Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Fan Fiction & Poetry

BBM Fan Fiction Feels the Chilling Effects

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louisev:
It is no longer a rumor:  at least three BBM fan fiction book writers have received letters from the lawyers representing Simon and Schuster, the publishers of "Brokeback Mountain" requesting the complete withdrawal of their work from all internet sites and from all publication.  My own series of novels were the subject of a cease and desist letter in April 2007.  Since I was already contemplating the reworking of my series, which in its early form takes place after the end of Annie Proulx's story and which only peripherally touches the plot of her story, fashioning the unwritten parts into a murder back-plot, it became feasible for me to write a new novel with a gay theme and change the characters that I had borrowed.  I withdrew the site, and have been working hard, with Leslie as my editor/co-author, to 'convert' my books, and am pleased to say that part of the audience for the fan stories have taken well to the changes that make "Tales of Greenlea County" erotic novels with their own reason for being, and with, hopefully, a commercial career as gay erotic fiction.  I never had the intention of disrespecting the author's intent, nor to take ideas that did not belong to me - the inspiration I got from BBM had opened out a new avenue of fiction for me that I had only begun to explore with my previous erotic novel, "The Erotic Etudes."

But other stories, written as AU's that involve both the characters of Ennis and Jack, are not so reworkable, and have presented severe dilemmas for their writers, and the two I know of have chosen not to argue the matter.  One of these authors went silent after a cryptic announcement, but the other posted an announcement on his Livejournal before withdrawing his stories within the ten-day notice period:

http://no-reins.livejournal.com/13096.html

Lucian's entry in his blog references a site I had been referred to many months ago when I was first struggling with issues of copyright and plagiarism within the fandom, "Chilling Effects."

http://www.chillingeffects.org/fanfic/

However, another site has referenced BBM and fan fiction, and maintains that erotic fan fiction has its place as protected speech as a form of criticism and commentary, and should be protected under the law.  I find this point of view intriguing and may possibly prove to have some legal merit.

http://www.henryjenkins.org/2006/09/fan_fiction_as_critical_commen.html

However one feels about the 'rights' of fan fiction authors, the BBM fan community will be undeniably affected by the decision of the publishers of BBM to defend its rights by issuing letters, and undoubtedly, as they meet with no challenge to their stance, they will most likely issue more of them.  the Dave Cullen forum, www.davecullen.com, has issued a policy that prohibits open discussion of fan fiction and C & D due to legal concerns over copyright.  However, we at Bettermost do not believe that our site, nor our readers or members, should have any concern about the open discussion of copyright law and fan fiction, nor should anyone be discouraged from expressing an opinion about it.

The individual authors who have been affected by the C & D have chosen to refrain from comment beyond the statements I have referenced here.  I too have issued a comment on my own LJ about my decision to rewrite those of my fan fics that fall outside the realm of parody:

http://louisev.livejournal.com/225229.html

My intentions toward the authors of the book and screenplay of "Brokeback Mountain" were to do no harm, nor to benefit from their hard, original, inspiring work.  But neither do I believe that my own original work should be suppressed, and have been putting in the extra effort to make it into a form that puts the effort in a form that is not challengeable legally.  I suggest that who have devoted great effort to writing erotic fan fictions, to read and research, to decide upon your own goals as authors, and consider the risks and potential costs, before the fandom receives a wider ranging legal challenge.  I urge those of you who have found a new vocation in fiction writing, to consider writing your own original works, adapting what you learned in these writing exercises, and not let your voice be quelled because the route of fan fiction in this fandom may close.  And to feel free to have an open dialogue with other writers and readers here about the chilling effects now affecting all of us who love and still watch and read Brokeback Mountain.

mvansand76:

--- Quote from: louise van hine on July 06, 2007, 05:50:30 pm ---It is no longer a rumor:  at least three BBM fan fiction book writers have received letters from the lawyers representing Simon and Schuster, the publishers of "Brokeback Mountain" requesting the complete withdrawal of their work from all internet sites and from all publication.  My own series of novels were the subject of a cease and desist letter in April 2007.  Since I was already contemplating the reworking of my series, which in its early form takes place after the end of Annie Proulx's story and which only peripherally touches the plot of her story, fashioning the unwritten parts into a murder back-plot, it became feasible for me to write a new novel with a gay theme and change the characters that I had borrowed.  I withdrew the site, and have been working hard, with Leslie as my editor/co-author, to 'convert' my books, and am pleased to say that part of the audience for the fan stories have taken well to the changes that make "Tales of Greenlea County" erotic novels with their own reason for being, and with, hopefully, a commercial career as gay erotic fiction.  I never had the intention of disrespecting the author's intent, nor to take ideas that did not belong to me - the inspiration I got from BBM had opened out a new avenue of fiction for me that I had only begun to explore with my previous erotic novel, "The Erotic Etudes."

