Transforming Copyright
Via fandom_lawyers, an interesting article by Julie Hilden, a FindLaw columnist, on the Organization for Transformative Works, a new fanfic/vid/art legal defense group:
The Organization for Transformative Works and Its Bid to Protect Fan Fiction: Are Its Proposed Changes to Copyright Law, Creating Immunity for Suits Against FanFic, a Good Idea?
The fact that I never heard about OTW until now is just more evidence that I've been hiding under a rock, vis-a-vis LJ / fanfic / fandom.
Additional reading, including the OTW in its own voice:
otw_news
Organization for Transformative Works
John Scalzi on OTW
Lee Goldberg on OTW
(Goldberg is a writer of legal fanfic, aka "licensed properties")
Having skimmed through posts and taken a quick tour of the OTW website, my reactions are mixed, to say the least. The cynical, tired old litigator in me says "Good luck with that," and the fanfic writer & reader says "Are we sure this is what we want?" even as I would really like to see some scheme that protects the average fan creator from corporate lawyer overkill (full disclosure: I'm an employed by an organization that helped defend Alice Randall, author of "The Wind Done Gone," when the Margaret Mitchell estate filed a copyright infringement claim against Randall and her publisher.)
The Organization for Transformative Works and Its Bid to Protect Fan Fiction: Are Its Proposed Changes to Copyright Law, Creating Immunity for Suits Against FanFic, a Good Idea?
The fact that I never heard about OTW until now is just more evidence that I've been hiding under a rock, vis-a-vis LJ / fanfic / fandom.
Additional reading, including the OTW in its own voice:
otw_news
Organization for Transformative Works
John Scalzi on OTW
Lee Goldberg on OTW
(Goldberg is a writer of legal fanfic, aka "licensed properties")
Having skimmed through posts and taken a quick tour of the OTW website, my reactions are mixed, to say the least. The cynical, tired old litigator in me says "Good luck with that," and the fanfic writer & reader says "Are we sure this is what we want?" even as I would really like to see some scheme that protects the average fan creator from corporate lawyer overkill (full disclosure: I'm an employed by an organization that helped defend Alice Randall, author of "The Wind Done Gone," when the Margaret Mitchell estate filed a copyright infringement claim against Randall and her publisher.)