Just wondering...

[BillM]

Jamie sent me an email giving me the heads up about some authors of gay fanfiction being sued or asked to stop writing due to the fact that any child could find their story with a search engine and read it. Apparently J. K. Rowling and her lawyers have already contacted one such writer (I have no idea who this is) and asked him/her to stop.

 

I was just wondering is there any way to protect oneself from this. (Oh and thanks to Jamie)

 

P.S. He sent me a link to all of the copywrite jargon but I lost it

[Crackerwriter]

Not a whisper heard about this in the uk, so they evidently don't want to get kids looking for it, or give them ideas. I can imagine there being one unholy row if this broke in the news.

 

I know from Nifty that you should cover your backside by acknowledging copyrights to the appropriate author or whoever owns the rights in a header/disclaimer to each and every chapter/story if you quote a "brand name" or fictious character.

 

ie if you wrote a story about Batman, you should put in a header that "Batman is a registered trademark of Marvel Comics" or whoever it is - I'm no expert on comics these days. They're long forgotten items!

 

If we have any helpful legal eagles around, a few people might be grateful of a bit of advice here

 

Mike.g

[BillM]

I have copyright notices on the top of every chapter. However I have recieved a few flames from angry parents of children who have found my story and read it eagerly, as it had 'Harry Potter' in the title.

 

I've replied by writing angry emails back to them stating that my story was posted on GAYAuthors and Nifty, which are both well known site for gay fiction. I also post it on Fanfiction.net but I took out all of the erotica in the story to comply with their guidelines and only homosexual themes are present and also indicated that the story is slash in the description.

 

I'm just worried that kids that are too young are reading my stories which are plainly meant for an older audience. And also being contacted by J. K.'s lawyers (very unlikely, i think) to stop writing due to children finding my story easily due to search engines.

[ethan thorn]

well there is never going to be a way to stop kids from reading or seeing what no one wats them to since it is human to look for things we are not to look for. remember x-mas mom and dad would hide the gifts so the kids would not find them it only worked if they knew there was no santa but the kids would find the gifts. so if parents want to keep there kids from finding sutff on the net that kids should read or see then stay in the same room with your kids or get a net nanny or dont let them on the internet

[Navigator]

However, J.K. Rowling DOES own the copyright. If she and her lawyers say take it down, then it should come down.

 

Thankfully I have not received such a notice. I also have my story posted in "obvious" forums such as Gay Authors.

[The Story Lover]

First off I believe that childre of the age to read Harry Potter Books should not be using the Internet unsupervised. And yes children of all ages will search for things they are not supposed to see or have. Teens in my era used to check around the back of bookstores of all types looking for Playboy and the like and try to sneak into the reference section of the library to read the anatomy books. As a reader I dislike Discalimers of any type however, I understand the need for them. My answer to parents is keep an eye on your kids and don't blame others for what they may find. Also lock up the Bible it is full of things that you wouldn't want your children reading!

[Guest jamieanderson]

OK here we go.

 

J. K. Rowling owns the copyright for Harry Potter. Part of this copyright she has sold to Warner Brothers.

 

That means she and WB allowed to choose who writes stories, scripts, etc., which contain these characters, scenes, etc.. Legally you are only allowed to use these things with their express permission.

 

You CANNOT claim the copyright on anyone else's work. So if you write a Harry Potter story you can't legally claim copyright.

 

A couple of helpful URLs

 

http://www.io.com/~eighner/books/lavender_blue/index.html

 

This is the home page of Online Edition of Lavender Blue:

How to Write and Sell Gay Men's Erotica

by Lars Eighner

 

It is quite a good read and chapter 9 covers legal points including copyright.

 

The other

http://www.chillingeffects.org/fanfic/noti...gi?NoticeID=522

 

Contains a transcription of a solicitor

[Crackerwriter]

If you want to find out just how anonymous you you are (!) try doing a Google search. I was horrified to see that when I typed in "Crackerwriter" with the parenthesis marks it took me straight to a posting I'd put in Comicality's Shack.

 

My stories are not even available yet as the site isn't finished, but it makes me wonder just what will pop up on Google once they are! So beware!

[ethan thorn]

http://www.google.com/search?q=ethan+thorn...en&lr=&safe=off

 

 

OMG i'm in the top 3 should i be scared or happy.

Edited October 6, 2004 by ethan thorn

[Myr]

Don't blow this out of proportion gentlemen.

As for google finding you, that's a good thing. The Googlebot is on this site often making updates. In fact, MSN is here almost all the time too.

[Crackerwriter]

I'm not that bothered personally. I had the same thing happen when I wrote as Jay Cracker. Every chapter posted of every story I wrote was accessible through Google!

The only reason I changed names was to kill the links to Nifty.

:axeman: