Fanzines and Fan Fiction Are Not Crimes

Fanzines are being discussed again here, here, here and here. As usual, there is some misinformation about fanzines and their history along with how fanzines (and fan fiction) intersect with copyright laws. This has led to some discussion of the chilling effect this can have on fans wanting to produce, buy or sell fanzines.

To clarify:

1. The majority of fanzines being sold on eBay are through a few large scale storefronts.  Most are originals, but buyers need to be aware that copies of fanzines do pop up and that the eBay sellers may not recognize them as such (or care). The original fanzines that are being sold are not 'stolen' copies.

2. What is not happening 99% of the time - people printing out copies of online fan fiction and selling it on eBay. That does not say it does not happen, but I recently surveyed the over 1000 fanzines being sold on eBay for the Due South, Star Trek, Starsky & Hutch and Star Wars fanzine listing projects and did not see any 'unauthorized' online fan fic. If you have not submitted your fan fiction to be published in a fanzine, you are at very low risk at seeing your fan stories being sold on eBay.  (but it can't hurt to suggest to fans who may be worried that they set up an eBay alert for their name or titles of their stories. See below for updates).

3.  In lesser numbers, fanzines are being sold by fans or the families of fans who have passed on.

4. And last, a very few fanzines are actually being sold on eBay by the fanzine publishers - Ashton Press comes to mind.

5. In general, if you want to buy/sell fanzines there are more 'fan safe" spaces to sell/buy fanzines. Plus you will get better prices buying from fans.

6. Publishing and selling a fanzine is not a crime. It is not (although this is arguable) a violation of copyright (see 'fair use' defense). Publishing and selling a fanzine is no greater of a copyright violation than publishing your fan fiction online (in fact, more and more courts are skipping over the exchange of money when applying the fair use defense, so free online fan fiction does not necessarily get greater legal protection). Fans have been publishing and selling fan fiction in the form of fanzines for over 30 years.   Let's not try to rewrite history to fit current flashpoints in the copyright debate.

7. Reselling a fanzine is not a crime. Nor do you need permission from the publisher or writer to sell off your copy. There is a doctrine called First Sale that says selling the original item in hand is permitted.*  Selling copies is not. Think back to the used book market and you get the concept.

*One important aspect of the First Sale doctrine is that the original item has to be lawfully acquired. Which, in the case of  fan fiction, brings us back around to the 'is fan fiction a lawful use of copyrights.'  debate. If your head is spinning, you're not alone.

Edited to add (7/26): In one post, fans were being encouraged to contact eBay because these were 'illegal fanzines. Of the 13 Buffy fanzines listed  in her post as "illegal or plagiarized', I was able to verify that 8 were published by fans and some are still being sold by the publishers or the writers.  After it became clear that the bulk of the fanzines were legit, the post was locked. However, the OP was correct in saying we have no way of verifying whether these are copies and/or any of the  fan fiction being sold was printed without permission. My suggestion was to ask the OP to use the publisher links that I provided or have concerned writers contact the fanzine publishers directly rather than turning the eBay reseller, the fanzine publisher and/or the writer in for copyright infringement. I've been repeating that plea wherever possible  - here and here . Feel free to link to this post to help boost the signal and stop an overly-broad targeting of fanzine publishers, writers, buyers and sellers.

Having said this there are one - and possibly two more - Smallville fanzines that were created and sold without the author's permission. doctor beth has been contacted and she explained that she bought the fanzines in a large lot at Mediawest (the largest fan run fanzine convention in the US) and she has removed the listings. More here.

Further edits (7/27):  I have private confirmation that the 3  Smallville fanzines were single copies made by one fan for her own reading use and they were never intended to be resold on eBay.  I expect she and the authors will have some chatting to do.