Moffatt on the Doctor's Marriages and teaching about the legalities of fanfic
Came across this article today. Steve-o (because it tickles me too much to call the Moff that) speculates on the Doctor's marriages, including his unknown wife on Gallifrey. A lot of what he says disturbingly coincides with my headcanon and some of my stories . I think it's cool that he contemplates these kinds of things...and it's a little weird.
Even if you don't like Moffat, it's an interesting read. He says, "Going by the TV Show itself, and the interspecies shenanigans between Gallifreyans and humans established therein (Susan and David Campbell, Leela and Andred) it's simplest to assume they are wired in quite a similar way to us." I don't know exactly why, but it amuses me to no end to hear Moffat say the Doctor can get it on with humans. Kind of lends a bit of validity to all the funktastic fanfic out there, doesn't it? YAY!
On another note, I've been teaching about copyright law and plagiarism this past week to my classes. One of my students asked me about fanfiction and the legalities therein. She writes fanfic and was terrified she was doing something highly illegal (poor kid...and no, I didn't tell her that I also write fanfic). I wrote an enormous research paper about fanfic about 18 months ago when I was finishing up my last degree. I told her, "As far as I know legal precedent has never been established because the court whould have to prove that the original copyright holder is somehow damaged from the fanfic, either financially or reputation-wise. Nearly all fanfic writers don't expect any kind of remuneration for their work; it's purely for enjoyment purposes. Thus, fanfic falls under the Fair Use clause and as long as you're not making a profit off of it, it's acceptable to do. Some authors don't like it and have told people to quit. It's polite to knock it off if they tell you to, but most authors or copyright holders don't even bother or just turn their backs. You're fine, just keep doing what you're doing, but you may want to add a legal disclaimer that it's for your own amusement and no infringement is intended to your work."
And then there was the whole lesson on parodies and legal issues. That involved Weird Al and most of my kids have never heard of him. That was HILARIOUS! Most of them thought he was funny, but others didn't think he was. It's been an interesting week... :)
Even if you don't like Moffat, it's an interesting read. He says, "Going by the TV Show itself, and the interspecies shenanigans between Gallifreyans and humans established therein (Susan and David Campbell, Leela and Andred) it's simplest to assume they are wired in quite a similar way to us." I don't know exactly why, but it amuses me to no end to hear Moffat say the Doctor can get it on with humans. Kind of lends a bit of validity to all the funktastic fanfic out there, doesn't it? YAY!
On another note, I've been teaching about copyright law and plagiarism this past week to my classes. One of my students asked me about fanfiction and the legalities therein. She writes fanfic and was terrified she was doing something highly illegal (poor kid...and no, I didn't tell her that I also write fanfic). I wrote an enormous research paper about fanfic about 18 months ago when I was finishing up my last degree. I told her, "As far as I know legal precedent has never been established because the court whould have to prove that the original copyright holder is somehow damaged from the fanfic, either financially or reputation-wise. Nearly all fanfic writers don't expect any kind of remuneration for their work; it's purely for enjoyment purposes. Thus, fanfic falls under the Fair Use clause and as long as you're not making a profit off of it, it's acceptable to do. Some authors don't like it and have told people to quit. It's polite to knock it off if they tell you to, but most authors or copyright holders don't even bother or just turn their backs. You're fine, just keep doing what you're doing, but you may want to add a legal disclaimer that it's for your own amusement and no infringement is intended to your work."
And then there was the whole lesson on parodies and legal issues. That involved Weird Al and most of my kids have never heard of him. That was HILARIOUS! Most of them thought he was funny, but others didn't think he was. It's been an interesting week... :)