Fanfic 'rules'

[Skydiver]

There's no tried and true 'solution' to any of this.

Every single fan site in existence exists because it's not worth shutting it down. and, well the folks that own the shows recognize that they do need the fans, and shutting down sites tends to make fans angry

It's a balancing act and a bit like 'don't ask/don't tell'

as long as fan sites don't do things to draw attention to themselves, tptb tend to ignore them

as to fanfic, many original authors don't seem to mind folks playing with their charactrers. Others do. JD Robb, aka Nora Roberts, does not like people playing with her characters so she's asked some sites, such as fanfiction.net to not allow fic containing her characters to be archived. I seem to recall hearing that JK Rowling doesn't have an issue with fanfic as long as it's not slash (same sex fic). In some cases, fanfic writers have been asked and eventually hired to become professional writers, writing officially endorsed stories.

Usually what legal action that there is is the owners of the copyright sending the site owners a cease and desist. The owners basically say 'take it down or we'll sue' and the site owners take the fic/site down and things are over.

[captainpash]

Though to be fair. I write orginal stuff, and I would hate for someone to steal my stuff, and make money off of it, but if I ever make it big I would think of FanFics as an honor. I mean people like your stuff so much they write in your univeser. They must like it.

[Mr Prophet]

Though to be fair. I write orginal stuff, and I would hate for someone to steal my stuff, and make money off of it, but if I ever make it big I would think of FanFics as an honor. I mean people like your stuff so much they write in your univeser. They must like it.

You may think this, as I did, but you do tend to get a little proprietorial about things you've created. I've actually had fanfic written about my OCs, and it is a huge buzz, but if you actually read the stuff you find yourself going 'that's not right' all the time. It's weird. I think the best thing is probably to accept the honour, then not read the stuff.

[Skydiver]

i've been fortunate enough that someone once took a creation of mine and spun a whole fic off 4 oc's i created. I've also had folks read a fic and say 'hey, can i write a sequel'

i consider it flattering.

on the other hand, i've also had a fic of mine plagarized. which was oddly complimentary in a way because someone else read and recognized the theft and told me about it

[captainpash]

Hey Skydiver check out my stuff.
http://www.freewebs.com/captianpash/index.htm

[prion]

So are you saying that Gateworld itself is an illegal site that could be shut down if we upset the wrong people? Could the fanfic writers and the people running the site face legal action????

As writers, what can we do to make sure we don't upset the wrong people? Would posting this disclaimer on each of our stories help you out?

All fan sites are 'illegal' in that they're using copyrighted material without express written permission, etc. It's when a site starts to make a profit that the studio might take interest and take it down, or posts material that is offensive. Now, slash fic exists and has existed for decades. I thikn the studios just accept it as part of the business, unless of course, you slash cartoon characters. Warner Bros. doesn't care for fans to slash its characterson sites, so some sites have gone poof.

Fanfic is a very gray area; while the studios tolerate it, they could easily shut down any and all fan sites if they wanted to simply because they have more money and more legal standing.

All fanfic should have standard legal disclaimers about copyright etc., to protect your work as well. You may be using the characters of O'Neill and Sheppard, etc. but your writing belongs to you, as well as any original characters you create.

[Spiderqueen]

Thanks for answering my questions, everyone. Kinda weird how fan sites and fanfiction are sort of a middle standing, though. Ah well, there's absolutely no reason on Earth I'd even consider sell my stuff, which would be so illegal to be laughable. I'll make sure to put legal disclaimers on my stuff; it's the least I can do to make sure Gateworld doesn't suffer legal issues.

[Admiral Mappalazarou]

'Sir, you have insulted my honour. I deman satisfaction, I challenge you to a duel!'

Anyone planning to write any new fanfics? if so, you better use this line or I won't read it...

[Moonshayde]

Question...Do we have a thread here for fanfic writers to announce their latest stories, whether they are archived here or not? Or, do we just post them to this thread?

I never bother to announce things here because I tend to confuse myself.

[Spiderqueen]

I've seen other posts lining this part of the forum advertising stories, so I'm guessing it's allowed. Anyone know for certain?

[Skydiver]

advertise away. we have threads in this part of the forum for jsut that purpose. also, let's say you're a sam fan and play in the sam thread, let them know you've written a new story

there are a couple of caveats:

don't post the story in the forum.

when you post the fic, you need to post information about it such as

title
author
e-mail
spoilers - what episode plots does it give away
warnings - does it have language, violence, character death or other squickable issues in it. please tell people of this
pairings - not everyone likes every pairing, so please tell them if your fic focuses on a pairing

also, while you are free to announce your fic here, there is no need to spam. so let's say you just wrote a sam/jack fic...you can tell folks in the thread here, and maybe in the ship famiy thread...but that's it. no need to spam it all over the place

[Allestian]

I'm having problems with finding a place to put a new little fic of mine at so would it be okay to put it on this forum???

Just wondering.

[Skydiver]

darren's preferece is to archive the fic on the site.

using the forum gets too cluttery for fanfic posting. It also isn't backedup as well as the site so the fic could get lost

[Allestian]

It's not that good a fic

Erm, thanks for answering my question.

[Skydiver]

hey, good is a relative term

post it and let folks read it. you might be surprised at the reaction