RE: Re: Gloranthan Fiction

From: Jane Williams <janewilliams20_at_...>
Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2005 12:44:46 +0000 (GMT)

Paul Andrew King

> The good news is that I'm pretty sure that it
> doesn't matter for fan
> websites, so long as the rules for the Informal
> License are met.
> Unless Appendix A says something different, fan
> websites have very
> few restrictions - and none of them say that
> Derivative Material is
> treated any different from Original Material.

But as far as I can see the section that says "The types of use that are considered to incorporate or make derivative use of Proprietary
Material include, but are not limited to:...

...To substantially expand previous Proprietary Material (such as a description of a person, place, creature, entity, event, or object)."

doesn't say or imply "except if it's on a web site" does it? Nor can I see any reason why it should - if this is a danger of causing copyright problems, then the means of publication hardly matters. If this is a reasonable limit to impose, then fine, it needs imposing, not sneaking around.

The only difference I can see if that of time delay - since hard-copy takes forever to produce in the first place, a multi-week delay introduced by the need for checking may be reasonable. (I say "may" - I'm not involved in hard-copy production, I don't know). But a delay of more than a day or so in web-site updates is a long time!

If I tell a story at a con, it's only reasonable and fair to non-attendees to expect it to be on my site within 24 hours of the con ending. And while I'm sure Issaries would *like* to be able to check and licence that fast, it's not going to happen, is it?

If I end up publishing stories about some red-haired warrior goddess with a temper who happens to be called Fred until licenced, then such is life. Easy enough to global-edit the name back afterwards. It just seems so silly, and I'm sure there must be a better way.

Jane Williams

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