32 comments on “Fan Fiction FAQ”

  1. “A work that is created on or after January 1, 1978 is ordinarily given a term enduring for the author’s life plus an additional 70 years after the author’s death. For works made for hire, and for anonymous and pseudonymous works … the duration of copyright will be 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter.”

    Lawyers … feh. [/tone of venomous disdain off]

    And thank you, United States government. Because of this clear and unambiguous, a lot of developing culture will never [for all practical purposes] pass into the public domain. Another fine triumph of unbridled capitalism for you.

    And, no, I’m NOT opposed to copyright. Within reason. 70 years after the death of the author is beyond insane.

  2. And thank you, United States government. Because of this clear and unambiguous, a lot of developing culture will never [for all practical purposes] pass into the public domain. Another fine triumph of unbridled capitalism for you.

    You DO realize that this was done to get into step with European government, neh?

  3. Disney is the first to sue, because their crack legal staff of trained attack lawyers has to keep in shape. Don’t ever cross the Mouse – you’ll end up sleeping with the singing crabs.

  5. “You DO realize that this was done to get into step with European government, neh?”

    Given that there are no ‘free trade’ agreement FORCING them to do so, I’m not sympathetic. Besides, how much European culture do we import vs how much North American do we use? I think the insane duration of the copyright on our stuff is more significant for the average North American.

    Anyway, just because THEY did a dumb thing doesn’t mean we needed to.

  6. Since this is clearly a parody of both Winnie the Pooh and Dr. Who, and parody is fair use, it is fair use.

    Of course, anyone can sue anyone they choose, but winning is another thing and collecting is a third.

  7. “Of course, anyone can sue anyone they choose, but winning is another thing and collecting is a third.”

    Just the THREAT of a suit is enough to silence many people. That’s bad enough.

  8. Since a large majority of the posts on this site involve talking about the ridiculousness of our government, I felt this would be a good thing to post.

    Pythagorean theorem: 24 Words

    The Lord’s Prayer: 66 Words

    Archimedes’ Principle: 67 Words

    The 10 Commandments: 179 Words

    The U. S. Government regulations on the sale of cabbage: 26,911 Words

  9. ** Given that there are no ‘free trade’ agreement FORCING them to do so, I’m not sympathetic. Besides, how much European culture do we import vs how much North American do we use? I think the insane duration of the copyright on our stuff is more significant for the average North American. >>

    Ah, yes, the Ugly American rides again.

  10. While Disney is known to zellously guard its copyrights and trademarks with legal actions, I have never heard of them objecting to any of the Disney FanFic or FanArt that’s on the internet… and there’s lot’s of it. I don’t know why…

  11. Only true thing that would have to be credited would be for the use of the word TARDIS, which is copyrighted by the BBC. I’m sure Milne’s relatives won’t mind, since they made a nice sum of cash for raking Disney over the coals with the rights.

  12. Disney once sued a day care center for painting Mickey Mouse on their walls, so yeah, they’ll real fast.

    Oh, man, I remember that. Did *they* take a PR hit.

    As I recall, a day care center in Florida had Disney characters painted on their walls. They were sent a cease-and-desist letter by Disney’s lawyers. Naturally this got to the local newspapers.

    Immediately artists for Hanna-Barbera got in touch with the daycare center and offered to replace the Disney characters, free of charge, with professional paintings of HB characters. The day care center took them up on it.

    TV news crews captured images of gleeful HB artists slathering paint over Disney characters and covering them over with Yogi, the Flintstones, et al. HB came out looking like champs, and Disney chumps.

    PAD

  13. Life plus 70 years. And lifespans are longer now. Sheesh. (And what if Ra’s Al Ghul or some other immortal copyrights something?)

    A thought I’ve been having: Mickey Mouse turns 75 this November. I would love to be part of a “Freedom for Mickey” event where as many people as possible do something to draw attention to how long the poor mouse has been under copyright and how Disney keeps getting it extended. Anyone wanna join me?

  14. yeah, this totally pìššëd me off. the constitution says that Congress has the power –

    “To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries”

    please explain to me how 120 years is limited. compared to what, the shelflife of a Twinkee?

