Bouncing and riffing and inspiring and being inspired and... all that good stuff. *g*
I'm not really here I'm really working (I am), but in a break I was allowed to do email, and there was chat about fic and all, and I got to thinking of things in a roundabout way (who, me? *g*) and I suddenly realised what had been bugging me about the revised fic headers over at the_safehouse.
I noticed this last time (-ish) I posted a fic to the comm, and went to the user profile page to copy and paste their headers - they've taken off the disclaimer requirement. I actually commented on it somewhere (but not on my last fic post, and I can't find it now), and kiwisue (*name-drops blatantly so that she gets a ping about my post here and might come and remind me... * *g*) said that the comm mods had decided to drop it cos it wasn't actually applicable - which I took to mean that it wasn't going to get anyone out of any hot water that someone might throw at them about using someone else's characters in a story. And to be fair I'd never really thought the disclaimers would get anyone out of legal wrangles over whether we can write Pros or not, so I just thought hmmmn and moved on. But something niggled at me, and I couldn't work out what. I put it down to always hating it when things that are traditional are lost, although that still didn't really make sense - but I've finally worked it out!
I never really thought that fandom disclaimers would protect anyone from legal disputes about our adapting other people's characters for our stories. If someone wants to get all legal about that kind of thing, then the odds are high that they're going to win cos we live in a possessive, money-grabbing world. Well, we do. *sighs* But... but-but-but... what I did deep-down think about the disclaimers was that it was the way we fans acknowledged the work of the original creators. Okay, so we were acknowledging it and saying "I'm-just-gonna-borrow-it-without-asking-but-surely-you-won't-mind-and-in-the-case-of-Pros-will-probably-never-notice-(or-all-the-money-you're-making-from-our-corner-of-keeping-your-old-work-alive-and-in-demand) - but we were remembering their part in what we do, and acknowledging it. And I actually think that's important...
I think it's important cos from the barista who makes our coffee for us, to the car that paused for us to get out onto a busy road, to the postie delivering our mail, to the person who wrote the stories that we adore and gave us hours of fun - people deserve acknowledgement and thanks just as human courtesy. And we do do that in fandom - we say thanks to other fans for writing fic, or creating art, or just for posting the pictures we like to look at. We know that it's not just polite but that it's a good thing to do and that it makes people feel good. And I hate to think that we're losing our way of saying thanks to Clemens and the scriptwriters and everyone else in the original Pros team. It's not that I think they might see it (actually I hope they won't) but I think the thanks and acknowledgement is important for our karma and souls.
Basically - if one of them saw a fic posted without the disclaimer, they'd see someone appropriating their original ideas (albeit for positive reasons) for their own use. If they saw a fic posted with the disclaimer, at least they'd know that their own part in the creation of that fic had been acknowledged, even if it wasn't by specific name. So... so yeah. I think I'm gonna keep posting a disclaimer, even if it's not required in a comm. Maybe I'll word it differently, mind, having thought this through. An acknowledgement-claimer.. *g*
What d'you reckon? To disclaim or not to disclaim...? *g*
(Have a picture as a reward for reading all that... *g*)
I noticed this last time (-ish) I posted a fic to the comm, and went to the user profile page to copy and paste their headers - they've taken off the disclaimer requirement. I actually commented on it somewhere (but not on my last fic post, and I can't find it now), and kiwisue (*name-drops blatantly so that she gets a ping about my post here and might come and remind me... * *g*) said that the comm mods had decided to drop it cos it wasn't actually applicable - which I took to mean that it wasn't going to get anyone out of any hot water that someone might throw at them about using someone else's characters in a story. And to be fair I'd never really thought the disclaimers would get anyone out of legal wrangles over whether we can write Pros or not, so I just thought hmmmn and moved on. But something niggled at me, and I couldn't work out what. I put it down to always hating it when things that are traditional are lost, although that still didn't really make sense - but I've finally worked it out!
I never really thought that fandom disclaimers would protect anyone from legal disputes about our adapting other people's characters for our stories. If someone wants to get all legal about that kind of thing, then the odds are high that they're going to win cos we live in a possessive, money-grabbing world. Well, we do. *sighs* But... but-but-but... what I did deep-down think about the disclaimers was that it was the way we fans acknowledged the work of the original creators. Okay, so we were acknowledging it and saying "I'm-just-gonna-borrow-it-without-asking-but-surely-you-won't-mind-and-in-the-case-of-Pros-will-probably-never-notice-(or-all-the-money-you're-making-from-our-corner-of-keeping-your-old-work-alive-and-in-demand) - but we were remembering their part in what we do, and acknowledging it. And I actually think that's important...
I think it's important cos from the barista who makes our coffee for us, to the car that paused for us to get out onto a busy road, to the postie delivering our mail, to the person who wrote the stories that we adore and gave us hours of fun - people deserve acknowledgement and thanks just as human courtesy. And we do do that in fandom - we say thanks to other fans for writing fic, or creating art, or just for posting the pictures we like to look at. We know that it's not just polite but that it's a good thing to do and that it makes people feel good. And I hate to think that we're losing our way of saying thanks to Clemens and the scriptwriters and everyone else in the original Pros team. It's not that I think they might see it (actually I hope they won't) but I think the thanks and acknowledgement is important for our karma and souls.
Basically - if one of them saw a fic posted without the disclaimer, they'd see someone appropriating their original ideas (albeit for positive reasons) for their own use. If they saw a fic posted with the disclaimer, at least they'd know that their own part in the creation of that fic had been acknowledged, even if it wasn't by specific name. So... so yeah. I think I'm gonna keep posting a disclaimer, even if it's not required in a comm. Maybe I'll word it differently, mind, having thought this through. An acknowledgement-claimer.. *g*
What d'you reckon? To disclaim or not to disclaim...? *g*
(Have a picture as a reward for reading all that... *g*)