A Matter Of Willful Copyright Infringement

A Matter Of Willful Copyright Infringement is the first part of a 1992 two-part article by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. The second part is titled Copyright Infringement Part II."
The article's topic was the fanfic "The Adventure of the Gentleman in Black" which was printed in the zine The Holmesian Federation #8. That zine's editor was Signe Danler,
Yarbro's complaint was that the story used Yarbro's character "Count Saint Germain" (who in turn is Yarbro's use of the real historical man named Count of St. Germain), after Yarbro had denied Signe Danler permission to use her character.
Yarbro described how her lawyer, Robin Dubner, attended a party and was given a copy of The Holmesian Federation #8. The lawyer, "being a very canny person... asked her co-host if she could borrow the issue, since clearly the story was too long to read while at the party. She promised to return the issue at week's end. The co-host agreed, and the next morning Robin Dubner called me to warn me we had trouble."
"A Matter Of Willful Copyright Infringement" was published in two parts in the "Horror Writers of America" newsletter which at that time was called "Transfusions" (January 1992?), and was reprinted in SFWA Bulletin (Summer 1992, Fall 1992). In Part 1, Yarbro described the situation of a fanfic proportedly infringing her copyright as "a horror story, a for-real horror story" and contended that a fanzine selling for $6 per issue was still making a profit off her work. 
In Part 2, she detailed her plans to turn seized copies of the zine into "a larger-than-life-sized papier-mâché bust of the Count" and lamented the fact that the zine's editor and the fic author were reluctant to apologise for their actions, and that they did not have enough money to compensate her for legal expenses.
This all took place against a backdrop of increasing tension and hostility between professional writers and creators of fanworks. At the time and shortly afterwards, considerable debate raged as to whether Yarbro's response to the zine was disproportionate or justified. Today it is remembered as one of the more notorious incidents of creators taking action against fanworks.
==The Background==
* Chelsea Quinn Yarbro wrote a series of fantasy books based on a real historical man who styled himself Count of St. Germain.
* In 1991 or before, a fan wrote and asked for permission to include Yarbro's character in a cross-over fanfiction involving Sherlock Holmes. Yarbro said no.
* In 1991, the fan found a fanzine publisher willing to publish the story even though both knew that Yarbro had rejected the idea.
* In August 1991, Yarbro's lawyer was shown a copy of the zine at a party, reported it to Yarbro the next day, and this kicked off the dispute. Yarbro sent letters to Tor Books, her editor, and The Ellen Levine Literary Agency on August 28.
==Some Context==
The early and mid-1990s were a tumultuous time for fans of female professional fantasy writers and their fanworks. 1992 was an especially bad year.
* Chelsea Quinn Yarbro was HWA's third President, and served from 1988 to 1990. When the "Horror Writers Association" was founded, it was done with the plan to do "whatever it took to insure that HOWL would be (hopefully) immediately recognized as a professional writers organization, not 'a fan club' for side-show horror buffs." 
* In 1992, things had come to a head with another fannish tussle. See Marion Zimmer Bradley Fanfiction Controversy and the September 1992 letter Holes in My Yard, printed in The Darkover Newsletter. Six months later, Marion Zimmer Bradley's letter was published in Writers Digest: "Let this be a warning to other authors who might be tempted to be similarly generous with their universes, I know now why Arthur Conan Doyle refused to allow anyone to write about Sherlock Holmes. I wanted to be more accomodating, but I don't like where it has gotten me. It's enough to make anyone into a misanthrope." See Marion Zimmer Bradley's Letter to Writer's Digest.
* P.N. Elrod, another professional writer of vampire fiction (and then-active creator of fanworks in the Quantum Leap and Blake's 7 fandoms) cautioned fans in September 1992: "Berkley Publishing has an army of lawyers with nothing better to do than indulge in pricy lawsuits against plagiarists and copyright pirates and I would make use of their skills. I fully realize that fan stories are written for fun and out of admiration for a character or the excitement of a dramatic situation. On the other hand, if someone came up and decided to "borrow" your car out of a sense of fun or admiration or excitement you'd probably be more than annoyed at them and call the cops. The same principal applies." See the whole statement at Open Letter to FYI from Author P.N. Elrod.
* In December 1992, Mercedes Lackey published a long statement in Queen's Own. Queen's Own Newsletter. See I'm about to bring the cold, cruel, mundane world into our fun for a moment. Included is the first release form. Citing advice from her agent, Lackey withdraws support for most fanfiction based on her published works. From a discussion of her "Official Policy thingie": "Sorry to bring the cold, cruel world in here, but let me put it to you this way before any of you decide that I am being unreasonable, paranoid, or a control-freak. Would you walk into my house and take one of my pieces of jewelry? Would you help yourself to my bank account? Would you sit down to dinner with me at my invitation, engage me in pleasant conversation, then as soon as the meal arrived, take my plate away from me? That is precisely what you would be doing by deliberately messing things up for me. STEALING from me, after I have let you into my world. There is no graceful way to put it." I'm about to bring the cold, cruel, mundane world into our fun for a moment
* In October 1992, Anne McCaffrey McCaffrey's Fanwork Policies addressed fans' "indiscriminate usage of our characters, worlds, and concepts," calling them "ACTIONABLE!"
==The Two Articles==
The two articles by Yarbro printed in "Publisher's Weekly" and SFWA Bulletin were:
* "A Matter Of Willful Copyright Infringement" (Summer 1992)
* "Copyright Infringement Part II" (Fall 1992)
===The First Article: Topics===
* The editor printed the story after knowing that Yarbro had told the author she could not use her character Count Ragoczy Saint-Germain.
