Zen wrote:

The first being that if the owner of the copyrighted and/or
trademarked character can show that your fic/book/whatever has
damaged the marketability or the value of their copyright, they can
cook your ass with gravy.  Money will NEVER come into it - at least,
not whether you are making any or not.

This is more for the means of civility when it comes to lawsuits. Don't
be afraid, first-time authors, of such claims. Yes, publishers and
owners have sued writers for using copyrighted characters in stories,
even those published completely for free. These have not been copyright
infringement cases, as far as my reference materials list, but rather
civil suits, stating that the stories have misrepresented the owners of
the copyrights.

However, take this into point: Any characters, even those still owned by
copyrights, can be printed, even in magazines that charge prices, and
pay you, as a writer, for the story. Case in point: Star Wars and Star
Trek, two HEAVILY guarded registered trademarks, are regularly published
in trade magazines, books, etc., nearly every month.

Now why, when Paramount and Lucasfilm, Ltd., publish their own titles,
would this not stop? Several reasons. It has to do also with the story,
mainly. Most publishers which do this have agreed, to some point, to
partial payments to the owners, but not every single one does so. Also,
these publishers ensure that the story maintains the aspects of the
owned copyrights and storylines.

Yes, it is VERY true that publishing a story could wind you up in court
for damages, but not because of an infringement, rather because of the
probability that you have just misrepresented the company. If there has
been a case otherwise, I have not heard of one.

ALWAYS be weary of publishing anything. There have been authors who have
published titles they thought they owned all the characters to, and
assumed that it was completely original, but later discovered that a
story similar to theirs was published years before.

Best way to avoid any of this:

1) Have MANY ppl read your stories before you submit them ANYWHERE,
including original stories.

2) If you use anyone's characters that are owned with trademarks or
copyrights, send them the story to, and politely ask for permission to
publish it.

3) Ensure to all that this story, if using copyrighted characters, that
IT IN NO MEANS REPRESENTS THE OWNERS' OPINIONS, etc. . . . You know what
this looks like, because most of you have seen it elsewhere.

But, in the end, please remember that no matter how much protection you
give yourself, you can always be subjected to the wildest lawsuits,
irregardless of anything.

Oh, and one more thing ANY good author will tell you: GET EVERYTHING IN
WRITING, AND READ EVERYTHING THOROUGHLY BEFORE MAKING ANY FURTHER STEPS!

Again, perhaps there is a case where infringement damages were settled
against the defendent. I have not heard of any, but my books are that in
depth into the worlds of civil lawsuits.

[SNIP]

Zen the Heretic-

Thank you, Zen, for your opinions, both beneficial and malign. EVERYONE
needs someone like this to opinionate his or her work. Someone who's
very unbiased.

Christopher Bair
caern3@cris.com
http://www.concentric.net/~caern3/

Want to see how I protect myself on line? Check out:
http://www.concentric.net/~caern3/copyright.html