tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2356274990802224870.post3976459270136070009..comments2019-10-05T04:48:52.168-07:00Comments on The Forty Year-Old Fanboy: On the Comparison of Artists' Alley to Schroedinger's CatVinnie Bartiluccihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12031831695722239873noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2356274990802224870.post-23751084064869629312012-02-17T13:51:50.512-08:002012-02-17T13:51:50.512-08:00And here, in fact, is one of the responses from a ...And here, in fact, is one of the responses from a fellow fan-fictor:<br /><br />Thanks for the link--an interesting essay, notwithstanding the dildo paragraph<br />(or maybe withstanding it).<br /><br />Comments from my not-an-attorney standpoint.<br /><br />(1) Trademarks do have to have a vigorous defense by their owners, or they<br />become legally unenforcible. The "vigor" requirement does not apply to<br />copyrights.<br /><br />(2) The essay doesn't note the protection offered parodies--works that<br />"transform" the original material in such a manner as to comment on their<br />central elements (--as opposed to using those elements to comment on other<br />things). Parodies don't have to be "funny". I explicitly note on my website that<br />my TSL's are, among other things, parodies. IMHO, all the TS FanFic I've seen<br />can be justified in that way.<br /><br />(3) As noted in another posting on this group a while back, it seems to me that<br />ANYTHING that appears in the now-public-domain PLANET X and HYDROLUNG is<br />available for use. And that's a lotta anything. What's in public domain can't be<br />re-copyrighted.<br /><br />(4) There's also the myth of the power of the Cease-and-Desist letter. They're<br />required to give such notification as part of the process, but the letter in<br />itself is just a letter, not a lawsuit. There are easy ways to reply<br />cooperatively and thus give the lawyers something to show the bosses, while not<br />doing anything to sabotage one's own work or efforts.<br /><br />(5) It helps greatly if you don't make much money off what you're doing. Books<br />printed one-by-one at FedExo at the request of fellow hobbyists are not going to<br />justify billable hours at Simon & Schuster.<br /><br />(6) And now, indeed, the cyber-counterforce has made an appearance. If even<br />Hollywood and friends have to yeild to enraged netizens (as in Google and Wiki),<br />there might be a "chilling effect", in their direction for a change, when it<br />comes to hot pursuit.<br /><br />(7) And by the way, in an age in which anything can be stored out of sight on<br />the net somewhere, what does it really mean to "tear up someone's copies"? You<br />can print-out another. Or swallow your thumb-drive.Michael Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11808166630399508232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2356274990802224870.post-75390031087682499262012-02-17T07:40:26.417-08:002012-02-17T07:40:26.417-08:00Although I couldn't come up with a comment to ...Although I couldn't come up with a comment to match the exceptional level of this piece, Vinnie, I have taken it upon myself to pass on the URL to two Yahoo groups I'm in: one which has several veterans of Artists Alleys in its membership, and the Tom Swift group (which is, among other things, a haven for fan fiction writers).Michael Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11808166630399508232noreply@blogger.com