Fandom, Inc. (1999-2001)

:This page is about the company that operated from 1999 to 2001. For the currently operating company named Fandom, see Fandom.com.
Fandom, Inc. (Fandom.com) was a dot-com startup (1999-2001) founded by entrepreneur Chip Meyers; its CEO, Mark Young, was the former vice president of sales and trading at Morgan Stanley. It was funded by entertainment venture capitalist companies and corporate investors and owned several media-related properties, including Cinescape (magazines) and Creation (media conventions). The company started an online division as well: Fandom.com.Who owns fandom? Salon.com, December 2000. Accessed October 11, 2008Defending Toy Dolls and Maneuvering Toy Soldiers: Trademarks, Consumer Politics, and Corporate Accountability on the World Wide Web MIT Communications Forum. Accessed October 11, 2008.
Initially, fan response was positive, with fans getting involved with fan domains or editorial columnsFor example, BLUDHAVEN founder and member Kat posted about her Nightwing column on the site called "Wing Notes" to the list on June 20, 2000.. Then in October 2000, Fandom, Inc. threatened a fan named Carol Burrell who owned the domain name fandom.tv, saying they had the trademark on "fandom" and if Burrell didn't give up her domain, they'd sue her.The Fandom Menace, an official site in fans' clothing, by Fox Echo Station, December 5, 2000. Accessed October 11, 2008.
Burrell told other fans, and they told more fans, and they told more fans. The fans weren't happy.
The fans won,Fandom Inc. to Spin Off Assets and Shut Down Online Operations; Market Instability and Funding Difficulties Lead to Splitting Off Valued Properties Business Wire, April 2, 2001. Accessed October 11, 2008 at least until the next time someone else figured there was money to be made with fandom: 
Two years later, it was FanLib, another failed instance of Corporate America trying to cash in on media fandom by claiming to support it.
==Fandom.com is Born==
After the official website he created for the 1998 movie Godzilla failed,
:"Meyers had a revelation: He would build a company that could offer protection to the sort of independent fan sites that were being bullied by studios. These new sites would have the gloss and glamour of corporate backing, but provide the kind of individual, homegrown appeal that had drawn Godzilla.com's visitors to the independent market."
Sometime between February and early October 1999, Fandom, Inc. bought the web domain fandom.com.Fandom.com as of February 20, 1999 via Wayback Machine last update while owned by Chris "The Magician" O'Shea, Fandom.com as of October 120, 1999 via Wayback Machine, first update copyrighted to Fandom, Inc. Accessed October 11, 2008. By November 16, 1999, the site had content, including 21 "fandomains".Fandom.com as of November 16, 1999 via Wayback Machine. Accessed October 11, 2008.
Fandom, Inc. aggressively sought out independent fansites and brought them in as "fandomains" under the Fandom.com umbrella, a site that claimed to be "by the fans, for the fans".Fandom.com front page as of June 19, 2000 via Wayback Machine. Accessed October 11, 2008.
One such acquisition was in January 2000 when "Fandom, Inc" acquired "AnotherUniverse": 
Each "fandomain" was revamped to have the same general structure and layout, and included banner ads and merchandise for sale, as well as copyrighted images from the shows (which at the time were often subject to C&Ds as the studios attempted to keep control). It also controlled fan discourse - posts that conflicted with the corporate image being protrayed were deleted from message boards - and kept content in line with the corporate image as well.
The appeal to fans was meant to be a certain level of protection from studio shutdowns or C&Ds, in a "safety in numbers" sort of situation. It worked: the fan site owners—many of them very young (mostly under 25, some as young as 13) -- who joined were generally happy with the situation. They got a salary, a cut of the merchandise sales, and corporate backing to face down FOX and other C&D-happy networks.
Clearly, though, the purpose of Fandom.com was money, and fandom was just a way to generate it. The front page of Fandom.com was largely devoted to its "Fandom Shop", while the fandomains were called "unofficial sections maintained by real fans".
