waltersgirl
03-21-2003, 02:08 AM
put together by our guru, cofax....
This is a summary of the copyright and intellectual property issues involved in the Save Farscape campaign. This summary is based on conversations with an attorney with years of experience in both fandom and intellectual property law, who generously donated the time to advise me on this matter.
The key fact to remember is that fan sites are non-commercial sites that recognize Henson's ownership of the property.
Additionally, we also need to remember that one of the major points in this campaign is our recognition of Henson's (and DK's)creative vision for the show. I think it would be unfair to show our support for the show while simultaneously trampling their intellectual property rights in it. Let's respect DK's vision, and his interest in finishing the story.
Onward to the FAQ:
Why can't we use images from the show on our ads/flyers/buttons/sites?
The images from the show belong to Henson. Henson, as the creator, owns the right to use, manipulate, and distribute those images, including pictures of the cast and Moya. Anyone using those images for a commercial purpose would be violating Henson's intellectual property rights in their creation, and could be subject to legal penalties.
Fannish uses of images and characters are generally noncommercial and recognize the creator's ownership of the product: what this means legally is still being debated. In my personal opinion, a fan-run Farscape site that doesn't claim ownership of the characters is unlikely to get a cease-and-desist letter from Henson. But trying to pay someone else to run an ad containing Henson's intellectual property (e.g., a newspaper or magazine ad containing screen-shots or publicity pictures, however manipulated) is much less acceptable -- and the newspaper in question probably wouldn't approve it anyway.
People have approached Henson about getting them to approve using images for the campaign to save the show -- so far no one has received such approval, and in my opinion it's unlikely to happen.
What about fan-created artwork, like Ratscape's Wanted posters or my picture of Moya I use on my site?
Oddly enough, that doesn't really make a difference. Fan art, like fan fiction, is a "derivative work", and the rights the fannish-producers hold are subject to the original copyright-holder's interests. In other words, Henson actually has a legal right of some sort in my fan fiction and Ratscape's posters. We have a derivative interest.
The use of fan-created art makes it less obvious that we're infringing on someone else's copyright, but we're still doing it.
That said, my advisor said, "There is an extremely strong argument that the posters are "fair uses," at least as long as they are not being sold but are instead distributed freely."
So, we should be aware of this issue, and I think that if we want to run formal advertisements in newspapers and the like we should not even use fan art. However, freely-distributed flyers, posters, and buttons are probably fine, so long as we don't sell them. Non-commercial uses, remember?
Can we use the Farscape Font on our sites and on ads?
Fonts cannot be copyrighted. So anyone can use the Farscape font if they want. Just don't try to make it look like you're from Henson when you do.
Can we use "Save Farscape" in the Farscape Font?
So long as it's clearly disclaimed and evident that we are in no way associated with the actual show, probably fine. As a noncommercial site, we're not about to cause trademark dilution or customer confusion, which is one of the common complaints (like if you made a soda called "Coba Cola" and used the Coke font for the logo).
Can we have Farscape Marathons to raise money for charity (and thereby get public exposure for the show)?
This could be a problem -- the only people allowed to make money off airing the show is the copyright holder (again, Henson). So a public performance is out -- that includes showing episodes for free in college auditoriums, as some people have suggested. However, "if you had a charity event for fannish friends where part of the festivities included watching tapes, that might be okay". See the difference? Farscape gatherings=good. Farscape marathons=bad.
Can we set up tape trees, or have people make copies of their tapes for others?
The copyright owner has an exclusive right to reproduce and distribute the show. Additionally, there are DVDs available, and thus making copies for other people would actually interfere with someone's commercial interest in the show.
However, lending tapes out is probably fine. Just don't encourage people to make endless copies.
I hope that helps. It's important, I think, that we the fans recognize Henson's ownership of the property, because in the end it's their creative vision we're trying to protect, isn't it?
On Advertising Products....
While Savefarscape.com cannot make anyone else's decisions, we do have a clear policy in place regarding copyright issues. The Copyright FAQ is available at the top of this board, and also available in the FAQ on the main page of Savefarscape.com.
Unapproved commercial uses of Henson's copyrighted images are in direct conflict with our policy and we ask that you not advertise any such products here.
We understand that t-shirts, mugs, and artwork with pictures of the cast on them are fun; but we've wrestled with this issue for a while and come to the decision that respecting Farscape as we do, we also have to respect Farscape's creators' ownership of their own products.
That means no unapproved commercial uses of copyrighted images will be endorsed or encouraged by Savefarscape.com.
Thank you.
This is the situation with using images, pictures, logos, fonts, and characters from Farscape to advertise or support the campaign:
1. The Jim Henson Company and its licensees own all the intellectual property rights to Farscape and its characters. This includes pictures of the characters, character names, the name "Farscape" itself, and the Farscape font.
2. The fact that noncommercial fan sites use these images, characters, and font freely on the internet (and in zines) does not make statement 1, above, any less true.
