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Can LadySybilla and Russet Noon hang on long enough to change fandom?

April 20th, 2009 by Laura Leave a reply »

I’ve been following the Russet Noon situation with a lot of interest; it’s like the Star Wars book situation meets RDR that’s been crossed with a Harry Potter Lexicon with a bit of CounsinJean mixed in.

I’m really curious how this will turn out. The author of Russet Noon, LadySybilla, has done herself no favors in some regards by using Wikipedia for self promotion, engaging in alleged socketpuppeting and alleged trying to sell the books behind the scenes to bloggers. This falls pretty much into the realms of what happened to CousinJean and the Star Wars writer. Their actions might have fallen into a legal “gray zone”, but fandom pressure came to bear and both were punished so much by fandom that they largely left the fandom field of battle before they could get sued.

So far in this case, it doesn’t look like LadySybilla has been threatened with legal action. Why? I’m not certain. She might have been and we might not have heard about it. Or the intellectual property owners could be hoping that fandom makes the situation go away, like they did with the CousinJean and the Star Wars book. Or, the intellectual property holders could be scared of LadySybilla having lawyers, like Steve Van der Ark and RDR had at the Harry Potter Lexicon. The last one is the big worry potentially because if LadySybilla has lawyers and is willing to go to court, she could win and then things could become really difficult for the entertainment industry.

If LadySybilla isn’t pushed to take her book off the market by fandom and if she isn’t sue, she could open fandom’s pandora box. The conventional wisdom is that the Twilight fandom is feral where people aren’t grounded in media fandom’s historical traditions. If they see that some one can get away with this, they might be willing to try to do similar. The flood gates might swing wide open with this and fandom could very well change in unexpected ways.

So I’m taking the wait and see approach because this is all fascinating to watch play out and think of what might be if LadySybilla can deal with fandom pressure long enough to get her story published.

Posted in fandom news, legal issues

Tags: cousinjean fan fiction feral fandom harry potter lexicon LadySybilla livejournal media fandom RDR russet noon star wars Steve van der ark twilight wikipedia

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JaneyD

I expect the copyright holder and her lawyers are waiting until the Syb does something they can take legal action over.

If they react now, as I'm sure the Syb is hoping will happen, then they only give her free publicity. She's probably praying for a CNN truck to roll up to her door and has a little speech ready for them.

The Syb lives for attention at this point. She's loving it, even when it's all negative.

At this point she has not crossed the legal line. If she posts her ripoff, all they need do is notify her host server, which will have rules in their TOS about copyright infringement.

However much she moans about copyright, it IS still the law. The copyright holder has every right to defend her property from a boastful thief.
a little mouse

I think the reason Summit/Meyer/Little, Brown are keeping mum about this scandal is because they don't want to add to the buzz. A lawsuit at this point would only increase Russet Noon's popularity. Even if Sybilla's site gets shut down, the virus has already spread. As a matter of fact, Lee Goldberg has already announced that fanfiction is being sold on eBay, and this time it's not Sybilla who is doing it.

http://leegoldberg.typepad.com...
LauraH

Is she that popular? I'm only really getting what a few people have edited in to Fan History's article about it and it doesn't seem to indicate she has wide spread support.

That said, fan fiction being for sale is not knew. You've been able to buy RPF for years. Lulu looks the other way when you print it for your own purposes and don't make it available for the masses. Fanzines have been sold for profit above cost by some parties for years. Fanzines are sold for loads sometimes on EBay by people trying to recoup their costs. People have offered bound versions of their work for "sale" on LiveJournal as part of charity auctions. There are a whole slew of examples... and no real law suits. It just doesn't get talked about often because people tend to rationalize them away. Or they are invested in keeping up the myth that you'll get sued.
sidewinder_FH

I think what does make this case different - and part of why it exploded (at least in some circles) so much, was the extent to which this author was trying to make it so public and generate attention. The Press Releases, promotions on various websites, setting up the domain and running multiple "presale" ebay auctions... Selling fanfiction may not be new, but taking it to this kind of blatant public eye is.

Which is also what made it an interesting story to follow. What *would* have happened if she'd not been "intercepted" by fandom, and taken the book to full, "for profit" publication? (Even through small/self-press.) How could a lawsuit, or lack thereof, affect the way fandom tends to view fanfiction and its legalities?
LauraH

She did jump the rails in a way that, until Fan History got involved in this, I didn't understand. If it had been different, I think it might have set more fandom precedent in English speaking fandoms. (Just like clear lack of challenges in Russian fandom allow fan fiction to be on the shelves of some shops in that country.)