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amediaThis is a followup to the rough-draft account at http://amedia.livejournal.com/58414.html
No attempt at organization here for the moment - just some additional facts that I've remembered or been reminded of, and a brief account of the C&D horror that preceded this event.
Notes:
The more I work on this, btw, the less I think I will ever be capable of pulling it together into a sustained narrative as charlottelenox did. Not only is this messy and complicated, it's also depressing! I'm hoping at least to provide a resource for information sharing, not just in my posts but in the very helpful and informative responses people have been posting. For instance, I had no idea - until I read one of the responses to my previous post - that the puppeteer was active simultaneously in Garrison's Gorillas and Rat Patrol fandom; I thought she had finished with the one and then moved on to the other.
I've also gotten some additional material by email that I can post soon.
I can't remember where I got the impression that the puppeteer's screen name was CatO (was that the name she used in chat?). For consistency I should probably refer to her as wolfwalker, since that was her Yahoo screen name when she posted as herself to the club.
Tidbits:
The 700 Club claimed not only to have had massive international conventions, but to have had all the actors present at them. At the Long Range Desert Convention, Gary Raymond (Moffitt) said that it was the first time he'd ever been to a fan convention.
Somehow I had completely forgotten that wolfwalker claimed to be in an ongoing relationship with [her sockpuppet of] Justin Tarr (the actor who played Tully).
One of the worst aspects of the Rainbow Butterfly Press mess was its effect on innocent people. There were a number of real stories written by real people and submitted to Romancing the Rats and Rats on the Edge in good faith. They should not be tainted by association with the stories plagiarized by wolfwalker. (There's a list somewhere of which stories were plagiarized and which were original, including URL's to the sources of the former; I'll see if I can get permission to reprint it.) I think several of the real stories have been reprinted in other zines.
The C&D:
There's some question as to whether this whole fiasco had anything to do with a previous RP horror story. Sometime in the mid to late 90's, a popular RP writer, editor, and zine publisher received a very stern cease-and-desist order (C&D) from MGM/UA, who were under the impression that she was publishing actual books based on Rat Patrol. When she spoke with them on the phone, they apologized and said that if they had realized that she was just putting out zines, she would have gotten the milder letter they occasionally send to fans. They said that they were forced to send her a letter to protect their copyright because they had received a letter from someone on the email listserv that gave the impression that the zine publisher was a professional publisher. They described the letter as "surprisingly hate-filled."
No one ever found out who the listserv member was who sent the letter to the copyright holders. People speculated that it might even have been a mundane because of the misunderstanding about what the fan who got the C&D was actually publishing. OTOH, that could have been done deliberately to mislead MGM/UA because a knowledgeable fan might realize that just ratting out a zine publisher wouldn't get the person in very much trouble.
Despite the apology, the lawyer from MGM/UA said they still needed to tell her to stop publishing and to take down the one RP story she had posted to her website. To this day there is almost no RP fiction on line as a result. Nearly all the RP fic available is in fanzines - we call ourselves "The Amish of Fandom."
The zine publisher who got the C&D, who had previously been a wonderful, welcoming presence who encouraged new writers and wrote prolifically herself, went very low-profile afterwards and wrote a great deal less after the C&D than before; her reduced participation was a genuine loss to fandom.
As a result of the C&D, discussion of fanfic was temporarily banned from the email listserv, for fear of giving the person who wrote to MGM/UA additional ammunition. That's why the original clubmom started the Yahoo RP Club - as a place to discuss fanfic. It was on the club that the troubles started.
When the comparison was made between CatO's letter about not paying a commission to orphan zines, and Sofi's nastygrams to Kathy Agel, the words "surprisingly hate-filled" came up again. We have absolutely no evidence to say that CatO was the person who ratted out that zine publisher, but many have speculated that she was.
No attempt at organization here for the moment - just some additional facts that I've remembered or been reminded of, and a brief account of the C&D horror that preceded this event.
Notes:
The more I work on this, btw, the less I think I will ever be capable of pulling it together into a sustained narrative as charlottelenox did. Not only is this messy and complicated, it's also depressing! I'm hoping at least to provide a resource for information sharing, not just in my posts but in the very helpful and informative responses people have been posting. For instance, I had no idea - until I read one of the responses to my previous post - that the puppeteer was active simultaneously in Garrison's Gorillas and Rat Patrol fandom; I thought she had finished with the one and then moved on to the other.
I've also gotten some additional material by email that I can post soon.