=== Fandomains ===
The contact page listed the founders of the various domains as "head fanatics". As of April 13, 2001 (the last Wayback capture before the site went down), that list included:
* Michael "Icebreaker" Kersey - 007 Forever (James Bond)
* Eric Houck - The Amazing Spiderman (Spider-Man)
* Dave Carroll - Batman: Defender of Gotham (Batman)
* Michael Doran - Comics Newsarama (Comics Fandom)
* Matt Brady - Comics Newsarama (Comics Fandom)
* Lucius Gore - ESplatter (Horror Fandom)
* Stephen Stierwalt, Jr. - KISS Freaks
* Aaron J. Smith - Monster Zero (Godzilla)
* Bomby - Pokemon Center (Pokémon)
* Raven - Raven's Realm (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
* Joram Manka - Ringbearer (Lord of the Rings)
* John Fiedler - The Simpsons Sourcebook (The Simpsons)
* Smilin' Jack Ruby - Smilin' Jack Ruby (Bruce Campbell)
* Chris Wiser - South Park Central (South Park)
* Antony - Star Trek Central (Star Trek)
* Steve Younis - Superman Home Page (Superman)
* Lou "T'bone" Tambone - T'Bone's Star Wars Universe (Star Wars)
* Skyler Livezey - Videogamers (Video Games)
* Cathy O'Grady - Xenaville (Xena: Warrior Princess)
* Daniel Wood - The Ultimate X-files Information Complex (The X-Files)
* Eric J. Moreels & Sarah Glaetzer - X-Fan (X-Men)
* Kate - Wonderful World of Harry Potter (Harry Potter)
==Fandom.com Meets Fandom.tv==
In July 2000, Carol Burrell, a long-time fan who'd operated several websites for years, registered fandom.tv as a new domain. On October 30, 2000, Fandom, Inc.'s laywers sent her a letter saying that she was infringing on their trademark ("fandom") and demanding that she immediately surrender and transfer her domain name. They also accused her of violating the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. The letter threatened immediate legal action, and offered a paltry $250 for the domain name if she gave it up without fighting.
The letters:
* (first letter sent to Burrell)
* (second letter sent to Burrell)
Copies of the letters and her responses have been archived 
Carol decided to fight instead, believing that the word "fandom" can't be trademarked by a single company after being in common use for the better part of a century. (In fact, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had already marked Fandom.com's registration of the term "fandom" as "dead" and "abandoned".
On November 15, Fandom, Inc. sent a second letter threatening legal action, and upped their offer for fandom.tv to $1,500.Fandom.com Boycott Organised After Domain Name Dispute TrekToday, November 22, 2000. Accessed October 11, 2008.
Carol posted about the situation to at least one mailing list she was on, and on November 20, another fan on that list passed the word along to six or seven other lists.
Read more about this at Who owns fandom? and Name Your Fandom™: Website name dispute has larger implications.
==Fandom.com Meets Fandom==
Media fans, outraged both at the potential lawsuit and the notion that anyone could trademark "fandom" and insist no one use the term without paying for the rights, took up the cause.
Word spread rapidly through online fandom, which rallied behind fandom.tv and Carol, organizing a boycott of fandom.com and offering support, money, and in some cases legal assistance.Gateworld Columns: Support Fandom.tv in domain dispute, including a link to fandom.tv as the site's first non-Stargate-related "link of the week". Accessed October 11, 2008. A website with an associated mailing list was created to centralize information and organize help, called Fandom Fights Back.Fandom Fights Back website as of February 2001, from the Wayback Machine. Accessed October 11, 2008FandomFightsBack mailing list. Accessed October 11, 2008. The information spread to other media fandom forums.; ; 
November 27, the original deadline for Carol to give up her site, came and went, with the two sides agreeing to meet to try to come to an accommodation.
By the middle of December, word had spread beyond media fandom as well, making it out to science-fiction fandom,Ansible 161, December 2000, discussing Fandom.com as "Cyberbullies", accessed October 11.2008 more general media., and even a mailing list devoted to Australian domain-name issues.Fandom.com vs Fandom.tv, DNS, December 12–15, 2000. Accessed October 11, 2008. There was even heavily moderated discussion on the fandom.com message boards.; 
One website, the fan web magazine The 11th Hour wrote:
Carol eventually won, but was left with $1,500 in legal fees.The Curse of Fandom Ansible 165, April 2001. Accessed October 11, 2008.Fandom, Inc. Goes Bust Mike Glyer's File 770, issue 138, p.3. Accessed October 11, 2008
In March 2001 fandom.tv posted: 
==Fandom, Inc. Goes Boom==
For a variety of reasons, by March 31, 2001, investors were pulling out of Fandom, Inc., and its acquired properties were on their own; the former owners of Creation bought it back for less than Fandom, Inc. had paid for it.
By April 2, 2001, Fandom.com was shut down. Around 2016, Wikia Inc. acquired the URL Fandom.com, and has since been using it as a domain.
==Fan Comments==
===From "The 11th Hour Message Board"===
All comments are from (November 2000)
==Further Reading/Meta==
* How the Grynch Stole Fandom by Peter David (2001)
* (January 2000)
* (March 2000)
* (November 2000)
* Who owns fandom? (December 2000)
* The Fandom Menace: an official site in fans' clothing (December 2000)
* Name Your Fandom™: Website name dispute has larger implications (February 2001)
* I wonder if anyone remembers Fandom, Inc vs fandom? (Dec 2007)
* (May 2013)
* Fandom and Profit
==References==
Category:Fandom Occurrences
Category:1999 EventsCategory:2000 EventsCategory:2001 Events
Category:Science Fiction Fandom Occurrences