Blog archives
I’ve heard about a law that could negatively affect the OTW and fandom, what should I do?
The OTW and our Legal committee continue to watch for issues that would affect us or our projects. In the event we are threatened, we will inform users and respond with the appropriate steps. In general, there are a variety of actions you can take in these cases: Do research. The most important thing you can do is remain vigilant about what’s going on in your community. Paying attention and engaging with the process will make you better prepared to respond to changes and to help your fellow fans. If it’s appropriate to the situation, contact those proposing the legislation or your representatives who will… Read more
I’m a professional creator. Do I need to avoid reading or acknowledging fanworks based on my own works?
Essentially, this is a personal decision. If it will upset you to read, view, or watch fanworks based on your works, then we recommend you don’t. Creators are sometimes advised to avoid viewing or acknowledging fanfiction based on their own work, as it is in theory possible that an author could read a story, go on to write something similar, and face a claim by the fan that they copied the fan’s work. However, there are many reasons to discount this risk, the least of which is that U.S. case law is all in the original author’s favor. No court is going to be receptive… Read more
If fanfiction is legitimate, wouldn’t that also mean that publishers or studios could produce derivative works without compensating the original authors?
No. Profit and the degree of transformative quality matters: telling stories around a campfire, freely sharing non-profit fanfiction, summarizing plot in a book review, or making a documentary film about fans are not the same as a major commercial enterprise making a TV series out of a novel.
Will OTW Legal Advocacy help fans outside the U.S.?
The OTW wants to help support fans around the world and we are absolutely willing to help if we can find someone with the necessary legal knowledge. Most countries around the world have some form of legal protection for parody, satire, and pastiche, and many have some protections for non-commercial uses, but the exact protections vary country to country. We have on multiple occasions responded to or commented on laws from other countries outside of the U.S. in support of the rights of fanworks and fanwork creators. For legal challenges to fans outside the United States, the OTW leans on legal allies like the Electronic… Read more
How many European users do you have?
By design, the OTW does not track all users or have the ability to create a browsing history for every individual. We believe strongly in internet freedom and collect the minimum amount of information required to run our websites. Based on assumptions about ordinary use that are reasonable in light of our experience, we have estimated the total number of monthly active European users across all our sites as between 17 and 30 million, but we reserve the right to make different assumptions in the future. In addition, there is uncertainty about what constitutes a “platform” or “service” under the EU Digital Services Act and… Read more