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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 original 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 |