Animation Source Forums

So you're not doing it for the money?That's nice of you

I have never used Blurb (and don't intend to having not got any writings to publish) and the Blurb site doesn't clearly explain that the "Set your price" is only an option.

It's still fact that a company like Universal wouldn't feel bad about suing you for printing a book with their copyrighted characters in it and their art on the covers. JC was attempting to help you avoid a potential lawsuit.
It's also against Blurb's policy to publish/upload/whatever copyrighted content.

You've now both been flaming. JC has since expressed he's sorry for allowing it to go that far and has agreed not to take this any further in this topic.

Whether it's clear or not is irrelevant. The assumption that I was lying about it was insulting, especially when nobody bothered to check to see what the story was before deciding that I was guilty. And make no mistake, that's what JerseyCaptain's primary motivation was in his responses. He wasn't trying to "help" me, he was trying to condemn me. That's deplorable behavior, and it's disappointing that you would be so supportive of him, despite his antagonistic behavior.

This is from his second post in response to my post about the book:



Right from the start he believed I was making a profit from the books, and once his mind was set about that, it stayed set, even if he was 100% wrong. My next post said, not for the first time, that I was not making a profit, and that is where he should have dropped the whole thing. But he didn't, obviously. And right after that he went on to say I was a bad example and irresponsible. Again, all based on the incorrect assumption that I was making a profit on the books.

That doesn't constitute "help" in my mind. Here you have a member harassing another member complete with libel, threats and name calling, and the best you can do is say "oh well he said he was sorry so it's all fine"? Do I need to report him to have action taken or what? Or is this sort of thing okay to do here as long as it's somebody you like that's doing it?

May I remind you that you were doing as much name calling and threatening as JC was.
Regarding JC's post before his "apologising" post - that's been dealt with away from this topic.

I'd also like to point out that once I read your post about the book and gone to search Blurb I came to the exact same conclusion JC did - Profit was being made by printing the book via Blurb.
There was nothing on the site nor in the book's description to suggest that no profit was being made by you.
The only thing that said there was no profit being made by you - was your word. Which no one actually HAS to take as truth even when it is. At which point it stopped being about helping with a copyright infringement and turned into nothing but a flame war.
From everything I have read about this (I started on Page 6) all I've seen is that argument started when you expressed your disconcern and disinterest in avoiding copyright infringement, starting with this post:

So it's fine for him to harass me, call me names, threaten me, libel me, etc. Got it. Nice to know where the mods stand on issues like this.

Since when did this turn into a discussion about JC?
You apparently missed that part of my post so I'll reiterate:
"that's been dealt with away from this topic."

I am attempting to keep this topic from ending up locked because despite a potentially bad idea to print a book the fact remains you are a good writer and it would be a shame to see this locked over such a silly argument that has since been ended by all but yourself.

The statement you made just then (the one I quoted), JC could easily say the exact same thing.

Wrong. I did no threatening, no libel, no harassment, no false accusations. If you actually read through every post, you would see that. But whatever, clearly it's not enough of an issue to warrant any serious action being taken, I mean it's only libel, right? Everything's fine, now that my thread and my reputation here are permanently destroyed.

Thanks for nothing. I'm glad I worked my *** off for months writing the best stories of my life to have it end like this. That'll teach me to care about the fanbase.

Topic locked. This has strayed much too off-topic and I'm not going to let this continue any further, for it will eventually evolve into a flame war.

Xaqtly, I respect you as a fellow writer (one of the few on this site who are actually good at it), but I need to point out that you are breaking international copyright laws.
Universal still owns Balto and they have not given you their consent to use their characters and actually sell the book (even though no profit goes to you). However, when you say that no cash goes to your pocket, Universal's lawyers only see the fact that you're selling the book for a certain amount of money. This in itself is a violation you can be put in jail for at worst. If Universal discovers it (a likely scenario), you may be looking at a lawsuit. And in a lawsuit, simply saying "it isn't for personal gain" won't be enough. You know how much it costs to get a legal copyright on something?
A lot.
And when the owner of this copyright has not given you their consent to write commercial literature using their characters in a world they made and still own, court does not look at your view on the issue. They will only see the physical object, the book, being sold for a certain amount of money, and that will be used against you.

And you could be looking into a fine that could potentially cost you everything you own and more.


You have to understand, copyrights are not just symbols on a paper. They are actual things that people can sue for and over if violated.

And Universal holds a commercial copyright on their creation.
Fan artists only hold an artist's copyright.

The difference between the two is that fan artists (fanfic writers, artists, etc.) do not claim that characters and settings used belongs to them. The story and the artwork does, but not the characters and world used. Another vital difference is that artist's copyright holds no real jurisdictional value. If someone steals your art and you have not purchased a copyright for it (which costs lots of money), noone will give a cat's whiskers about it.

A commercial copyright, on the other hand, is bought and has legal value.

Point: You absolutely -can't- sell any material that is, or contains items, characters. etc. that does not belong to you, because you do not have the copyrights. You will eventually end up getting sued. And you wouldn't be the first person to run into this trap. Why? Because by selling an item, you are making the legal claim that the work and all of its content is entirely your own (or that you have legal permission to use copyrighted material in your item). Regardless of personal gain.

I have given this topic a few days to calm down. I will unlock it, but on the condition that it now stays relevant to Xaqtly's fanfics and does not stray back off to a discussion of copyright or any other off-topic discussion.

Any off-topic behaviour here will merit warnings (and potential bans) and the topic will be locked again!

[edit]: It looks like Xaqtly deleted his gallery. Topic locked again.