* Yarbro's lawyer found the zine at a party in August 1991, shortly after the published in the zine The Holmesian Federation #8.
* The selling price of the fanzine was $6, which to Yarbro meant it was making a profit.
* The editor of The Holmesian Federation consistently stated she didn't think she had done anything wrong, that characters could not be copyrighted, that she had not made any money beyond expenses, and that the stories were written for fun and for love.
* The editor of the zine never got a lawyer.
* Yarbro sent letters on August 28, 1991 to Tor Books, her editor, The Ellen Levine Literary Agency, HWA, both President and Trustees keeping them all well-informed of this emergency.
* Yarbro then sent cease and desist letters to the story's writer and the zine's publisher demanding that the production and distribution of the zine be stopped immediately, and "a complete accounting" be provided, all "subscribers and jobbers" of the fanzine were to be alerted.
* The original request by Yarbro: the fans must put a notice/apology in the HWA Newsletter, Locus, and run for not fewer than eight consecutive issues of Publishers Weekly. "There was also an assessment of a portion of the price of each issue to be paid to me, along with Robin Dubner's fees. They were given two weeks to respond."
* Yarbro didn't believe all copies of The Holmesian Federation were confiscated.
** Yarbro sent at least one snoop to a con to see if the zine was being sold there.
** Yarbro instructed friends to try to order copies of the zine in the mail to see if they could still be purchased: "I wanted three copies, and I wanted to know if they could get them from a dealer outside of Oregon. They supplied me with three copies from a fanzine broker in San Jose, California ..."This MAY have been Jim Rondeau and Melody Rondeau. It MAY have been Kathy Resch. It is also just as likely someone else.
** One snoop also checked the dealer's room at Worldcon and reported back that while the zine was not for sale there, it was "listed in one fanzine dealer's catalogue."
* Yarbro procured two testimonials from fanzine editors stating that "reputable fanzines do not do this," and several of Yarbro's colleagues wrote letters "to affirm the important of protecting copyright."
* At some point, Yarbro and the fans negotiated that no money would be paid to Yarbro for fees or damages, but that the fan would have to pay for the apology ads in magazines.
===The First Article: Excerpts===
===The Second Article: Topics ===
* Yarbro says the case is almost over but she still has complaints.
* She states the two fans have "little or no money or property" so Yarbro has paid all of her own lawyer's fees, and has "requested no part of the $6.00 cover price of the publication."
* Yarbro confirms the apology notices were run in 1992—the February 24th, March 2, March 9, and March 16 issues of Publishers Weekly in the "Weekly Exchange" section. It appears as though ads did not run in "Locus" or "HWA Newsletter."
* The notices in "Publisher's Weekly" read: 
* Yarbro states that the fans haven't sent enough letters of apologies out to people.
* Yarbro states that some copies of The Holmesian Federation #8 are still floating about: "We have also discovered that two fanzine distributors still have copies available. This is a serious breach of the agreement," one which Yarbro's lawyer was hot on the trail of pursuit. If these stray copies are not relinquished and the other letters of apology are not sent, then Yarbro is still considering fining the fans $250,000 and threatening them with five years in prison.
* Yarbro states that one of the fans is more stubborn than the other one, and that neither has gotten a lawyer; both fans are amateurs in legal matters, she says, and this makes Yarbro's job more difficult.
* Yarbro says that by the time this is all over it will have taken up a year of her time, time when she could been spent writing, and that the whole thing has been "aggravating and intrusive."Many authors would have turned the issue over to their lawyers and allowed them to handle it. Yarbro took a different path: she remained emotionally engaged, recruited others to scout for her at conventions, asked them to try to buy copies through the mail, and wrote two very long and detailed articles. In the end, much of that energy could have been applied to her writing so it seems disingenuous for her to lay the blame solely at the feet of the fanzine publishers.
* Yarbro is also unhappy that "my publisher and the Copyright Office have been unable to locate two certificates of copyright registration, and it is going to cost me more money to have another search made for them at the Copyright Office if the publisher cannot locate them, which leads me to thing that perhaps a copy of that certificate should be furnished by the publisher to every writer upon the publisher's receipt of it at the time the copyright is registered."A certificate of copyright registration allows the owner to pursue greater damages during litigation. Her focus on the certificates of registration is puzzling as it had little to do with the fanzine's publication.
===The Second Article: Excerpts===
 
==The Ad in "Publisher's Weekly"==
 
 File:legalspanking.jpg| A copy of one of the notices printed in "Publishers Weekly" -- In 1992, each one of these notices published in the "Weekly Exchange" section of "Publishers Weekly" cost $268.00 The total for the four notices that were run was $1072.00 plus tax. In 2016 value, that cost would be about $1844.00. 
 File:holmesianad.jpg|A scan of the entire page of the "Publisher's Weekly" ad page, showing scale of the ad on the page -- about 1/20th. 
==Supposedly Pulped and Turned Into a Papier-mâché Statue==
Perhaps the statue looked like this?
While not directly related, here's a 2013 twist: a fan cut apart an Anne Rice book and made decoupage with it. See Punishing Pandora And A Surprising Opinion On Anne Rice.
==Fan Comments==
===From the Publisher of The Holmesian Federation: 2017===
In 2017, Signe Danler said in an interview: 
 
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==Notes==
==References==
Category:Star Trek TOS Gen and Het Anthology Zines
Category:Sherlock Holmes Zines
Category:1992 Open Letters
Category:2019 Fannish History Friday
Category:The Saint-Germain Cycle
Category:2021 Featured Articles
Category:Social Media Feature