Zine Piracy Letter to Candace Pulleine by Bill Hupe

Zine Piracy Letter to Candace Pulleine by Bill Hupe was a letter sent to Candace Pulleine, head of the Revelcon concom. It was cc'd to other zine editors and publishers.
The subject was zine piracy.
==Some Background Information==
Making copies of zines that were still in print could be financially damaging to many zine editors and publishers. It was an issue that was first publicly discussed in media fandom in the eleventh issue of Probe in August 1977. The editor, Winston A. Howlett, wrote: 
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, there were strong feelings in fandom about some fans who were making copies of zines still in print and were, from one point of view, "stealing" from zine publishers by copying in-print zines. There were also strong feelings about zine editors who kept zines in print forever, thus continuing to make sales while the story authors never received any additional compensation. This coincided with growing resentment among other groups of fans regarding rising zine prices, often for zines which they felt were not worth the higher prices.
Many of these tensions came to a head at, and after, RevelCon 1993.
==A Series of Open Letters: by Zine Publishers/Con Organizers==
In 1993 and 1994, a number of Open Letters circulated in fandom regarding the photocopying of in-print zines.
See: The Revelcon Zine Piracy Letters.
== Bill Hupe's First Zine Piracy Letter to Candace Pulleine==
The letter below was sent by Bill Hupe to Candace Pulleine, head of the Revelcon concom. It was cc'd to other zine editors and publishers.
 
==A Fan's Zines Get Caught in the Backlash==
At least one fan's zines were caught in the backlash when they were erroneously listed on Bill's list as being "pirated." That fan wrote an Open Letter of her own, one which was published in September 1993: 
==Fannish Reactions==
Fandom's reactions split into unsurprisingly three categories: those who believed the facts as presented by Bill, those who believed the facts as developed by Candace in the subsequent months, and those who really couldn't care less about the entire matter. Morgan Dawn remembers fans discussing the issue in 1995, a few years later: "When the story was told to me, there seemed to be a dual set of memories. One set 'remembered' that Candy Pulleine went to a lot of trouble to track down the facts, she spent her own money mailing to members asking specific questions about pirating they might have observed and/or participated in etc. The other set focused solely on Bill's recollections (sans his retractions and corrections). I gather it was easier to just remember the first series of letters than to try to keep up with the later twists and turns. In my head, I divided the groups between those who liked to read complex mysteries and those who preferred to read short stories. Or, as I heard one fan say, somewhat bitterly: "pirate stories are more comforting to editors with old zines and people with sloppily organized tables." I never really did a get a feel there was agreement on any of the 'facts'."Morgan Dawn's personal notes, accessed April 4, 2012.
===1993===
==The Message Comes Full Circle==
Due to the slow nature of communication (letters, phones) in the pre-Internet days and that both news and facts tended to be distorted through multiple re-tellings, one of the greater ironies of both Alexis' and Bill Hupe's Open Letters, is that they and their authorized agents were, in turn, accused of zine piracy.
In the K/S letterzine, The LOC Connection, Alexis' and Bill Hupe's letters stirred a vigorous debate on the evils of zine piracy. As issue after issue focused on the topic, fans whipped one another into an anti-piracy frenzy. It cumulated when one of the subscribers unknowingly confronted Bill Hupe's agent Peg Kennedy over 'pirated' Alexis Fegan Black zines:
 
Category:1993 Meta
Category:Meta in Print
Category:Zine Meta
Category:1993 Open Letters
Category:Zine Piracy Open Letters
==References==