TGTMD inconsistencies??

[CX]

That's actually one of the main reasons a lot of them don't like fan fic.

[Asso]

The only good thing the book had was the idea that Romulans (and probably Vulcans) would use the color green for danger and red for "go". That makes sense because their blood is green, a reverse of what we do because our blood is red. But Rigil Kent had the same idea independently. Too bad Rigil did not publish the idea first in one of his stories...or did he publish it first? Maybe the author of TGTMD stole it from Rigil! I wouldn't put it past "professional" writers to mine fan fic for ideas!

Oh dear, have I really stepped in it this time, LOL?

That's actually one of the main reasons a lot of them don't like fan fic.

But fortunately Fan Fic there is!

[Linda]

Well, if they don't like it, but use it for ideas...why do they dislike it? Are we taking "their" readers away? I doubt it. I think we are helping keep Trek alive and giving them more readers to buy their books. But this has probably been said many times elsewhere. I just don't frequent any other ST sites than Triax, so I am not up on the arguments.

But about TGTMD inconsistences, they are legion. Still, I enjoyed parts of the book, skimming over the parts that did not sit well with me. And I probably will go out and buy - hear that 'professional' authors? - BUY your next not too good book BECAUSE I read fan fic.

[CX]

No, they dislike it because of the possibility that they might get sued for stealing someone's idea, even though they probably never read the alleged source. That's why most authors have a policy against reading any fan fic to try to protect themselves from lawsuits.

[Linda]

They are afraid of law suits? Does that mean that fan fic writers MIGHT have some copyright protection to their own creations? Cool.

[CX]

It's been tried, but usually the lawsuits against fan fic writers tend to be more successful.

[JadziaKathryn]

For the most part, in my opinion, the "Trip's family" consistency problems in TGTMD, while existent, are merely extensions of the "Trip's family" consistency problems in televised Enterprise. This debate existed before TGTMD was written, because there was a debate to be had, because there was Phlox's "only sibling" comment, Archer's "older or younger?" question, and Trip's "nephew" and "brother" references.

True. This is why the show writers should keep track of useful information, like a master list of all the important things revealed about each character. Say, "Trip: has brother, Archer: father died when 12," etc.

But I suppose that would make sense, and sense throws a monkey wrench in the works.

[Linda]

What have the successful law suits against fan fic writers been about? Plagiarism? Was it blatant? I would think it would have to be, like a word for word copying. Do you have a link to the specifics? I would think that this would be of great concern to writers on this site. Especially if the successful suit was vague, like just using the normal Star Trek characters in their fan fic? We all do that. Or did the fan fic writer actually take money for their work without getting permission from the Star Trek franchise?

[CX]

All the successful lawsuits have been about copyright violations, but all of them have been about fan fic derived from books written by people like Anne Rice and Robin Hobb. It's actually pretty hard for them to win it, and the large number of fan fics keeps them from pursuing them for the most part. As for this site and others like them, Viacom/Paramount already settled on the fan fic/fan film issue back in the '90s and just stipulate that no money can be made from it. As a matter of fact, they actually encourage fan fic and fan films now. They used to have that Strange New Worlds contest that was authorized by them, and they're actually helping out a bit on fan films like New Voyages and that other one set aboard the Hathaway.

[JadziaKathryn]

It seems to me, especially while there's no current Trek, that you'd have to be pretty short-sighted to go against fanfic that's gonna happen anyway, while it's helping keep people interested in Trek.

[Linda]

CX, do you know if Ann Rice's suit was for actual word for word plagiarism or just for writing stories about her characters? Or do you mean she actually won a law suit even though the story itself was the work of the fan fic writer but about her characters? If it was, how short sighted and mean spirited and I will not buy any of her books. Not that I ever had anyway, LOL. I am not into vampires, despite the title of my most recent fan fic. Maybe I will just go research these lawsuits. I am glad that the situation is different for Star Trek fan fiction. I suppose that the issue would not come up except for the planet-wide reach of fan fic due to the internet! People have always fantisized about popular literary characters and told their own stories about them and even written these stories down. In the past, circulation of the stories had a very limited reach, though.

[CX]

I don't really know, I just rememebr something from one of those things I read about it.

[Whitbreads Motie]

Speaking of copyright/fan fic stuff, I sure wish Quills would come clean on what happened (or didn't happen) between him and the ENT writers regarding the Capt. Soma/Lorian thing. He once dropped a hint about something at TBBS but never followed up. But as I remember, he seemd to get awfully close to the ENT writing staff sometime after E2 aired the first time.

[justTripn]

What is the Captain Soma/Lorian thing? For that matter who is Captain Soma? Sorry. I'm sure I should know . . .

[evcake]

Ah, you have treat in store - a treat studded with Ivymae illustrations. Yum.

http://triptpolers.houseoftucker.com/fi ... ures.shtml