Prayers For Lexicon Steve

[dumbledore11214]

> Kemper:
>
> I feel if Steve V wins it could limit what fans of future
> writers might want to do (fanfic/art/movie/sites/etc) because
> then those writers will have to fight for control of their
> work which would hurt developing a fan base. ...
>

bboyminn:

Quite the opposite, if JKR wins 'reference works' which were
previously allowed, will not no longer be allowed. This is
an expansion of the rights of the author of an original work,
but it is the contraction of the rights of people to write
reference, speculation, and commentary on existing works.

<SNIP of the whole post basically>

Alla:

Eh, but Kemper and myself were talking about fanfiction and yes, I 
think it will cause authors to exercise much stricter control or at 
least exercise their right to speak out against it.

The win by JKR I believe will not lead to any decrease of the right 
to publish the books under fair use. Do you know why I believe it?

Because from what I read, authors ALREADY have that right, to do for 
example what JKR did, to go after Steve.

It is just a lot of them do not do it, because, well, they want to 
have nice relationships with fan community, or for various other 
reasons, speculating here obviously.

But under the law theoretically they can claim that say fanfiction 
infringes on copyright, or the books that do not fall into fair use 
do the same thing, etc. Again, I am not a copyright lawyer and only 
remember very basics from lawschool and follow this case with great 
interest.

But say Steve wins and Stanford gets the legal precendent of 
expanding fair use doctrine to the books like this. You think a lot 
of authors would like that at any time any person who calls himself a 
fan would alphabetize their world and make money out of it?

I know I would not like it AT ALL. My beloved War and Peace for 
example has A LOT of characters, and quite a few american friends 
complained to me how hard it is to keep track of them.

I know, maybe I should put the characters in order of alphabet and 
summarise what all families in the book are about?

You think had Lev Tolstoy had he been alive would have been happy 
with me? Personally I really doubt that and I think that would have 
been stealing of his work and making money out of it. My opinion of 
course. 

In one of the today's links and it is of course the summary, so maybe 
something different was said, RDR lawyer admitted that what Steve did 
is infringing on copyright, period.

Now whether Stanford lawyers would be able to do put it as applicable 
to fair use? They may be of course, but I am hoping that they will 
not be able to do it.

I mean, really, I feel strongly about it, but it is not like it will 
affect me personally. I am not even a writer of the fanfiction, I 
just love to read it, so I guess in that sense I do want to be able 
to continue to.

JMO,

Alla