Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I think it's true to say that the majority of people disagree with your interpretation of the law.
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It is irrelevant whether the majority of the public agrees with me--what matters is what IP attorneys think, and what judges believe.
The majority of IP attorneys who have any idea what fanfiction is, agree that it falls into a grey zone, and that each individual case would have to be judged separately. They all agree that there is no simple precedent case to point to that would help people decide.
The lack of a single lawsuit regarding not-for-profit fanfic is strong evidence that no lawyer has yet been convinced it can be successfully prosecuted. If it were clearly illegal according to those trained to interpret the law, I'd expect to see *someone* attempting to shut down unauthorized fanfic sites through courtroom activities.
There have been plenty of C&Ds... but those aren't evidence of legal transgression; they're evidence that some lawyer, who doesn't have to hear from the accused, has decided that a client probably isn't lying. C&D's aren't based on a full consideration of evidence; they're based on one side's interpretation.
This may eventually hit the courts, because AO3 has a legal committee with full awareness of the issues (or as full as possible), and they own their servers--an ISP can't shut them down for being too much trouble. And they host fanfic based on works by authors who believe they can forbid fanfic.