Subject: Re: FanFiction and Copyrights
From: "Ranma Al'Thor" <ranma@falcon.cc.ukans.edu>
Date: 12/9/1997, 5:27 PM
To: Fanfic Mailing List

On Wed, 10 Dec 1997, Florencio B. de la Merced, Jr. wrote:

John Biles said...

And despite people claiming copyright on them, you can't claim copyright
on material that is in violation of copyright.


God is never that selfish, why should humans?

Sadly, Copyright law was not made by God, neither is it enforced by him.
I'm not here to argue morality (I have my own doubts about some aspects of
copyright law, but I'm talking what is, rather than what should be)

 > 
Well, the fact that we don't make money reduces the incentive to sue, but
legally, they could.  (They would recieve less damages in the case of
'non-profit' copyright violation.)  A 'non-profit' copyright violation is
still illegal, and potentially criminal (Copyright law is normally
enforced through civil suits, but at a sufficiently high level also is
subject to criminal penalties as a felony)  The damages that would
probably be gained from sueing us would probably not be worth the effort,
but the principle remains.


Quit that talking, you're scaring everyone.

Just pointing out that we are taking a risk.  If it was going to stop me,
I'd have stopped writing a long time ago :)

John Walter Biles :  MA-History, Ph.D Wannabe at U. Kansas         
ranma@falcon.cc.ukans.edu       
rhea@tass.org              http://www.tass.org/~rhea/falcon.html
rhea@maison-otaku.net      http://www.maison-otaku.net/~rhea/

"We're not grave robbing; we're grave bartering!"