On the Lexicon case
Sep. 9th, 2008 08:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snorkackcatcherHesitated to comment before, due to having ambiguous feelings about the issue and the likelihood of walking into minefields with those who haven't. However, a few thinky thoughts ...
(1) First and foremost, the thing that's always alarmed me about the case is what the fallout is likely to be. Fandom exists in a rather grey area and almost anything that brings it into sharper focus is potentially dangerous. I almost don't care about the merits. What I really don't want is for this case to wend its way through successively higher courts setting successively more binding precedents -- whichever way it would eventually go. If it went in favour of JKR, the final ruling might be so worded as to allow those with a less benign attitude to fandom (WB, for example) to clamp down hard. If it went in favour of RDR/SVA, it might mean an Indian summer for fannish activity -- followed by clamping down hard when big media companies buy themselves a new law. (Which would probably take in a lot more territory than anything covered by this case, because why not go for the economy size version? And again, it doesn't help much being outside America. As I've aphorised before, on the Internet everybody lives in America, because so much of the key infrastructure is under US jurisdiction.)
(2) As for the merits, I've never thought they were anything like as cut-and-dried as many people claim they are. Fandom has been doing its usual unedifying dogpiling ever since the case started, gleefully slating SVA as if he were a child-molesting terrorist, or even worse, Cassandra Claire. But published fan guides to series are common -- I have ones on subjects as far apart as Star Trek and PG Wodehouse, and they contain much detail about characters and stories and minutiae. They don't become problematic until they get to the point of regurgitating large chunks of the originals. This appears to be the problem with the Lexicon book (although obviously I haven't read it), which suggests a degree of brainlessness on the part of the publishers -- because it really shouldn't be hard to produce a companion work that provides a handy reference yet avoids that pitfall. That's why the actual ruling handed down by the judge was a relief: "yes, this one goes too far, but the basic concept's OK". If RDR have any sense they'll quit now before they dig themselves into a deeper hole and take others with them (although cf last but one sentence).
(3) I don't hold any particular brief for SVA, unless the above counts as fandom's equivalent of an amicus one. Among people who've encountered him I've seen him called both a lovely guy and a complete tosser (not necessarily mutually exclusive). Personally, he managed to piss me off before I was even in fandom proper, back in 2002 or so when I was one of the everyday HP fans rather than one of the fen. I found this then-somewhat-scrappy site called the HP Lexicon, took a look, and then as was my wont tried to right-click to open a link in a new window. I found that the site had overridden right-click in the browser, apparently to disable the "save as ..." option (as always both annoying and pointless), but the really infuriating thing was the "content copyright HP Lexicon" notice displayed in an alert popup. Um, your site is based almost entirely on somebody else's source text, common sense should tell you that this is not a sensible action ... I'm sure the guy genuinely does (did?) idolise JKR and is now broken-hearted, but he also appears to have a high degree of up-himself-ness. He wouldn't be the first person to sail so far out into the fandom sea that they didn't realise the shore of common sense was so far behind it was over the horizon; maybe he has a future career as a resident ghost in an online game? :)
(1) First and foremost, the thing that's always alarmed me about the case is what the fallout is likely to be. Fandom exists in a rather grey area and almost anything that brings it into sharper focus is potentially dangerous. I almost don't care about the merits. What I really don't want is for this case to wend its way through successively higher courts setting successively more binding precedents -- whichever way it would eventually go. If it went in favour of JKR, the final ruling might be so worded as to allow those with a less benign attitude to fandom (WB, for example) to clamp down hard. If it went in favour of RDR/SVA, it might mean an Indian summer for fannish activity -- followed by clamping down hard when big media companies buy themselves a new law. (Which would probably take in a lot more territory than anything covered by this case, because why not go for the economy size version? And again, it doesn't help much being outside America. As I've aphorised before, on the Internet everybody lives in America, because so much of the key infrastructure is under US jurisdiction.)
(2) As for the merits, I've never thought they were anything like as cut-and-dried as many people claim they are. Fandom has been doing its usual unedifying dogpiling ever since the case started, gleefully slating SVA as if he were a child-molesting terrorist, or even worse, Cassandra Claire. But published fan guides to series are common -- I have ones on subjects as far apart as Star Trek and PG Wodehouse, and they contain much detail about characters and stories and minutiae. They don't become problematic until they get to the point of regurgitating large chunks of the originals. This appears to be the problem with the Lexicon book (although obviously I haven't read it), which suggests a degree of brainlessness on the part of the publishers -- because it really shouldn't be hard to produce a companion work that provides a handy reference yet avoids that pitfall. That's why the actual ruling handed down by the judge was a relief: "yes, this one goes too far, but the basic concept's OK". If RDR have any sense they'll quit now before they dig themselves into a deeper hole and take others with them (although cf last but one sentence).
(3) I don't hold any particular brief for SVA, unless the above counts as fandom's equivalent of an amicus one. Among people who've encountered him I've seen him called both a lovely guy and a complete tosser (not necessarily mutually exclusive). Personally, he managed to piss me off before I was even in fandom proper, back in 2002 or so when I was one of the everyday HP fans rather than one of the fen. I found this then-somewhat-scrappy site called the HP Lexicon, took a look, and then as was my wont tried to right-click to open a link in a new window. I found that the site had overridden right-click in the browser, apparently to disable the "save as ..." option (as always both annoying and pointless), but the really infuriating thing was the "content copyright HP Lexicon" notice displayed in an alert popup. Um, your site is based almost entirely on somebody else's source text, common sense should tell you that this is not a sensible action ... I'm sure the guy genuinely does (did?) idolise JKR and is now broken-hearted, but he also appears to have a high degree of up-himself-ness. He wouldn't be the first person to sail so far out into the fandom sea that they didn't realise the shore of common sense was so far behind it was over the horizon; maybe he has a future career as a resident ghost in an online game? :)
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Date: 2008-09-09 11:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-09 08:38 pm (UTC)LOL!
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Date: 2008-09-09 11:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-09 10:08 pm (UTC)I've encountered SVA over a period of about six years and I incline strongly to the "complete tosser" viewpoint, btw. Treats everyone like shit and like fodder for his rapacious ego. Tried it on me, failed, well, that's life. Tried it on my partner when my partner was suffering from a life-threatening illness. That's war.
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Date: 2008-09-10 12:07 am (UTC)Sorry to hear about your/your partner's experiences with SVA -- I don't blame you for that viewpoint then! There is a distinct impression of egotism from parts of the Lexicon, come to think of it.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-10 12:30 am (UTC)LOL! ♥
no subject
Date: 2008-09-11 10:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-10 10:22 pm (UTC)He wouldn't be the first person to sail so far out into the fandom sea that they didn't realise the shore of common sense was so far behind it was over the horizon; maybe he has a future career as a resident ghost in an online game? :)
*g*
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Date: 2008-09-11 10:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 01:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 07:47 pm (UTC)