  15. please explain to me how 120 years is limited. compared to what, the shelflife of a Twinkee?

    Don’t Twinkees* last forever?

    *Twinkee is a registered trademark of the Hostess corporation. All rights reserved.

  16. TV news crews captured images of gleeful HB artists slathering paint over Disney characters and covering them over with Yogi, the Flintstones, et al. HB came out looking like champs, and Disney chumps.

    Yeah, this one of the first cases that convinced me that Disney was evil in its little pixie dust-covered soul. What’s funny is that HB got tons of great PR just for the cost of some paint and the artists’ time for a day. It probably did more to enhance the value of their properties than Disney thought it was “protecting” by attacking the daycare center in the first place.

  17. Ah, yes, the Ugly American rides again.

    You know, it’s not Ugly American behavior to point out a fact. We didn’t have to emulate the bad decisions of others, just like they’re under no obligation to emulate our bad decisions. I may not agree with his position vis-a-vis the importation of European culture (of course, I consider the Iliad and Odyssey and Greek Myth in general and the Prose Eddas and Beowulf, etc, etc to be ‘products of European culture’) but the fact is that 70 years past the death of the author is a *lot* of time. And for Disney, a company that found its greatest success in using public domain sources like Snow White, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, etc, etc to be so hostile to the idea is nothing short of hypocricy.

    I just saw the publication of my first book. Some of the ideas in it were public domain. I think the idea that my original contributions in that book should not evade the public domain for 70 years after my death to hardly be a radical one, and if such a belief puts me in opposition to thought in other countries, I don’t see how saying so makes me an Ugly American. Granted, I didn’t know Europe had a central government…my understanding of the Union was that it serves more as a communal trade zone and allows for ease of transit between independent nations, not as an actual government per se…but if the EU originated this draconian copyright extension, then I feel fairly secure in thinking them wrong to have done so.

  19. Well, according to my (very) limited understanding of copyright law, Disney would be the most likely, but Milne’s family would be the one’s with the most valid claim.

    I remember back when Episode I was about to come out, and there was the South Park version of the EpI trailer floating around the internet. There was an article published that said that while it was a legal parody of Star Wars, it was NOT a legal parody of South Park…but the SP guys thought it was so cool, that they decided not to bother with it.

    The trick is that parodying a style is perfectly acceptable…but if you use characters that you don’t own to do it, then you have a problem.

    To stay with the South Park example, Eric Cartman is a character owned by Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and Comedy Central. If you dress Cartman up like Indiana Jones, then he’s still Eric Cartman…he’s just dressed like Indiana Jones. Now If you had a fat guy who SOUNDS like Cartman dressed up like Indiana Jones…then that’s okay. You’re parodying both things.

    At least, that’s the way I understand it…I could be wrong.

  20. All of it comes down to this: Disney didn’t want to TRADEMARK all versions of their characters that have appeared over the years (tradmarks as I understand them do last forever). So instead of letting “Steamboat Willie” end up in the PD, and that version of Mickey being the same, they lobbied to have the copyright laws extended. Lazy business practices=bad copyright law.

  21. “I consider the Iliad and Odyssey and Greek Myth in general and the Prose Eddas and Beowulf, etc, etc to be ‘products of European culture'”

    That’s probably because they are. And long since passed into public domain. Which is the whole point.

  22. tradmarks as I understand them do last forever.

    Copyright and Trademark laws are arcane at best, not the least of which is Disney’s efforts to lobby for eternal extensions. As I understand it, Copyrights expire much the way that patents expire after a set period of time. Trademarks can theoretically last forever, but they can be lost due to lasp use or failure to defend them. For example, the Bayer Corporation once owned a copyright on name aspirin, but failed to adequately defend it until it fell into popular use as a generic term for the drug.

    Tylenol, on the other hand, has control over that name exclusively. Other companies can manufacture generic acetomidiphin, but they can’t call it “tylenol.”

  23. I’ve always thought Wonder Woman and Xena were excellent examples of the dangers of fan fiction and the misuse of established characters.

