Printing fic: what are the boundaries? Oh tell me, fanculture!

[sapote]

So this is something that I've been wondering about. And I'm not asking because I'm planning to do any of these things (though I've certainly done plenty of #1) but because I'm curious if there's a point at which fanfiction is too far out of our hands or out in the commercial world.

Okay, also because I like everyone else have stories that I wish were available in easy-to-read, easy-to-store dead-tree format, and I am completely detached from zine culture. So I keep wondering.

Where 1 is the least fan-ethical, and 10 is completely unimpeachable, which of the following are okay?

[Poll #1317365]

Comments

[toft-froggy.livejournal.com]

Uh, which end of the scale is which?

[sapote3.livejournal.com]

Argh, speak english good do I. Edited to reflect: 1 is least ethical, 10 is most.

[toft-froggy.livejournal.com]

I guess, looking at this poll more, that actually for me it depends what you're going to do with the fic. I wouldn't say it was a problem to print out a fic and keep it for your own use, provided that you feedback the author. Where it becomes unethical is if you, say, started loaning it out for money, or sold it, or passed it off as your own work. Even lending it around would be a little dodgy to me, I think, unless the people you lent it to knew exactly where the online versions were and left feedback to the authors. But I don't really see a problem with the transference of fic from online to paper in itself (apart from the paper wastage, obviously), and getting paper spiralbound doesn't add anything to the issue. I don't know anything about Blurb, but I'd guess putting someone else's fic on there is not on.

[sapote3.livejournal.com]

Yeah, see, once you print it through Blurb or another service it seems like it would be substantially in someone else's hands, and the question seems to be who retains control over the text - I'm just so interested in this, because when I first started thinking "Hey, you can make books online!" the first thing I thought was "Fandom!" and then the second thing I thought was that I absolutely understood that fandom has Rules About This Sort of Thing, even though there's no way to enforce them besides reputation-spreading and shunning, and there's nowhere they're written down.

[rydra_wong]

I'd suspect that something like Blurb might be problematic because it raises the possibility that they might notice it as a copyright violation -- which could then rebound on the original author.

[sapote3.livejournal.com]

That's something else I've wondered about. It definitely seems to fall in the category of "exposing fandom to the powers that be", though there seems to be a general perception that that boundary is getting awfully porous anyway.

[summertea.livejournal.com]

I honestly don't find a problem with printing fic in any form, as long as you're not making money off of it. (I don't mean if Blurb or printing services making money, since they're not making money off of the fic itself and only off the process of printing it.)

[sapote3.livejournal.com]

But I do worry about what kind of rights they have over material once it's in their hot little hands, and whether submitting someone else's stuff does officially count as exposing them to the Powers that Be without their permission.

I think I might try it with a story of mine some day, if I ever have something officially long enough. Just to see what happens. It would be a pretty way to make zines with all the authors' permission, though. Have you seen some of their formats? Gorgeous!

[leupagus.livejournal.com]

I'm very curious about this, because then you get into things like Kindle, which are a book-format in a way, or even just cutting and pasting fic to read on your computer offline. And, of course, the whole concept of archives.

[sapote3.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I remember back in the days of Tripod, fic headers used to carry warnings about authors' archiving preferences - but it's something I hear about very rarely these days, I guess the default assumption is that no one else is going to publicly post your work. Of course, back then feedback was an email-only thing, so having copies of fic on many different websites didn't actually hurt your ability to receive feedback.

That's interesting about the Kindle - I never even thought about that. I definitely have fic that I converted to .jpg and read on my Zune. And I think questions might arise about sharing around podfic - right now we seem to do a good job of centralizing the archives, with links to comment threads and everything, but it seems fairly apt to be shared in a peer-to-peer way, like most .mp3s.

[thingswithwings.livejournal.com]

I remember a time when many people printed out fic for reading purposes - it was just a common thing that was done, when internet connections were more expensive, when laptops were less common and more cumbersome, when people hadn't been trained to read from a monitor and felt more comfortable with paper. I knew people who had stacks and stacks of printed-out fic. I never did that, but I certainly did save fic to my computer. It especially made sense for fic that came via newsgroup or yahoogroup, if you didn't know where or when it would be archived. Though, ironically, we have fewer centralized archives these days than we did then.

I actually don't see anything wrong with any of the options above, provided that they're all for one's own personal use. The only reason I put 5 on one option was because I suppose some authors might be afraid of their work being exposed to people outside of the community? But honestly, it's not like these corporations don't know about fanfiction; their decision to prosecute is not going to be based on whether someone makes themselves a single nice edition. But I recognize that others may feel differently about this; me, I'm generally against controlling the text (c.f. fandom itself.). :)

[sapote3.livejournal.com]

... I just got your icon. You've had it for a while. I laughed.

Yeah, I definitely had weird bits of fandomalia printed and laying all over my room in those days - there was one 80-page Myst fanfic that sat like a lump on top of my shelves forever. And I know people who still do that, for reading on buses and so forth.

Well, you're on the top of my list if I make myself a Blurb book, then! And I see your point on controlling the text! It's just interesting how much more willing I am to respect someone's creative work if the only thing compelling me to is 1) knowing them and wondering if they'll be unhappy and 2) informal cultural practices.

[orangecrush1189.livejournal.com]

Man why is any of this unethical?

[sapote3.livejournal.com]

I don't think much of it is - except maybe publishing someone else's story on Blurb, because, I don't know, what if the Blurb people called Pete Wentz and were all "Hey dude, someone just tried to publish some crazy stuff about you and that singer." and then all of fandom got sued.

[orangecrush1189.livejournal.com]

Haha and the fandom had to go to court and stare and giggle at Pete Wentz. It'd make their life.