Re: How is it legal for Star Trek fanzines to be sold on Amazon and eB
LOL, I wasn't actually planning on reporting this to CBS. I don't have any problem with it. I'm just interested in the legal issues involved with selling fanzines.
If you've ever read the press kits for any of the ST movies, there is always an estimate by Paramount on the number of licensed novels and comics sold, and the existence of thousands of fanzines that kept ST alive, esp. between the end of TOS and the beginning of the film franchise.
The editors and publishers of unlicensed, amateur fanzines are not meant to make a profit from sales, but there is no way you can stop owners of individual copies the bought from fan publishers from selling them, second hand, decades after the fact. Fan productions that have infamously received C & D orders from the copyright holders have usually been fanzines that were
deliberately made to resemble licensed ST paperbacks. Of course, with people now doing many fanzines as print-on-demand self-publishing, this aspect has probably not yet caught up with the law.
Bookwise, there was also ''The Joy of Trek: How to Enhance Your Relationship With a
Star Trek Fan,'' published in 1997 by Carol Publishing Group.
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/05/02/nyregion/studio-sues-over-a-star-trek-book.html
If I recall correctly, the main objection to that book was that it boasted on the cover that the book contained
"all you need..." to get up to speed on Trek to fool a loved one. Its attempt at legally-permitted parody (which would have saved its author) was not strong enough, and Paramount argued that people could avoid watching Trek by reading the excerpts in this book instead. Paramount won and the book was pulled from shelves.
If you read the fine print under theatrical lobby cards, they are meant to be returned to the studio after use - to be destroyed - and yet lobby card collecting has always been a lucrative aftermarket.