But other stories, written as AU's that involve both the characters of Ennis and Jack, are not so reworkable, and have presented severe dilemmas for their writers, and the two I know of have chosen not to argue the matter.  One of these authors went silent after a cryptic announcement, but the other posted an announcement on his Livejournal before withdrawing his stories within the ten-day notice period:

http://no-reins.livejournal.com/13096.html

Lucian's entry in his blog references a site I had been referred to many months ago when I was first struggling with issues of copyright and plagiarism within the fandom, "Chilling Effects."

http://www.chillingeffects.org/fanfic/

However, another site has referenced BBM and fan fiction, and maintains that erotic fan fiction has its place as protected speech as a form of criticism and commentary, and should be protected under the law.  I find this point of view intriguing and may possibly prove to have some legal merit.

http://www.henryjenkins.org/2006/09/fan_fiction_as_critical_commen.html

However one feels about the 'rights' of fan fiction authors, the BBM fan community will be undeniably affected by the decision of the publishers of BBM to defend its rights by issuing letters, and undoubtedly, as they meet with no challenge to their stance, they will most likely issue more of them.  the Dave Cullen forum, www.davecullen.com, has issued a policy that prohibits open discussion of fan fiction and C & D due to legal concerns over copyright.  However, we at Bettermost do not believe that our site, nor our readers or members, should have any concern about the open discussion of copyright law and fan fiction, nor should anyone be discouraged from expressing an opinion about it.

The individual authors who have been affected by the C & D have chosen to refrain from comment beyond the statements I have referenced here.  I too have issued a comment on my own LJ about my decision to rewrite those of my fan fics that fall outside the realm of parody:

http://louisev.livejournal.com/225229.html

My intentions toward the authors of the book and screenplay of "Brokeback Mountain" were to do no harm, nor to benefit from their hard, original, inspiring work.  But neither do I believe that my own original work should be suppressed, and have been putting in the extra effort to make it into a form that puts the effort in a form that is not challengeable legally.  I suggest that who have devoted great effort to writing erotic fan fictions, to read and research, to decide upon your own goals as authors, and consider the risks and potential costs, before the fandom receives a wider ranging legal challenge.  I urge those of you who have found a new vocation in fiction writing, to consider writing your own original works, adapting what you learned in these writing exercises, and not let your voice be quelled because the route of fan fiction in this fandom may close.  And to feel free to have an open dialogue with other writers and readers here about the chilling effects now affecting all of us who love and still watch and read Brokeback Mountain.

--- End quote ---

Thank you for posting this, Louise. A real eye-opener and very worrying.

It's something to seriously consider when you start a new story. After my first AU story Right Where You Are I am now starting an AU!AU and have been thinking about changing the names, because really, the names is all they have in common with BBM and I don't want to run the risk of getting in the same situation where you have to withdraw your story from the Internet.

But it is interesting what no-reins wrote on her journal:

I can’t know either why S & S targeted my work and not any of the hundreds of others being written. We could speculate forever, but we still wouldn’t know.

Do you have any idea?

The http://www.chillingeffects.org/fanfic/ link is not working... do you know what happened?

Thanks again, Louise.... I am so sorry this happened to you but I appreciate that you are using your experience to warn other writers.

Mel

louisev:
 
Why these and not others?  It could be that they had become interested in work that had attracted fan art.  I know in my own C & D letter it mentioned depictions of Heath Ledger from the movie and my first theory was that it was the fan art (which, ironically, I did not create, I just added it on my blog) that attracted attention, or the book length nature of it, or my comments on Bettermost (also quoted) which stated my intention to publish a reworked version.  I clarified in a phone call with the lawyer that my publishing plan was for a reworked version that involved a murder plot, and not anything in common with BBM, and it occurred to me at the time that perhaps there was some misinterpretation of what I was planning to want to publish.  The first author to withdraw work last fall had published a fanzine and the fan art had visible resemblances to scenes depicted by the actors in the BBM film.  This theory, regarding recognizable actors from the film as a possibly profile, may or may not hold water.  But I took the precaution of removing all fan art pictures and all announcements on Wranglers, and now that the search engines and caches are catching up, the LJSeek references are gradually dropping the last of them.  The art I am using with the reworked story is an original painting to which I have full rights, and the new character could not be mistaken for any BBM character. in book or movie.

Lumière:
Interesting and sad.

With all these goings-on, I guess I'll have to move my E & E fanpics, they'll be gone from the LS gallery.

Too bad some authors are coming under fire.
I guess it is not enough that they are not writing for profit.

*sigh*

RouxB:
Not much we can do about it so we may as well ride it as long as we can.

I better speed up on saving the stories I love.

 O0

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