Interim Hosting

The birthday of this fanfiction archive is February 6, 2006. On that day I sent out several e-mails to various authors to start my quest for permission from each to host their works. Some of those e-mails were of course bounced immediately. Others got no reply. Still I tried again, weeks, sometimes months later I would google for the authors pen name. I would search within quotes for parts of the fanfic, search their old internet addresses, and made judicious use of the Wayback Machine.

Some authors have been tracked constantly for over a year now without even knowing it. Going through old web pages, browsing forums they used to frequent, and some others I never got any further than a bounced e-mail and a name in the credits no matter how much I searched. Two days ago, October 7, 2007 I sent out over 30 requests to fanfiction authors of old for permission to host their fanfics. Eighteen of those requests immediately bounced and for many of those authors I have no further contact information. Of the twelve that didn't bounce, five of them turned up the next day in my in box for various reasons (full mailboxes or missing users). Four of the remaining messages garnered replies, one due to me tracking down someone completely unassociated with the fanfic in question and three people willing to grant permission to host their works.

The point of all of this is, this is a fanfic archive. And I will continue to try my damndest to get permission to host each and every work I am hosting here. But if I have exhausted all of my leads, tried again and again, and still nothing. I will make a tough call to host the story with permission or not (In the case of the Sakura Lemon Fanfiction Archive I made this call because the only habitat for some of these fanfics was destroyed and it was necessary for me to host some of them otherwise they would not have existed anywhere on the internet!).

IF I am hosting one of your stories without permission and it is listed in this section, please, I encourage you to contact me. I will do whatever I can to secure permission to host the story, and if not I will remove the story from the archive at your request. My general point of view here is that on the whole, most everyone that I have contacted regarding permission to host their stories have been happy with the concept. I don't mean to sound presumptuous or to make that decision for you, I am just hopeful that others would agree with me and that the final call always rests in the hands of the authors. Another way to think about it is if I am hosting a story belonging to an author who wants to distance themselves from the work, all the e-mails I have will be defunct and they will already be distanced enough from it. If they however want to take the credit that is due to them they can always contact me to get their e-mail in the credits.

Copyright!

One of the issues with me hosting fanfiction from authors that have not given their permission to allow me to do so involves copyright issues. By current US copyright law (which is what is applicable due to where the servers for this are hosted), all materials published to the internet are copyright their specific posters. Forums and some other online mediums have disclaimers that get around this, loosening copyright restrictions to allow for re-posting of your works provided they are properly attributed to you, however with these fanfics no formal agreement exists.

Considering the quasi-legal nature of fanfiction to begin with some might argue that this is a moot point. But it's still a fact, these are all copyrighted works being hosted here, and when I am hosting a work here without the authors permission it could be considered a violation of that copyright. Again, this is by strict definition, by other interpretations, providing I properly attribute a work to a person, and that they were distributing it freely themselves, I can distribute it myself providing I don't change anything and I give credit where credit is due, to quote the Wiki article on copyright and the internet "Freely obtained does not mean free to republish."

What this is all coming down to, and what this rant is leading up to, is that I understand these are copyrighted works, despite any association the author still holds with them. Because the originaly copyright holder cannot be contacted, and evidence is available that I put fourth a reasonable effort to contact the copyright holder, I am hosting these works on an interim basis until this website is defunct or I receive correspondence from the copyright holder telling me either to 'cease and desist', or to grant me permission to continue hosting their work.

The internet changes fast and with the bulk of Slayers works written several years ago I am certain that even given a lifetime of digging, some of these authors will refuse to be found. Sad but true. But it will be my pleasure to host these works until the authors decide to take ownership of them once again.

-RVincent