At 14:23 5/6/97, Joseph Palmer wrote:

On Tue, 6 May 1997, Wing wrote:

If you were to write a fanfic using someone else's creation, and you do so,
it's okay until the original author complains and tells you not to.

If this happens, not much will happen to you except perhaps hurt feelings a
bruised pride. ;)

       I'd bet the author can also legaly demand that all copies be removed
       from all accessable places: Web Pages, Archive and FTP sites.

Certainly.  That's the basis of a cease and desist order.

However, if you had asked for permission, but were denied, but you STILL went
ahead to write the fanfic using the author's works, then the author, if they
value their copyright and works, will be forced to sue the person in court.

If the original author did not, then he/she would lose rights to the
copyright. Legally, that is. ;)

       I think this also means that if an author wants any single fanfic
       removed from the internet, they must ask that _all_ fanfics are
       remomoved from _all_ sites in order to protect their copyright.

No.  As long as they can maintain some measure of plausible deniability,
they can ignore them or not, as they choose.  It is when it can be
documented that the creator has failed to protect a copyright that they
have a risk.

If nothing calls specific attention to a fic, then they can do whatever
they want - prosecute or not - but the *requirement* to prosecute is not
present.

       Scary, ne? We all walk on such thin ice here.

Not as thin as all that.  It just never pays to rock the boat.

J.

Zen no Itan-sha