In a message dated 3/11/01 9:05:09 PM Eastern Standard Time, dshilling@worldnet.att.net writes:
<< >In no case is any money made out of the
situation. In legal terms, I would guess all are technically illegal. In fact, I believe that fanzines in general contravene (UK) copyright law merely by using the character names/situation.
Yeah--control of derivative works is an important part of the copyright holder's "bundle of rights." >>
Just a note on copyright law. You can *not* copyright a character name or situation. You can only trademark a name... and even then the trademark isn't considered to have been violated unless the use of the name could possibly be confused (by the public) with the original. As far as I know, Blakes 7 has no character names trademarked (and neither do most television shows or movies... Star Wars is one that comes to mind that has character names actually trademarked).
It is the very fact that you can not copyright characters and situations that have many fans (some of them lawyers) arguing that fan fiction and the like constitute "fair use." There's a great article out on the web somewhere about it that was written by a lawyer. I'll have to see if I can find it.
Annie
Annie said:
Just a note on copyright law. You can *not* copyright a character name or situation. You can only trademark a name... and even then the trademark
isn't
considered to have been violated unless the use of the name could possibly
be
confused (by the public) with the original.
Quite true. However, the copyright proprietor does have the right to determine the use of the characters in sequels, crossovers, and other "derivative works."
It is the very fact that you can not copyright characters and situations
that
have many fans (some of them lawyers) arguing that fan fiction and the
like
constitute "fair use."
Once again, it's a question of which right in the copyright "bundle" is at issue. Personally I don't think that a fair use defense is applicable to the creation of unauthorized derivative works, only to use of an entire work in a non-profit academic situation or to quotation of an arguably excessive amount in the context of commentary or debate.
-(Y)
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Ashton7＠aol.com -
Dana Shilling