Legal issues concerning zines
Hello,
I hope this is the right place to ask this!
I'm doing some research on legal issues in fanfic for a Masters degree at UCL (I'm a librarian, not a lawyer), and I'm trying to find out if there is any information out there about fanzines and copyright. I'm aware that for online stuff, the general view for your average writer is that if you aren't making money and you say so, the copyright owners will generally stay off your back; and I've managed to find lots of places that deal with copyright and other legal issues for online fanfic. However, when it comes to fanzines, there's often a charge to get hold of them, which might change things, and I'm having trouble tracking down appropriate sources for information on this.
I was referred here by the kind people at http://community.livejournal.com/mfuwss/, and I hope that someone here might be able to help. Have any fanzine publishers been sent C&D letters by the Powers That Be, and if so, why were they targetted and other zine publishers not? Is there any general guidance or best practice in the fanfic world forlegal issues in zine publication? Have people profited from zine publication or is the charge simply to cover printing, posting and packaging?
Any help would be much appreciated! Many thanks.
I hope this is the right place to ask this!
I'm doing some research on legal issues in fanfic for a Masters degree at UCL (I'm a librarian, not a lawyer), and I'm trying to find out if there is any information out there about fanzines and copyright. I'm aware that for online stuff, the general view for your average writer is that if you aren't making money and you say so, the copyright owners will generally stay off your back; and I've managed to find lots of places that deal with copyright and other legal issues for online fanfic. However, when it comes to fanzines, there's often a charge to get hold of them, which might change things, and I'm having trouble tracking down appropriate sources for information on this.
I was referred here by the kind people at http://community.livejournal.com/mfuwss/, and I hope that someone here might be able to help. Have any fanzine publishers been sent C&D letters by the Powers That Be, and if so, why were they targetted and other zine publishers not? Is there any general guidance or best practice in the fanfic world forlegal issues in zine publication? Have people profited from zine publication or is the charge simply to cover printing, posting and packaging?
Any help would be much appreciated! Many thanks.