Subject: A matter of respect
Author:
Posted on: 2011-07-29 19:39:00 UTC
The disclaimer, to me, is a way of giving credit to the author who invented the world you are using for your story. Not to give credit for a major thing like that is just as bad as--probably worse than--not giving credit to people like beta readers or people who helped with format or html code. It's just impolite not to acknowledge it.
Here are as many as I can think of, at the moment:
1. Is "not having a disclaimer" a charge, just bad form, or something not to worry about?
2. There's a large, uncanonical location that needs destroying in the fic I'm sporking (a town). What's the procedure for bringing DOGA in? Should my agents just try to deal with it themselves?
3. How serious a space-time distortion/reality disruption is creating/replacing a canon town with an uncanon one? In this case, do my agents need to worry about the fic collapsing (it takes place over multiple days)?
For reference, the replacement town in question is "Kohana" (a misspelling of "Konoha" from the Naruto continuum) and it bears almost no resemblance to the original. Konoha looks like a traditional Japanese village. Kohana has a large mall. Enough said.
Sorry, but I think it's very important to have a disclaimer - both from a legal point of view (and believe me, you DON'T want to fall afoul of that) and just out of respect for the original author. But not having one isn't a charge as far as I know.
Anyway, to the other questions:
2. It all depends on the fic and the way you and your agents handle it - which is to say, you can pretty much decide for yourself. If you want to bring DoGA in and go pyro with flamethrowers, in this case you can - a town is certainly big enough (you couldn't do so for little things). But if you don't want to, then you can decide that killing the Sue or exorcising the canons (or whatever) is enough to loosen the author's grip on the world and let it fade back into normal on its own.
3. Like the above, you can pretty much decide this one for yourself - if you want such a thing to happen, and can justify it, go ahead, but you don't have to. Just make sure not to turn it into an Emergency-like drama. The fic probably won't collapse, though - like Elemarth says, similar things have happened. The only time I recall a fic actually collapsing was in TOS when the author deleted it.
Hope that helps!
There seem to be two camps on the disclaimer front: those who think it's absolutely necessary, and those who think it is rubbish. I'm closer to the latter camp. I seriously doubt a disclaimer is going to give you any kind of legal protection. When the rights owners want to sue, they sue, regardless of whether you have put up a disclaimer stating you don't own the stuff. They're very real (and legally sound) argument will be: well, if you don't own it, why are you putting it up on the Internet?
Acknowledging the original author can be done in the author's note. It doesn't need to have the rather meaningless word "disclaimer" tacked to it.
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As for the misspelt town. Wouldn't that be just another mini (or other beasty) rather than an uncanonical town?
I've missioned two fics where the author consistently misspelt one of the characters' names and wrote them OOC to boot. But in neither case did I treat this character as an OC or character replacement.
On the other hand, burning down a town is probably more fun. Just, charging with creating an uncanonical town implies that the canonical town is still around somewhere.
My method depends on where it's published. If the story is published on a site such as fanfiction.net, it's pretty understood by all that it's fanfiction and the writer doesn't own the world or characters described in the work. The same goes with items in the 'fanfiction' section of Deviantart.
If the writer posts it on Livejournal or some other place, it is good form to at least include a note that it is fanfiction and the writer doesn't claim to own the characters or world depicted... if not for a lawyer's convenience, but for readers who may go to the journal for other things, not expecting fanfiction.
(Of course, if it is a fanfiction journal, you can get away with probably one 'disclaimer' for the whole journal, to remove confusion.)
Usually if I include a disclaimer, it is for multiple chapter stories (not one-shots) and is only on the first chapter of the work. And even then it's short, more like a thank-you to the creators of the original work than a 'ME NO OWN U NO SUE'
I do include disclaimers citing fair use for PPC missions, though, because I am borrowing multiple things (The PPC, the original work, the badfic, all at once), for use in parody... and if somebody finds the missions they have a real chance of being mad about them.
I mean, what ordinary reader would ever get mad enough at a fanfic in order to sue... and what creator would try and take down EVERY BIT OF FANFICTION of their stuff with a lawsuit?
Even more ludicrous are the numerous high school AU stories that have nothing to do with the plot OR real characters, yet are tagged with 'I DON'T OWN X I JUST USE IT!!!'
