awesome

[cofax7]

Steven K. Brust has released his Firefly novel under a Creative Commons License. Word and Adobe formats are up now; .txt and other versions coming later.

All hail the new millenium!

(Hat tip to sherrold for the link.)

ETA: How long until L** G***b**g's head explodes? End edit.

Comments

[kate_nepveu]

The first.

[cofax7]

He didn't write it under license: he couldn't get the approvals. I guess Fox (? right, it's Fox) didn't have any interest in authorized tie-in works. So he wrote it anyway.

I have questions about whether it's appropriate or legal under current copyright law for him to put a CC license on it, even a weak one, but IANAIPL.

[kate_nepveu]

I have questions about whether it's appropriate or legal under current copyright law for him to put a CC license on it

Do you mean, if it's infringing does he still hold copyright in it? The answer is yes. http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ14.html

[cofax7]

And will Fox let him get away with it?

::shakes up Magic-8 ball::

Answer unclear: try again later.

Guess we'll wait and see. But I'm still getting a copy as soon as I can (when I get home), in case Fox gets unpleasant. This is a lot higher-profile than most pieces of fic are.

[kate_nepveu]

Yeah, that's a different question. But my first instinct is that the CC license won't matter legally: infringement is an objective test, and as for fair use, I think it'd be neutral or slightly positive, as it's a non-commercial license.

From a PR POV . . . me & the Magic 8-Ball don't know.

[cofax7]

I have no faith in Fox's ability to discern the PR ramifications of their copyright enforcement. They shut down the CafePress store and sued for damages a fan artist who'd been very active in the Save Firefly campaign, who was using her art to market Serenity. Granted, she was making money, a fannish no-no, but they didn't need to sue for damages, they could have just shut down the for-profit site.

[cofax7]

Well, I made it up, spinning off IANAL. But it's very useful in fannish discourse, I find.

Kate below says SKB would have copyright in the work, which I don't dispute; I just don't know how that intersects with the simultaneous infringing nature of the work, and how Fox will respond (if at all).