| From: | "Robert A. Hayden" <hayden@*******.MANKATO.MSUS.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | ADMIN: A question of copyright (Please Read) |
| Date: | Sun, 4 Apr 93 23:48:57 CET |
Well, a couple of weeks ago I started questioning myself as to who owns the
rights to this "project". Who is able to write stories and make millions of
dollars and who, in the American way, has the right to sue for a piece
of that millions.
After talking with a magazine editor, it was determined that very likely a
good case could be made for the fact that I own all of the rights to
anything that appears on ShadowTalk. This is because I set the list up,
maintain the FAQ, and, with the help of Vincent, do the administrative work.
On the other hand, it's probably pretty underhanded to claim the whole thing
for myself and expect the 100 people subscribed to continue contributing to
my copyright. I'd like to think that I'm a nicer guy than that.
The second choice is that the copyright is owned by everyone who has posted
something (I keep the logs w/headers so that we can reference back if need
be). This might seem like a good idea at the start, but the problem is
that if anyone was to produce a story, screenplay, music, or anything based
on ShadowTalk, everyone would be entitiled to a piece of the action.
Spreading one's proceeds among 200 people is kinda silly, if you ask me.
A third choice, which I think makes the most sense, is that anything posted
to ShadowTalk, becomes part of the public domain. Any person could use the
ideas and storylines in their own works if they wished without anyone else
on ShadowTalk expecting compensation. This isn't perfect because if someone
was to write a screenplay, get Spielberg to produce it and Arnie to star in
it, and get a fat check for about a billion dollars, chances are that
everyone else would feel cheated. To this, all I can say is TOUGH. A
public domain copyright is the easiest way to do this and a hell of a lot
nicer than me claiming the whole damn thing for myself, which I probably
could do.
In any case, I would like to get some comments and feedback on this
potential problem. The reason is that I am currently working on the
preliminaries of a theatrical screenplay with the entire MONICA affair as
the center of action. I am making a point of _NOT_ making it reliant on the
Shadowrun universe (in case FASA gets a burr up their ass about it). The
thing is that I don't want people to come up to me after some movie company
hands me enough money to pay off my student loans and demand a cut. At the
same time, it is pretty low and underhanded to snatch everything for myself,
hence my support for idea #3, a public doman type of thing.
In any case, please post some comments regarding this. Preface the
subject line with COPYRIGHT: so that when i edit them I can munch them out
easier.
Thanks for your time.
[> Robert Hayden ____ <] Black Holes result from God
[> \ /__ <] dividing the universe by zero.
[> hayden@*******.mankato.msus.edu \/ / <]
[> aq650@****.INS.CWRU.Edu \/ <] # include std_disclaimer.h
