I've just been updating my 'zines owned' list in anticipation of Eclecticon (and, really, I should have done this right from the beginning -- I have duplicate copies of several zines, and THREE copies of one) and it reminded me that the 'legality' of some of my collection is questionable. Not that I stole them or anything, just that after I actually saw what I'd bought from various 'second hand' sales and charitable fund raisers I wondered if they were created by/with the permission of the original publisher.
Five types in particular I wonder about:
1) Two digest-sized zines (standalone novellas, one called 'Between Black and White', I forget the other title) that I think might be the 'bootlegged' stories from Horizon zines that Steve referred to.
2) I have a handful of zines that are clearly xerox copies. (Er, I mean second generation copies, since most zines these days *start* with xeroxed production.) Now, I know when zines used to be mainly offset printed some publishers would let fans make their own copies of a friend's copy, or even produce copies that way themselves, when the original printrun had sold out but there wasn't the demand to justify printing another lot of 100 copies. OTOH, with today's xeroxed zines, publishers can produce copies a handful at a time, and so the zine doesn't have to go out of print. Some of these copies say 'copied with permission' or have a rubber-stamped 'Authorized copy' on the title page -- but anyone can get rubber stamps made, right?
3) I have a few 'compilation' zines: someone xeroxed their favorite stories from multiple sources and bound them. A personal 'Greatest Hits' collection.
4) Related type: individual stories just stapled in a corner. Some of them clearly xeroxed from zines (with header or footer lines with titles & page numbers), others could just be printed fresh, from a web page for example.
5) Related type: masses of articles cut from/xeroxed from various SF/TV magazines.
So. What should be done with these zines/stories if I decide I don't want to keep them any longer? Should they all be destroyed, since I can't know for sure they are 'authorized' copies? Can I say, I bought them, therefore it's okay to sell them? Would giving them away be okay, but selling not? Are the answers the same for all five types?
Opinions?
Susan Beth susanbeth33@mindspring.com