Responding to Harold Ancell's private comments, by his explicit
permission:
Unfortunately for you, Fair Use definitively (we're talking recent case
law here) protects parodies. MST's most certainly are parodies, and
the more they sneer at the source, the safer they are. Add in the
non-commercial nature of FFML MSTs, and you essentially have no
*right* to restrict this sort of use of your works.
I've thought about it, and I disagree that MST's are parodies. Quoting
the American Heritage Dictionary's definition: "A literary or artistic
work that broadly mimics an author's characteristic style and holds it
up to ridicule."
I don't see that MSTs, at least the one I'm concerned with, do this. In
comparison, Weird Al Yankovic wrote a parody "Like a Surgeon" to
Madonna's "Like A Virgin," and though a couple of words from the chorus
were kept, the rest of the lyrics were replaced with his creation which
mimicked the style of her lyrics but were original. The multi-author
Future Sailor Cabinet parodies the DiC dub of Sailor Moon by taking
mostly-original characters and putting them in situations similar to
those from the anime, and emphasizing the sorts of inanities and
continuity errors made by DiC's lackluster dub job.
To me, a MST is just a scathing review which quotes a work *in its
entirety* and which may pad that review with inserted comedic
vignettes. Fair use allows quoting of material in a review ... a few
short passages for purpose of illustration & critique ... about 100 to
200 words IIRC!
David Johnstone pointed out:
You can't do it. Anyone who uses someone else's characters and setting
without permission simply doesn't have a leg to stand on when trying to
forbid others to unto him. The fact is, the MSTer is in a stronger
position than you are because he can make a justifiable argument that
he comes under the satirical intent allowance that lets Mad Magazine
get away with it's stuff. All you can do is inform people that being
MSTed without your permission is unwelcome.
I'd dispute this as well. Mad Magazine's comic strips parodying movies
and the like are not quotations of those movies, but original works
which re-use only the most cliched and inane lines, the rest of the work
being nothing more than a frame for the points of the satire.
Still, I suppose this does boil down to whether my derivative work has
any amount of copyrightability. Harold Ancell also said:
I'm not sure how copyright law applies between the original and your
work. Copyright protects the expression of an idea, not an idea
itself. Characters, etc. from established works are more akin to
ideas, I would think, and are probably more covered by trademark law
(but I plead to ignorance here).
Either way, you own the copyright to your own literary works. You
may not be able to legally do anything with your works due to
the rights of the originators, but you still own them. The originators
cannot use your words without your permission, except for the standard
Fair Use exceptions available to all. Case in point, Manga used
a fan translation for the first volume of Giant Robo, and I understand
the fan forced them to acknowledge his contribution.
What Harold's saying sounds right to me (I've tried to keep up on
copyright information over the years because of my writing but I am not
claiming to be an expert!). At least, it's enough to cast some doubt on
what some other people have said (namely that *none* of my work is
copyrightable because it's too derivative). It seems to me that *my*
work is closer to being a parody than the MST because I'm putting
highlighted elements into original situations and not just quoting.
Still, I suppose without an actual court decision we'd never know for
sure.
I guess all I can do is add the 'please don't mist this' tag and if it
gets done again, complain a lot. <shrug> I don't want to sound like an
ingrate, I know a lot of people find them flattering & hillarious, and
as I said his MSTing became less vicious and mildly humorous in the
later parts. But I don't want it done again. For those of you who asked,
YES, it was definitely a flame, pretty much felt like "this sucks!"
inserted between every other line. *sigh*
Well, thanks much for listening. I'm shutting up now.