Fanlore : The Sum Is Greater Than Its Parts

Volunteering on Fanlore has been mind expanding. One of the features Fanlore offers is a general mailbox - the Gardeners mailing list. Email goes to a group of volunteers. No one is assigned to respond to messages, it is "respond as you may." Issues that require the Wiki Committee's input get forwarded to them (Committee members are also on the mailing list which helps speeds things up).

Because Fanlore is open to the public, we often get offbeat inquiries ("I have a copy of X zine. Where can I sell it?" or "I want a copy of X zine where can I buy it?" and "I read this story once - it involved a man and a dog. I think there may have been a parrot with one eye. Can you help me find it?).

Other questions are more on target: pointing out incorrect facts or offering to add images, art or new information. We also get emails from old fans who have found themselves on Fanlore and are thrilled someone is documenting fandom history (although we often hear: "OMG I can't believe anyone would still be interested in what I wrote when I was in my 20s. Ack!" But thank you. Did I mention Ack?!)

In one case, we were contacted by a fanzine writer who noted that her Fanlore page said her well loved novel had never appeared online - and "did we know anyone who could help with that"? (We did..or rather I did, and with the help of  fans like Jan Levine One Way Mirror is now available online and as a PDF with the art here)

Then there was the president of one of the early Star Trek fan clubs who had kept all the club records and flyers and zines in a filing cabinet for 30+ years. He wanted to know if anyone would be interested in the material - and we were able to direct him to Open Doors which helps fans find permanent homes for their zines an other fandom memorabilia.

But on occasions we get messages of a more personal nature, friends looking for lost friends. This week, a former cast member of a TV show who is seriously ill wrote to Fanlore hoping to reconnect with two friends. We of course had no information, but I was able to find a fandom mailing list and I forwarded his message to them. So far no one on the mailing list has responded to his request for help, but he sent me a lovely thank you email.

You never know what will pop up next. Fanlore is not just about documenting history - it is about helping make new connections and new history. And it is often the first point of contact for many of the older fans who are reaching out to the newer fandom communities and the various OTW (and non-OTW) fandom projects.

Permissions Optional: On The Digital Horizon

First up, as Rebecca Tushnet reports, Australia has recommended adopting a fair use exception to their copyright laws. She points out that "one reason to adopt fair use is that it provides greater protection for "musical compositions, new films, art works and fan fiction."

Next: digitization efforts by libraries and museums are gaining greater acceptance worldwide. In the same Australian report several sections focus on the need for libraries and collections to (a) be allowed to scan copyrighted materials,  and (b) to allow less restricted access to those materials (ex: no digital hobbling, forced anti-copying technology or onsite only access with limited days and hours). And last, they argue for the right to preserve material that was "born digitally" (work that was only distributed in electronic format. Think along the lines of the Internet Archive/Wayback Machine): "Aside from ‘legacy’ works—such as old manuscripts and films—libraries and archives must also preserve materials that are ‘born digital’ in the face of ‘technological obsolescence’. Best practice preservation principles in relation to digital material require numerous copies to be made in multiple formats."

This is in line with the positions being adopted by US institutions. Not only do these institutions argue that fair use allows them to scan material for preservation and research purposes, but they also do not need to  conduct a due diligence search for  "orphaned works" (works where the copyright owner has vanished or cannot be determined.

"Because of these significant changes in the copyright landscape over the past seven years, we are convinced that libraries no longer need legislative reform in order to  make appropriate uses of orphan works. However, we understand that other communities may not feel comfortable relying on fair use and may find merit in an approach based on limiting remedies if the user performed a reasonably diligent search for the copyright owner prior to the use....."

They go on to note that the less commercial an item is, the stronger the fair use argument:"....the fair use case for such uses will be even stronger where items to be digitized consist largely of works, such as personal photographs, correspondence, or ephemera,*  whose owners are not exploiting the material commercially and likely could not be located to seek permission for new uses.”  (Library Copyright Alliance, 2013)

*Ephemera interestingly can include both paper items as well as video.  Fanvids would probably fall with the definition of video ephemera.