COMIC FANS' RIGHTS

I read an unsettling editorial on a website that had been, quite literally, shut down by a comics company and only allowed back up after several changes were made to the site. The owner of the site ranted on and on in this editorial about how we, the fans, own the characters because it is our money that has been spent for so many years to support and maintain them.

I really hope the writer of the rant was speaking metaphorically or something, because we, the fans, have absolutely NO rights to the characters we are fans of. I have never disillusioned myself so far to believe that I own Aquaman. I don't even own the right to be called an Aquaman expert, despite my website. I'm just a fan. And, like it or not, that doesn't give me any rights or ownership of anything.

The only right I have as a fan is the right to a good story. If the companies fail to give me that, they don't get my money.

And that's it.

I don't understand the attitude of some fans who seem to think that because they enjoy something, they own it. I understand the need and desire to celebrate something you enjoy, that's what being a fan is all about, after all. I totally understand the urge to build a website as a tribute to your favorite character or title. But if you are then told, by the owner of the properties you are celebrating, that the website is inappropriate and might be hurting their business, why do so many fans violently disagree?

There's been a recent spat of "shut-downs" among fan sites, and I don't blame any fan for being afraid that the site that they've worked so hard on will receive a cease-and-desist letter. But the reaction to those letters seems ever so slightly overblown to me, especially in light of the content of the letters. With the exception of the site I mention in my first paragraph, which was literally shut down by the legal department contacting the server and asking for the site to be removed, every shut-down I've heard about has been a letter asking for changes in the website: not for its removal.

I've put countless hours of work into my site. Over the last few years I've devoted time and energy to it as only a person obsessed could do. Were I to get a letter from DC Comics asking me to make changes in my site, I know exactly what I would do. But first, here's what I wouldn't do:

• I wouldn't get angry at DC/Warner for protecting their trademark. They have every right, and I have no rights.
• I wouldn't take my entire page down immediately and replace it with the letter from the lawyer. I might put the letter somewhere on my page, as information for other website owners.
• I wouldn't urge people to harass the lawyer who sent me the letter. I wouldn't even tell people his/her name, address, or number.
• I wouldn't rant about how I'm doing DC a service by promoting their book. Nor would I claim that they were being unfair/stupid/cruel by getting rid of free advertising.
• I wouldn't rant about DC in general, since the legal department isn't the same folks that make the comics. The editor of my favorite book would not be involved in the process that leads to the letter. My favorite writer doesn't have any say in what DC does on-line.
• I wouldn't rant about Free Speech or the First Amendment. That simply doesn't apply here.

If you get The Letter it isn't because DC hates you or because WB thinks they can get money out of you. It's because a researcher found your page, compared it to a list of requirements for fan pages that we don't have access to, and decided that you weren't in compliance. That letter is meant to scare you into action. Ideally, you'll just take down your site and they never have to worry about you again. Less ideally, you will get your site into compliance and they can ignore you unless you step out of line again.

Now, should that horrible letter come my way, I have in my bony little head a plan of action. I've done a lot of research, and a little consultation with people in the know, so I know exactly what I would do. For the sake of my sanity, I've put those steps into a general list of things us website owners should do...

1. Don't Panic. Getting The Letter isn't the end of the world for any fan site. It simply means that the lawyers have deigned to notice you.
2. Read the letter thoroughly. It's likely to to tell you exactly what you must do to get your site into compliance.
3. Weigh the effort of getting your site into compliance against the possibility of taking it down. If it's easier and less stressful to simply remove your site, then you are probably violating Trademark and Copyright laws so badly that you've made something unsalvageable. In that case, take it down. Otherwise...
4. Take down/remove all that you have to so that your site is totally in compliance. At this point, that may be more than is strictly necessary for the law, but do it anyway temporarily.
5. Study "Fair Use" and how you can legally use it for your site. The law protects a tiny amount of unauthorized copying for purposes of review or scholarship. Many fan sites fall under one or the other, and so a TINY amount of otherwise copyrighted images can usually be used. NOTE: "Fair Use" does not apply to trademarks!
6. Study Trademarks. What you learn may surprise you, including the fact that DC/Warner cannot legally ignore your site if they want to keep their trademarks. Your unauthorized use of their trademarks may amount to theft in a very real sense.
7. Get legal advice. This step isn't strictly necessary, but if you want to be absolutely sure that your changes are protected, ask a lawyer who understands copyright law.
8. Put your site back up with all the changes. Once you are totally in compliance, you have nothing to fear.

Of course, it's probably not as easy as that. I have been slowly, over a long period of time, hammering my page to fit into legal standards that are probably more than Warner will ever ask of me. Right now I've still got a long way to go. I'd rather do it at my own pace, as I learn more about Fair Use and trademarks, but if I were to get The Letter I would go about it much faster, and probably run into snags along the way. My page would definitely lose some of its vitality and the joy of it would leave for a time...

But I've been through absence of joy with Aquaman before, and I expect I will again. I've even taken down my page for a month for very personal reasons. I survived that trial without much fuss. I don't consider my Aquaman website a right. If anything, it's a privilege. It's given me a lot of joy, and a lot of agony. But the ultimate owner of everything that's truly Aquaman-related on my website is not me. And if the real owner should come along and tell me to cease and desist, I will.

Well, as much as I have to....