Free Is Not Free

[kerravonsen]

I have just been informed that someone at RainFurrest 2015 was giving away copies of Refractions #3 for free. Now, that would be nice and all... if the zine wasn't out of print and therefore the copies are obviously unauthorized reprints. I don't give a damn that they -- whoever they are -- aren't making money out of them, they should have bloody well asked permission! Just because there is a version online does not mean that people automatically have permission to mass-produce copies.

Can anyone out there give me more information about this?

Comments

[sue-bursztynski.livejournal.com]

As someone whose books have been offered free online, depriving me of potential royalties I know how this feels. I usually ask my publishers to deal with it. In this case you're the publisher. The best thing you can do is email whoever is doing it and ask them to take it down.

They may, of course, have assumed that since it's fan fiction anyway, this is okay. But it's not. There's a web site dedicated to republishing old Star Trek fan fiction, including some of the classics, but the editors NEVER do that without the authors' permission, or test of their estates in some cases.

[kerravonsen]

On further clarification from the person who informed me, he said that the copies "looked old", which might mean that they aren't reprints after all. I'm just confused as to who would be giving away multiple copies of the zine...

[sue-bursztynski.livejournal.com]

It might be worth asking who it was, then. It's possible that they were selling them on your behalf long ago and forgòt they had them and then decided to empty their shelves. You'd know if you ever asked anyone to sell copies for you.

[kerravonsen]

I don't think he remembers, or he would have told me already.