3. Copyright law allows for "fair use" of intellectual property, if such use recognizes the original owner's rights. Courts are more likely to allow such "fair use" if it's a transformative use (like fan fiction or fan art or parody), and if it doesn't interfere with the original producer's market for the property (so you can't make a Farscape episode and sell it because that takes profit away from Henson), and if it doesn't cause confusion among consumers about which is the "official" product (which is why disclaimers are good).
Clear so far?
4. Television producers, including Henson, have occasionally cracked down on fan sites on the internet. Sometimes fans go too far (like posting vid clips from episodes) and the producers find that violation of copyright too much. Few fans have the money and resources to fight these battles, so these issues haven't been addressed by many courts.
5. What is clear is that any use for profit will be looked at with a very strict and careful eye -- by lawyers for the producers, and by the courts, if such a case gets to court. By "profit" I mean, "not distributed for free". Because by bringing money into the equation, the fans are taking money that by rights belongs to Henson.
6. Any website, banner, t-shirt, or other product with Farscape images (or logo or fonts) on it should clearly state that the images on it are used without permission and that Farscape and its characters belong to the Jim Henson Company.
7. To my knowledge, no one in the fan community has permission from the Jim Henson Company to use any images, graphics, or other property related to Farscape for the purposes of the Save Farscape Campaign. Henson has other obligations with regards to this property, other licensees involved, and, based on my correspondence with the Henson business office, I think it's probable they cannot legally grant such permission to anyone.
Henson has addressed our question on this matter previously: although we wish it were otherwise, we cannot grant or imply authorization to make use of any of the elements of the series.
8. SaveFarscape.com will respect the intellectual property rights Henson has in Farscape to the best of our ability. This means we will not sell unapproved copyrighted material to fund the campaign, will not allow advertisements for the sale of unapproved copyrighted material, and will include disclaimers on all our materials recognizing Henson's overriding ownership of Farscape and all its associated elements.
This is SaveFarscape.com's position. We cannot, of course, require anyone else to comply with it, but we strongly urge everyone in the campaign to protect themselves as much as possible by, at the very least, using disclaimers on their campaign materials.
Thank you for your attention.
But wait, there's more...
Henson CANNOT give fans the rights to use any images, because the rights to those images are enmeshed in a complicated legal tangle of licensees. They're not "shooting themselves in the foot", they're complying with their own legal obligations.
SaveFarscape.com approached Henson early on about this, and they kindly explained the situation. We're not going to get approval.
Additionally, many Scapers have been creative enough to come up with some great graphics and slogans that draw viewers in without using copyrighted images. Not having access to the cast pictures isn't going to make or break the campaign.
This is a summary of the copyright and intellectual property issues involved in the Save Farscape campaign. This summary is based on conversations with an attorney with years of experience in both fandom and intellectual property law, who generously donated the time to advise me on this matter.
The key fact to remember is that fan sites are non-commercial sites that recognize Henson's ownership of the property.
Additionally, we also need to remember that one of the major points in this campaign is our recognition of Henson's (and DK's)creative vision for the show. I think it would be unfair to show our support for the show while simultaneously trampling their intellectual property rights in it. Let's respect DK's vision, and his interest in finishing the story.
Onward to the FAQ:
Why can't we use images from the show on our ads/flyers/buttons/sites?
The images from the show belong to Henson. Henson, as the creator, owns the right to use, manipulate, and distribute those images, including pictures of the cast and Moya. Anyone using those images for a commercial purpose would be violating Henson's intellectual property rights in their creation, and could be subject to legal penalties.
Fannish uses of images and characters are generally noncommercial and recognize the creator's ownership of the product: what this means legally is still being debated. In my personal opinion, a fan-run Farscape site that doesn't claim ownership of the characters is unlikely to get a cease-and-desist letter from Henson. But trying to pay someone else to run an ad containing Henson's intellectual property (e.g., a newspaper or magazine ad containing screen-shots or publicity pictures, however manipulated) is much less acceptable -- and the newspaper in question probably wouldn't approve it anyway.
People have approached Henson about getting them to approve using images for the campaign to save the show -- so far no one has received such approval, and in my opinion it's unlikely to happen.
What about fan-created artwork, like Ratscape's Wanted posters or my picture of Moya I use on my site?
Oddly enough, that doesn't really make a difference. Fan art, like fan fiction, is a "derivative work", and the rights the fannish-producers hold are subject to the original copyright-holder's interests. In other words, Henson actually has a legal right of some sort in my fan fiction and Ratscape's posters. We have a derivative interest.
The use of fan-created art makes it less obvious that we're infringing on someone else's copyright, but we're still doing it.
That said, my advisor said, "There is an extremely strong argument that the posters are "fair uses," at least as long as they are not being sold but are instead distributed freely."
So, we should be aware of this issue, and I think that if we want to run formal advertisements in newspapers and the like we should not even use fan art. However, freely-distributed flyers, posters, and buttons are probably fine, so long as we don't sell them. Non-commercial uses, remember?
Can we use the Farscape Font on our sites and on ads?
