[Kirok]

Originally Posted by HarryT

That is a completely different scenario. If you perform a Shakespeare play, you are doing just that - performing Shakespeare. You're not writing your own play using Shakespeare's characters (not that Shakespeare "made up" any of the stories for his plays, of course - they are all based on existing sources).

LMAO! Old Bill would be a serial offender in the litigation courts if they'd had copyright in his day! ... and yes, I have actually considered writing a Star Trek appropriation of one of his plays!

Originally Posted by HarryT

Certainly, I agree with you. But not that the right to create a lexicon or encylopedia only exists if you add a non-trivial amount of creative input yourself, as Mr. Ark recently found out.

If that's the case I'm thinking of, that was pretty close to copying it and rearranging it - sort of like "Harry Potter Lego". Little, if any, Star Trek fan fiction slavishly copies the originals. If anything they challenge canon too much by taking familiar characters into outrageous territory!

Originally Posted by HarryT

I honestly don't see how fan fiction can conceivably be considered "fair use" to be honest with you. It clearly (IMHO) falls into the category of a "derivative work" which is a breach of copyright unless you have the permission of the copyright holder. That's what Mr. Ark was successfully sued for doing - creating a derivative work.

I'll make no bones about it, CBS/Paramount have been an incredibly lenient studio (on the whole) when compared to, say, Disney

Originally Posted by HarryT

I have looked at "transformativeworks.org" and it's full of "we believe"'s and other such expressions, but they appear unable to quote one single example where a court has backed their "beliefs". Perhaps you could direct me to such a court ruling if I'm mistaken?

Unfortunately, and I do not mean any disrespect to transformativeworks.org, I agree that they are taking a positive view when I need to consider the worst case scenarios. This is why I have based my ideas on the Stanford Center for Internet & Society webpage on copyright and Fanfic <http://www.chillingeffects.org/fanfic/faq.cgi#QID139> - although this is a little out of date, I see it as being more balanced towards the copyright & trademark owners so, if I prepare using then we should be covered.

Originally Posted by HarryT

Sorry, but I have very mixed feelings about fan fiction. I accept that it's written by genuine fans and that some publishers and authors probably welcome it as free publicity for them, and for keeping their fans happy, but I honestly do believe that its legal status is very, very dubious.

My stance, and the stance of TrekUnited, is that we support professional production - it's why we are Star Trek fans in the first place! However in the case of series that are no longer in production we support the fan's attempts to create a resonance of that quality of the original that they so admire in their fan productions.

We are not the enemy. We are the customer - or at least we would like to be! As head of publications and media I see my job as creating a partnership between the studio and the fans

We have three novels at pdf stage so far, uploaded to ISSUU as private documents, and I am going to release the link to one of them for discussion and review purposes - I am not trying to circumvent your ruling against fanfic on MobileRead.

"A Leap of Faith" by House Abukoff Productions is a Star Trek: Enterprise Virtual Season 5.

It's a pre-release copy, pretty close to final, so if anyone spots any typos I'd appreciate you dropping me a PM. On this book, you might notice that ...

* I've used paperback sized paper - If anyone gets this printed they'll probably get it "perfect bound" (ie a glued spine) as a paperback. (Lulu for one won't publish Fanfic though)
* I've made up a small Fan Productions logo to go on the cover somewhere
* I've put a shortened copyright disclaimer on the title page
* I've got quite a comprehensive copyright disclaimer just before the first page of the story
* I've changed the cover to say that it is "A Star Tre..."
* I've changed the page header to take out the reference to Star Trek: Enterprise
* I've added a free advertisement for the two latest eBooks from Simon & Schuster

I've done this to ...

• Prominently brand it as a fan written work so that it can't be passed off as a professional work by a third party.
• Freely and openly agree that CBS/Paramount own the copyrights and Pocket Books are their official licensee
• Show support for Pocket Book's commercially available eBooks

in fact one of the purposes of this project that I might highlight a bit more prominently is that I hope that this project will encourage more people to read eBooks. Pocket Books have a vast back-inventory of books that they could start getting profit from if only more people would read them as eBooks which don't have the same production, transport and distribution costs as a paper-book.

What possible purpose could be served by stopping us? Will they sell more books? Will they win more fans? I see our relationship with the licensee as being a mutualistic symbiosis rather than a parasitic leeching.

Kirok of L'Stok