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Yesterday someone opened a thread on YTDAW asking for submissions for a to-be-printed collection of CSI fanfiction. Questions were raised, and the thread was promptly shut down. For good reason; that was not the place to solicit such things, particularly when the solicitor had not done the proper research and due to the fact that TPTB are known to drop by the boards. I approve of the shutting down.
But I have to say I disagree with some of the arguments presented. Fanfiction as a genre on the whole is not strictly illegal; it is definitely in a legal gray area, but as has been pointed out (and unfortunately I can't find the link) there have been several recent instances of people writing sequels to classics like Gone With the Wind* and Little Women. All challenges in court have come out in favor of the sequel authors.
Of course, those examples are for titles that were written by one person, not a conglomerate, and the authors in question are deceased.
Be that as it may, the publication of fanfic as it is currently defined has actually been going on for roughly forty years, since Classic Trek was canceled. Long before the Internet, fans were writing and sharing and distributing their work--gen and het and slash**, artwork and poetry and essays and fiction, through fanzines--physical copies of collections or even novels, bought and paid for. Amateur work, sure, and the money changing hands was mainly to cover the cost of printing (or mimeographing, originally) and mailing. Nobody's managed to stop it yet, and frankly I haven't heard that anyone's tried particularly hard lately. But then I don't keep up on the news much.
Personally, I've had stuff published in collections, and in fact I had an entire fanfic novel published through a fanfic press a few years back. I never heard a peep from anyone ticked off about copyright. Granted, the fandom in question was a cancelled TV show that the network was pretty much ignoring. Doing anything with CSI would be a bit more delicate given its ongoing status and enormous popularity, and honestly, I've very rarely seen CSI in fanzine publications, though it's been a while since I looked.
But my point is that publishing CSI fanfic in a physical form, as long as it was done discreetly, respectfully, and without any profit motive, is not an impossibility. I don't know if CBS would move against it; they might not consider it worth hassling over, given the enormous online fanfic presence and the power of fans (which, hopefully, they have not forgotten after the 2004 firing fiasco).
Maybe it's time someone tried.
*I've never read Gone With the Wind, but personally, I don't consider it a "classic".
**The term "slash" actually dates back to early Trek fandom and fanfic, when they started pairing Kirk and Spock. Gotta love neologisms!
But I have to say I disagree with some of the arguments presented. Fanfiction as a genre on the whole is not strictly illegal; it is definitely in a legal gray area, but as has been pointed out (and unfortunately I can't find the link) there have been several recent instances of people writing sequels to classics like Gone With the Wind* and Little Women. All challenges in court have come out in favor of the sequel authors.
Of course, those examples are for titles that were written by one person, not a conglomerate, and the authors in question are deceased.
Be that as it may, the publication of fanfic as it is currently defined has actually been going on for roughly forty years, since Classic Trek was canceled. Long before the Internet, fans were writing and sharing and distributing their work--gen and het and slash**, artwork and poetry and essays and fiction, through fanzines--physical copies of collections or even novels, bought and paid for. Amateur work, sure, and the money changing hands was mainly to cover the cost of printing (or mimeographing, originally) and mailing. Nobody's managed to stop it yet, and frankly I haven't heard that anyone's tried particularly hard lately. But then I don't keep up on the news much.
Personally, I've had stuff published in collections, and in fact I had an entire fanfic novel published through a fanfic press a few years back. I never heard a peep from anyone ticked off about copyright. Granted, the fandom in question was a cancelled TV show that the network was pretty much ignoring. Doing anything with CSI would be a bit more delicate given its ongoing status and enormous popularity, and honestly, I've very rarely seen CSI in fanzine publications, though it's been a while since I looked.
But my point is that publishing CSI fanfic in a physical form, as long as it was done discreetly, respectfully, and without any profit motive, is not an impossibility. I don't know if CBS would move against it; they might not consider it worth hassling over, given the enormous online fanfic presence and the power of fans (which, hopefully, they have not forgotten after the 2004 firing fiasco).
Maybe it's time someone tried.
*I've never read Gone With the Wind, but personally, I don't consider it a "classic".
**The term "slash" actually dates back to early Trek fandom and fanfic, when they started pairing Kirk and Spock. Gotta love neologisms!