Fonts cannot be copyrighted. So anyone can use the Farscape font if they want. Just don't try to make it look like you're from Henson when you do.
Can we use "Save Farscape" in the Farscape Font?
So long as it's clearly disclaimed and evident that we are in no way associated with the actual show, probably fine. As a noncommercial site, we're not about to cause trademark dilution or customer confusion, which is one of the common complaints (like if you made a soda called "Coba Cola" and used the Coke font for the logo).
Can we have Farscape Marathons to raise money for charity (and thereby get public exposure for the show)?
This could be a problem -- the only people allowed to make money off airing the show is the copyright holder (again, Henson). So a public performance is out -- that includes showing episodes for free in college auditoriums, as some people have suggested. However, "if you had a charity event for fannish friends where part of the festivities included watching tapes, that might be okay". See the difference? Farscape gatherings=good. Farscape marathons=bad.
Can we set up tape trees, or have people make copies of their tapes for others?
The copyright owner has an exclusive right to reproduce and distribute the show. Additionally, there are DVDs available, and thus making copies for other people would actually interfere with someone's commercial interest in the show.
However, lending tapes out is probably fine. Just don't encourage people to make endless copies.
I hope that helps. It's important, I think, that we the fans recognize Henson's ownership of the property, because in the end it's their creative vision we're trying to protect, isn't it?
On Advertising Products....
While Savefarscape.com cannot make anyone else's decisions, we do have a clear policy in place regarding copyright issues. The Copyright FAQ is available at the top of this board, and also available in the FAQ on the main page of Savefarscape.com.
Unapproved commercial uses of Henson's copyrighted images are in direct conflict with our policy and we ask that you not advertise any such products here.
We understand that t-shirts, mugs, and artwork with pictures of the cast on them are fun; but we've wrestled with this issue for a while and come to the decision that respecting Farscape as we do, we also have to respect Farscape's creators' ownership of their own products.
That means no unapproved commercial uses of copyrighted images will be endorsed or encouraged by Savefarscape.com.
Thank you.
This is the situation with using images, pictures, logos, fonts, and characters from Farscape to advertise or support the campaign:
1. The Jim Henson Company and its licensees own all the intellectual property rights to Farscape and its characters. This includes pictures of the characters, character names, the name "Farscape" itself, and the Farscape font.
2. The fact that noncommercial fan sites use these images, characters, and font freely on the internet (and in zines) does not make statement 1, above, any less true.
3. Copyright law allows for "fair use" of intellectual property, if such use recognizes the original owner's rights. Courts are more likely to allow such "fair use" if it's a transformative use (like fan fiction or fan art or parody), and if it doesn't interfere with the original producer's market for the property (so you can't make a Farscape episode and sell it because that takes profit away from Henson), and if it doesn't cause confusion among consumers about which is the "official" product (which is why disclaimers are good).
Clear so far?
4. Television producers, including Henson, have occasionally cracked down on fan sites on the internet. Sometimes fans go too far (like posting vid clips from episodes) and the producers find that violation of copyright too much. Few fans have the money and resources to fight these battles, so these issues haven't been addressed by many courts.
5. What is clear is that any use for profit will be looked at with a very strict and careful eye -- by lawyers for the producers, and by the courts, if such a case gets to court. By "profit" I mean, "not distributed for free". Because by bringing money into the equation, the fans are taking money that by rights belongs to Henson.
6. Any website, banner, t-shirt, or other product with Farscape images (or logo or fonts) on it should clearly state that the images on it are used without permission and that Farscape and its characters belong to the Jim Henson Company.
7. To my knowledge, no one in the fan community has permission from the Jim Henson Company to use any images, graphics, or other property related to Farscape for the purposes of the Save Farscape Campaign. Henson has other obligations with regards to this property, other licensees involved, and, based on my correspondence with the Henson business office, I think it's probable they cannot legally grant such permission to anyone.
Henson has addressed our question on this matter previously: although we wish it were otherwise, we cannot grant or imply authorization to make use of any of the elements of the series.
8. SaveFarscape.com will respect the intellectual property rights Henson has in Farscape to the best of our ability. This means we will not sell unapproved copyrighted material to fund the campaign, will not allow advertisements for the sale of unapproved copyrighted material, and will include disclaimers on all our materials recognizing Henson's overriding ownership of Farscape and all its associated elements.
This is SaveFarscape.com's position. We cannot, of course, require anyone else to comply with it, but we strongly urge everyone in the campaign to protect themselves as much as possible by, at the very least, using disclaimers on their campaign materials.
Thank you for your attention.
But wait, there's more...
Henson CANNOT give fans the rights to use any images, because the rights to those images are enmeshed in a complicated legal tangle of licensees. They're not "shooting themselves in the foot", they're complying with their own legal obligations.
SaveFarscape.com approached Henson early on about this, and they kindly explained the situation. We're not going to get approval.
Additionally, many Scapers have been creative enough to come up with some great graphics and slogans that draw viewers in without using copyrighted images. Not having access to the cast pictures isn't going to make or break the campaign.