[HPFGU-OTChatter] Authors' moral responsibility (was Re: OOTP net book copy?????????)

[Heidi Tandy]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Tim Regan" 
<timregan at m...> wrote:

> But in light of this, do fanfic authors have a moral responsibility 
> not to use children's book characters in sexual or violent 
> situations since they cannot control the distribution of their 
work?

And Pippin wrote a bit about the issues of electronic distribution, which I agree with. 

We have tried, on FA, to make fics unsaveable, un-cut-and-pasteable and unsendable. There is no cost-effective way to do all of this - even pdfs can be cut and pasted. 

Or printed and retyped. 

But more than that, what these people - children and adults - are doing by engaging in file sharing is basically akin to saying that they have the intent to engage in copyright infringement of jkr's work. What they are doing is illegal, and part of me feels that they are making a major assumption of risk - yes, even if they are eight years old. 

I'm a little stringent on copyright issues - my 3 year old knows to cheer the fbi warning on videos, and that copying videos for other people is Wrong. Why aren't parents teaching their kids not to download files that they don't know the contents of? 

A file on kazaa could be a virus. It could contain the Kama Sutra. Or even just articles from Playboy. 

I don't think that a fanfic author has any moral responsibility to protect lawbreakers from what they might see if they break the law. A fanfic author does have a responsibility to put appropriate warnings on his or her fic, I certainly think, but...

When downloading pirated works is outlawed, only outlaws will download pirated works. 

Oh, wait -  it is outlawed...

Heidi, who actually pays for legal downloads and only used kazaa once - when Joss Whedon said people should use kazaa to get the songs from the Buffy musical - hey, he's the creator - he can give permission and stuff