How does JMS feel about fan fiction?

[B5JMS Poster]

Subject: How does JMS feel about fan fiction?
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 No. | DATE        |  FROM
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s  1: Oct  7, 1996: permalm at ix.netcom.com (Per Malm)
+ 11: Oct  9, 1996: bkbragg at orl.mindspring.com (Brian K. Bragg)
* 12: Oct  9, 1996: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)

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From: permalm at ix.netcom.com (Per Malm)
Lines: 11

How does JMS feel about fan fiction? Story ideas aside, does he feel
it diminishes or magnifies his creative efforts? Does he feel it
should be ignored like Trek fan fic or more closely monitored and
regulated?

Per Malm
----------------
"Against my will, I am sent to bid thee: come in to dinner."
 There's a double meaning in that.--Bennidict



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From: bkbragg at orl.mindspring.com (Brian K. Bragg)
Lines: 24

robert a kazmierczak <kazmrczk at students.uiuc.edu> wrote of the
following signs and portents:

:How does JMS feel about fan friction?  I suspect he doesn't mind at all.  
:After all, you have to make new SF fans somehow...

:(WHIFF! as a bat flies 
:over a ducked head...)

:Kazman

This took a minute...

but then

ROTFLSHIPMP and scared the ducks!


********************************************************************
Let us eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we shall have hangovers!
http://www.boondock.com/inkwell                      Brian K. Bragg
Note:  The author of this message accepts no responsibility for any
cerebral flatulence occurring here in.  Thank you and have a nice day.
***********************************************************************

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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Lines: 29

Bottom line, and real simple:

I've asked that fans *not* write any fan fiction set in the B5 universe
while the show is on the air.  Remember, most ST fanfic began after the
show was over, to keep those characters alive.  We're still around.

Fanfic is a threat to us, in that if someone writes a story, puts it in a
fanzine, and something remotely similar is done in the show, that person
could decide to sue.  It happens; Marion Zimmer Bradley lost an entire
*book* over this, when her publisher refused to put the book out because
of the threat of lawsuit from a fanzine with a similar story.  

When someone posted a basic story idea similar to what was planned for
"Passing Through Gethsemane," that script went into cold storage for over
a year; only when the fan involved offered (greatly chagrined) to write
and sign a legal release, and delivered it to me, could that story be put
back into prep.  If he had not been this kind, THAT EPISODE WOULD NEVER
HAVE BEEN MADE.  Roll that one around for a while.

It seems to me that if someone wants to write B5 fanfic, it's because that
fan likes the show, appreciates what's done, and respects those who
created it.  And that selfsame fan would not want to jeapordize the
continued existence of that show.  And would, therefore, honor this
request from those who make it for the duration of the show.


 jms


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