At 13:51 6/22/97, Luis Majluf wrote:

From: David Lerman <mdlerma2@gsbpop.uchicago.edu>

Not a good idea.  With the exception of OF, all the stories here use
copyrighted characters without permission.  As long as the companies
that
own the rights don't have fanfiction shoved in their faces, they can
maintain the polite fiction that they don't know about such things as
RAAC
and the various mailing lists.

                                                                  dml

Actually, I'd disagree with your last point. Since fanfics are free,
they do not pose a threat to the sales of anime videos. A fanfic and a
video are two completely different things- if you feel like reading a
fic you're not going to watch a video, or viceversa. If someone reads a
fic they won't say "Ah, I'm satisfied, I won't watch a video now". They
are mutually exlclusive in that aspect. More importantly, though, is
that these fanfics are great publicity for the companies that produce
the videos- they get people more involved into their products, and
probably have a nice, positive effect on sales. Plus, it's a sign of the
success of their products. My guess is that they are thankful that such
activity exists on the web.

Luis-san... you make very interesting points, but they are not relevant.
Copyright law is a LOT more complicated than that.  The companies and the
people that produce anime and things ARE, as a general rule, glad to see
fan fiction - within limits.  But they CANNOT be "aware" of it on an
official level and not do something about it.  They MUST defend their
copyrights to maintain them.  As long as they can turn a blind eye toward
fanfiction and other related fannish activities, such activities will be
tolerated, and even quietly smiled upon.  But the minute you start poking
the damned things under their noses, then they HAVE to take notice, and
they HAVE to take action - if they do not, then they can LOSE the
copyright.  NO COMPANY is going to just toss away their exclusive claim to
a money making property.

Zen has said it before, and Zen will say it again.

Bottom Line.  Fanfiction is a violation of Copyright Law.  It is ILLEGAL.
That does NOT mean that anyone should stop writing - just wake not the
dragon.

Zen will go into detail in private mail if you want, but Zen has already
bored the FFML with all of this before. ^_^

Luis Majluf
<http://www.geocities.com/~ollantay/lujen/lujen.html>

Zen no Itan-sha