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May. 1st, 2014 07:03 amBeen reading this book lately about the history of fanfiction, titled Fanfiction: Why Fanfiction is Taking Over the World. Just last night, I reached a chapter that talks among other things about conflicts that used to arise between fanfic writers and copyright holders. The following points from pages 166-70 are good to keep in mind should I receive a cease-&-desist order for Lucky Star: Day of the Beehive:
Fandom had already survived the domain name disputes of 2000 and 2001, where Warner Bros. sent Umbridge-esque threatening letters to teens around the world, insisting they hand over domain names that included terms from the Harry Potter series. Children and teens (and their lawyers) had pushed back by pointing out that their usages were noninfringing and noncommercial.
In the 2000's, fans felt like they had to cave and kowtow even if the rightsholder overreached and claimed more rights than they were entitled to under US copyright or trademark law. But in the last ten years, in cases utterly unrelated to fan creativity, US courts have expanded the definitions of "fair use" and transformative works.
Everyone [at Harry Potter For Grownups] was afraid that Scholastic, Bloomsbury, and/or Warner Bros. would show up within the next hour and shut everything down, but the few lawyers in fandom, including [author Anne Jamison], didn't think they'd have a leg to stand on if they tried.
For the record, I do plan on speaking to a lawyer before launching the game's Kickstarter campaign, and also sending an email (typed in both Japanese and English, including a YouTube link to a demo) to Kyoto Animation requesting permission to create it. However, according to this article, the courts generally do not favor people who ignore permission requests to use their intellectual property, so I'd give KA about 30 days before I actually start the project.
As for where I'll keep a copy of my email to KA... Well, originally, I was planning to use Gmail to send it, since I never did clean out my Sent box there. To have a Sent copy sitting there would be proof that I requested permission to use their characters, but as it turns out, the box actually cleans itself out. The last email I have in it dates back to last January, so that leaves me with my regular email account on Suffolklib... which I find myself cleaning out all the time just to keep the storage limit from being reached, since I tend to procrastinate cleaning out my inbox there.
If anything, that might be the very last email I send through that account, with all subsequent ones being through Gmail instead.
Fandom had already survived the domain name disputes of 2000 and 2001, where Warner Bros. sent Umbridge-esque threatening letters to teens around the world, insisting they hand over domain names that included terms from the Harry Potter series. Children and teens (and their lawyers) had pushed back by pointing out that their usages were noninfringing and noncommercial.
In the 2000's, fans felt like they had to cave and kowtow even if the rightsholder overreached and claimed more rights than they were entitled to under US copyright or trademark law. But in the last ten years, in cases utterly unrelated to fan creativity, US courts have expanded the definitions of "fair use" and transformative works.
Everyone [at Harry Potter For Grownups] was afraid that Scholastic, Bloomsbury, and/or Warner Bros. would show up within the next hour and shut everything down, but the few lawyers in fandom, including [author Anne Jamison], didn't think they'd have a leg to stand on if they tried.
For the record, I do plan on speaking to a lawyer before launching the game's Kickstarter campaign, and also sending an email (typed in both Japanese and English, including a YouTube link to a demo) to Kyoto Animation requesting permission to create it. However, according to this article, the courts generally do not favor people who ignore permission requests to use their intellectual property, so I'd give KA about 30 days before I actually start the project.
As for where I'll keep a copy of my email to KA... Well, originally, I was planning to use Gmail to send it, since I never did clean out my Sent box there. To have a Sent copy sitting there would be proof that I requested permission to use their characters, but as it turns out, the box actually cleans itself out. The last email I have in it dates back to last January, so that leaves me with my regular email account on Suffolklib... which I find myself cleaning out all the time just to keep the storage limit from being reached, since I tend to procrastinate cleaning out my inbox there.
If anything, that might be the very last email I send through that account, with all subsequent ones being through Gmail instead.