If they stripped and replaced the names, I am not sure anybody would notice or care that that kind of story was fanfiction at all. (I am sure they would care if it was bad, though...)
A disclaimer should say that you don't own the world, not that you don't own the story. And if done correctly, you can use your disclaimer to help with a Fair Use defense should you be sued. Granted, you better have or be a damn good lawyer if you want to pull that off, but it is possible. The bit stating what you do own is also pretty important if, like me, you want to one day become a published author with your characters/technology/whatever.
Granted, I work in a canon that is rather malleable, and that tends to have fans become published authors writing for said canon, but still.
At first, I thought it should be a mini. However, the town that the fic takes place ends up bearing little to no resemblance to the canon location it purports to be. The places that exist in canon are incredibly distorted (a small apartment turns into a mansion with a swimming pool) and lots of other buildings are added in that don't make any sense (the aforementioned mall). I haven't figured out where the canonical town would be, but there are some truly massive plotholes...
Plus, as you say, burning down a town is more fun.
But on the other hand, I've always considered the disclaimer to be more about respect than legality. Yes, it's something of a security blanket concerning rights to the canon, but it's more a gesture of homage, I think. That might sound stupid if the story is, for example, a Redwall or something; everyone knows you don't own Martin and his Abbey. But consider, for example, an LotR 'fic where the author goes into detail about Glorfindel's memories of his greatest deeds, over the campfire to Legolas and Gimli. You can easily see a fan of the movies who doesn't know the books going "Oh man, Glorfindel is the coolest character!" And they'd be right! The problem is, he's Tolkien's character, not the author's. It also comes in handy for crossovers, or stories that borrow ideas. For example, borrowing Death from Discworld in another story. Mentioning that he belongs to Terry Pratchett is helpful-- and who knows? Maybe Discworld has just gained a new fan!
But overall, I think it's correct that we can't really charge for or against it. Unless the author's note is actually claiming they do own canon characters, or needlessly whiny about how they don't, it's not an issue either way.
Hee! Yes. The number of Narnia writers who say things like "I was crying because I couldn't find Peter Pevensie in my closet" is ridiculous.
That said, I tend to approve of the disclaimers that say simply something like, "Tolkien owns LotR" or "Tolkien owns LotR, I own [OC]." Without the word "disclaimer." Needless melodramatics are just annoying.
While some disclaimers are annoying and whiny (or simply go on and on forever), I usually view them as being more about respect for the author than anything else. You're giving credit where credit is due rather than dispelling any misguided notion that you own and/or profit from the fic. As for charging, I wouldn't worry about it. It seems like the only grounds for a disclaimer-related charge would be if there were sufficient other charges to warrant killing the fic and if the disclaimer annoyed the hell out of the agents ("annoying PPC agents").
The disclaimer, to me, is a way of giving credit to the author who invented the world you are using for your story. Not to give credit for a major thing like that is just as bad as--probably worse than--not giving credit to people like beta readers or people who helped with format or html code. It's just impolite not to acknowledge it.
I thank the people who have beta read for me in the e-mail I sent them after I have read their comments. I don't publicly acknowledge my beta readers. None of them have ever minded that; one actually prefers it that way.
I don't think it's impolite to not mention their names in your author's notes. Personally, I think it is impolite if that author's note is the only place you say thank you to your beta readers.
...there are some utterly hillarious disclaimers floating around...
She has something like this at the beginning of *every* chapter:
[author]: CORALINE! COME OUT TO PLAY!
Coraline: - under bed -
[author]: Hmm… Guess she's not in here… - acts like leaving and closes door -
Coraline: - comes out from under bed -
[author]: AHA! - tackles coraline -
Coraline: Get offa me!
[author]: NO! I Have to disclaim you!
Coraline: Can't you do that without sitting on me!
[author]: NOPE! Alright I don't own this lump of annoyingness right here
Coraline: See? This is why I don't like you! NOW GET OFF! -pushes off and runs out of room -
[author]: Wow… Anyway! NOW FOR THE MAIN EVENT!
Gah.
Like this one:
All characters, settings, trademarks, etc are the property of J.K. Rowling. After carefully checking my bank account, I am, apparently, not she.