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

[heidi tandy]

--- benevolntgoddess1 <SlightlyCashews at aol.com> wrote:
> Real-To:  "benevolntgoddess1"
> <SlightlyCashews at aol.com>
> 
> On morals in the writing:
> It's fun and we get to play a puppet show with the
> people dancing in 
> our heads. But- FanFic authors are in a bit of a
> bind and the very 
> existence of it is a moral conundrum. Writing the
> fic is illegal, 
> immoral and violates more copyright laws and
> anti-theft ethos than I 
> actually know the citations to. Period. *sighs*

No, it does not. It does not violate any copyright
laws or anti-theft laws to write fanfic, and in the
opinion of various legal scholars, it doesn't violate
any copyright laws or anti-theft laws to upload fanfic
to the internet, as long as it's noncommercial. If
it's commercial, it still might not violate any
copyright laws if it's for parody purposes (I'm citing
to the 2 Live Crew Supreme Court ruling here) or for
commentary and/or ciriticism. 

I'll be presenting at Nimbus - 2003
(http://www.hp2003.org) with Rebecca Tushnet, who's a
professor at NYU, on this exact issue (among others),
but if you want a solid overview on the implications
of copyright law on fanfic, you might want to read her
LiveJournal at
http://www.livejournal.com/users/rivkat/9344.html or
her full article (which is a bit out of date, but the
caselaw has actually expanded the protections for
fanfic, thanks to things like The Wind Done Gone)
here: http://www.tushnet.com/law/fanficarticle.html. 

I hope the above citations make you a little more
relaxed about your concerns about copyright
infringement. 

heidi, not giving any actual legal advice in this post