    Whoever has the right to the Greek myths should sue.

  24. Disney has been the ones to make the biggest push for extending the life of a copyright.

    And not surprising, since until the latest stuff that was done a few years back iirc, their earliest characters were going to go into public domain.

    The problem I have with it all is that with all of the corporate ownership these days, when do things truly fall into public domain?

    Disney has made billions off of public domain stories, yet they have the right to protect their versions of the characters from their movies and such. Ok.

    But for the characters actually created by Walt, they are still in regular use by Disney. They are still owned and used by the company.

    So when will they fall into PD?

    The 70th year after Walt’s death? When Disney does under?

    It’s a bit of a mess that way, imo.

    As an occassional fan fic writer, I remember the days of TSR and their treatment of fans on internet. Indeed, they treated authors just as pitifully.

    And it’s one of the things I can be thankful for when WotC bought TSR, because WotC allows the fans to do alot with their works, even before the OGL.

  26. Disney once sued a day care center for painting Mickey Mouse on their walls, so yeah, they’ll real fast.

    Yes they did but contrary to what you believe, that doesn’t make them the bad guy. Under the current interpratation of the copyright and trademark law, established by previous court cases the trademark or copyright holder must fight to keep thier trademark or copyright. If they don’t someone else can come along and make a leagal case that they have abandoned that trademark or copyright. If Disney knew about the day care center and didn’t pursue some form of legal action someone else could claim they abandoned thier copyright on Mickey and company and the courts would have to agree with them, because that’s the law. And overnight the Disney company, you know a company that employees thousands of people, would lose claim to thier biggest assets. The economic effect from this would be chilling for the Disney company, and even more so for the hundreds that would probaby lose thier livlyhoods as a result of the fallout. So yes in a perfect world the Disney company is evil for sending a ceast and disist letter to a day care center, in the real world, the one with copyright and trademark laws and courts that enforce them, things are not so black and white. (And one of the things that almost never gets mentioned when the Daycare story is brought up is the amount of times Disney and other companies have allowed daycare centers and hospitals use thier characters for a nominal fee of a dollar a year, nope no one ever mentions that).

  27. **Disney once sued a day care center for painting Mickey Mouse on their walls, so yeah, they’ll real fast.

    Oh, man, I remember that. Did *they* take a PR hit.

    As I recall, a day care center in Florida had Disney characters painted on their walls. They were sent a cease-and-desist letter by Disney’s lawyers. Naturally this got to the local newspapers.

    Immediately artists for Hanna-Barbera got in touch with the daycare center and offered to replace the Disney characters, free of charge, with professional paintings of HB characters. The day care center took them up on it.

    TV news crews captured images of gleeful HB artists slathering paint over Disney characters and covering them over with Yogi, the Flintstones, et al. HB came out looking like champs, and Disney chumps.**

    Yes it was a PR fiasco for the Mouse. What wasn’t mentioned was the amount of times Disney has let daycare centers, schools and hospitals have thier charactes for insanly low fees. What usually happens is the Disney laywers send a ceist and disist letter, the lawers from the hospital/school/whatever contact the Disney folks and a deal is worked out. I know this for a fact because I know someone who runs a daycare center who had to deal with Disney for a Mickey sign. A licensing fee of a dollar a year and she was able to keep the Mickey on her wall. I don’t know the details of what happened in the Florida case but I suspect the school in question did not bother to contact the Disney lawers first, instead going to press. In any event, it’s easy to point Disney out as the bad guy but under the law they are doing what they have to do to proctect thier trademarks and copyrights.

  28. TSR…

    The gaming company that created Dungeons & Dragons.

    WotC…

    Wizards of the Coast. They were first known for the game Magic: The Gathering 10 years ago. The company that bought TSR when TSR went bankrupt. Basically, WotC saved Dungeons & Dragons.

    OGL…

    Open Gaming License. Basically, it says that companies can produce and sell their own products for the d20 gaming system, under certain conditions.

    WTF?

    Ahh, well, you know what that means. 🙂

  30. any idaes for daycare names with winnie the pooh and his 100 acre friends or any disney characters

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