I can't remember where I got the impression that the puppeteer's screen name was CatO (was that the name she used in chat?). For consistency I should probably refer to her as wolfwalker, since that was her Yahoo screen name when she posted as herself to the club.
Tidbits:
The 700 Club claimed not only to have had massive international conventions, but to have had all the actors present at them. At the Long Range Desert Convention, Gary Raymond (Moffitt) said that it was the first time he'd ever been to a fan convention.
Somehow I had completely forgotten that wolfwalker claimed to be in an ongoing relationship with [her sockpuppet of] Justin Tarr (the actor who played Tully).
One of the worst aspects of the Rainbow Butterfly Press mess was its effect on innocent people. There were a number of real stories written by real people and submitted to Romancing the Rats and Rats on the Edge in good faith. They should not be tainted by association with the stories plagiarized by wolfwalker. (There's a list somewhere of which stories were plagiarized and which were original, including URL's to the sources of the former; I'll see if I can get permission to reprint it.) I think several of the real stories have been reprinted in other zines.
The C&D:
There's some question as to whether this whole fiasco had anything to do with a previous RP horror story. Sometime in the mid to late 90's, a popular RP writer, editor, and zine publisher received a very stern cease-and-desist order (C&D) from MGM/UA, who were under the impression that she was publishing actual books based on Rat Patrol. When she spoke with them on the phone, they apologized and said that if they had realized that she was just putting out zines, she would have gotten the milder letter they occasionally send to fans. They said that they were forced to send her a letter to protect their copyright because they had received a letter from someone on the email listserv that gave the impression that the zine publisher was a professional publisher. They described the letter as "surprisingly hate-filled."
No one ever found out who the listserv member was who sent the letter to the copyright holders. People speculated that it might even have been a mundane because of the misunderstanding about what the fan who got the C&D was actually publishing. OTOH, that could have been done deliberately to mislead MGM/UA because a knowledgeable fan might realize that just ratting out a zine publisher wouldn't get the person in very much trouble.
Despite the apology, the lawyer from MGM/UA said they still needed to tell her to stop publishing and to take down the one RP story she had posted to her website. To this day there is almost no RP fiction on line as a result. Nearly all the RP fic available is in fanzines - we call ourselves "The Amish of Fandom."
The zine publisher who got the C&D, who had previously been a wonderful, welcoming presence who encouraged new writers and wrote prolifically herself, went very low-profile afterwards and wrote a great deal less after the C&D than before; her reduced participation was a genuine loss to fandom.
As a result of the C&D, discussion of fanfic was temporarily banned from the email listserv, for fear of giving the person who wrote to MGM/UA additional ammunition. That's why the original clubmom started the Yahoo RP Club - as a place to discuss fanfic. It was on the club that the troubles started.
When the comparison was made between CatO's letter about not paying a commission to orphan zines, and Sofi's nastygrams to Kathy Agel, the words "surprisingly hate-filled" came up again. We have absolutely no evidence to say that CatO was the person who ratted out that zine publisher, but many have speculated that she was.
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no subject
Date: 2006-06-27 05:14 pm (UTC)Wow. Not to be able to put fic online is so limiting. Do you think they're still watching? There seems to be an uneasy peace between commercial producers and fans these days.
We always worry in MFU because we've had it so good for so many years. Things might change once Norman passes on.
no subject
Date: 2006-06-27 05:37 pm (UTC)It didn't seem so at the time, but now, when new fen come in, it's hard to tell them that they have to spend a couple of hundred dollars to read a selection of fanfic.
A few people are gradually putting their fic online. So far no one's been shot down.
Do you think they're still watching?
I sincerely doubt it. They weren't watching for this fan - they had actually been to her website BEFORE they got the letter ratting her out, and it wasn't until they got the letter and had something on file that they felt compelled to send the C&D, and they never followed up with any punitive action. Their attitude on the phone was that they preferred to turn a blind eye to fanfic.
RP Fan Fiction and The Mole
Date: 2006-06-29 10:55 pm (UTC)If I recall correctly, there was many another zine ed spooked by this - some only listed the RP they printed as "WWII Fic." Underground speak....
Re: RP Fan Fiction and The Mole
Date: 2006-06-29 11:23 pm (UTC)IIRC, two other zineds were also mentioned in the letter - me and Agel. We kept going.
- some only listed the RP they printed as "WWII Fic." Underground speak....
I remember that! I think Of Dreams and Schemes was one.