US) were the result not of TPTB flexing some impressive muscle, but because two fans found themselves in the middle of a case of irreconcilable differences, no? {G}
Re: Just to clarify (continued)
Any more than I can assume that fellow fen are going to have my same ethical standards or limits.
(You know, and you said all this {G}.)
I'm honestly not trying to preach the gospel. But I do think Fans, in general, need to recognize (and be reminded of) their responsibility and the attendant (however minor) risks of doing what we're doing, and not pretend that they didn't know there were *any* risks. I don't have to be involved in a legal imbroglio to know that I didn't create the characters on Firefly. I don't have to prove fair-use when Fan A over there creates and original character that I really like and want to use to acknowledge that I didn't come up with that character. And I seriously, seriously don't want to be talking to the lawyer who is going to tell me that my interpretation of both the actions and outcome of an actual legal proceeding isn't the only one.
Holding the copyright of a derivative work is pretty pale reward if you are found in breach of someone else's copyright and you get hit for the attendant fines for that breach. So, I may own it, but honestly, how much is it worth *paying* for to prove it, if I can hold it anyway and with a little self-restraint and some caution, keep doing it with little interference until I drop dead?
I think it's worth pointing out, that in the recent brouhaha that prompted my original post, the struggle wasn't between fans and TPTB, it was entirely between *fans*. Fans who had differing takes on the issue of ownership. Fans who in their hot-headed desire to be right and to be treated fairly, went after each other and after each other's ISP's. At least three of the C&D's I know of were prompted not by arbitrary hunts by TPTB but by fans turning in other fans for personal grudges and petty squabbles.
It would be ironic if the actual precedent setting case that establishes the legal status of derivative works (in the US) were the result not of TPTB flexing some impressive muscle, but because two fans found themselves in the middle of a case of irreconcilable differences, no? {G}