a query to the fanfic folk

[julesjones]

This is a serious question, not sarcastic -- has it become acceptable in fandom to lift entire zine reviews by other people and insert them into Fanlore entries on those zines without bothering to notify the review writer, let alone ask their permission? Because one of the editors who has been merrily slogging away on the Blake's 7 entries appears to have decided that my zine reviews are public domain, and I'm Not Happy about this.

I don't care if it's credited to me (which it is), I still don't think it's acceptable behaviour, and if there's any more of it I may have to get a Fanlore account and start editing. Which is time I won't be spending on uploading my zines.

Comments

[liviapenn]

Hello-- I'm a Fanlore gardener, although I'm pretty inactive these days. The best thing to do would probably be to contact the editor in question and let her know that you think she's quoting too extensively from your reviews. There should be contact info on their user page, or you could get a Fanlore account and leave a message on the user's Talk page (which would look like this http://fanlore.org/wiki/User_talk:Liviapenn ) except with the person's name there instead of mine. I wouldn't advise just getting a Fanlore account in order to make massive deletions, though.

[julesjones]

Thanks -- I'll do that when I've calmed down. I really am very angry about this, because I'm of a segment of fandom that would have considered it utterly unethical to do something like that. However, there seems to be a segment of fandom that thinks as long as they credit you they're doing you a favour by reposting your work in other venues without asking, and with being mostly gafiated I genuinely don't know how far that attitude has spread into OFTW.

[kalypso]

Well, I remember my surprise at discovering remarks I'd made in a private letter to a member of Horizon, I think about one of the B7 BBC radio plays, turning up in a feature in one of their newsletters. So I think there have always been fans who don't think of asking consent before publishing.

[watervole]

If the review is online, I would have said linking was the best thing to do. If the review was a paper one, then I'd have expected to be asked. (though I wouldn't be offended if a paper review of mine was copied and attributed)

[seawasp]

The "fanfic folk" include people like me, and people who think that everything that can be electronically copied is free. "If it's on the Internet it's public domain".

So your answer, like that of the elves, is yes and no.

[julesjones]

I know such people exist. But it did make me wonder whether they're now the dominant faction, to the extent that someone could be doing this on the grand scale on what I thought was a reputable wiki without her seeing anything odd about it. It's not as if OFTW's fanfic archive regards it as acceptable practice to go uploading any fanworks by other people you happen to admire, but maybe she thinks that Non-Fiction Is Different.