Because the OTW and its servers are based in the US, we believe that US law applies to content in the OTW archive, even if the author is a resident or national of a different country. However, different countries make different claims about the reach of their laws. Your country of origin's laws are likely to apply to you. It is possible that some sections of the OTW policies are broader, or perhaps more restrictive, than a specific jurisdiction's laws.

Most countries have exceptions to copyright rights for various purposes. In Europe, the more common term is “fair dealing.” Countries differ in their treatment of the scope of copyright and exceptions.

No, it doesn't. Profit matters, and the degree of transformative quality matters: telling stories around a campfire, freely sharing nonprofit fanfiction, summarizing plot in a book review, or making a documentary film about fans, is not the same as a major commercial derivative enterprise like making a major TV miniseries out of a novel.

Right now we have no plans for a test case. We are focusing on building relationships with legal advocacy groups like the EFF and developing legal resources of our own.

We are absolutely willing to help if we can find someone with the necessary legal knowledge. Fortunately, our friends at the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) are making a major effort to develop global legal expertise, and we plan to call on them in such situations. In any situation, US or non-US, we'll see what we can do based on the facts and our resources.

The mission of the OTW is to support the noncommercial sharing of fanworks within fan communities.

Not at all. The OTW does not oppose the derivative works right that allows copyright owners to authorize a mass-market film adaptation, for instance, or allows Anne McCaffrey to authorize Todd and not somebody else to commercially publish Pern sequels. The first president of the OTW is Naomi Novik, herself a professional novelist, whose work is under copyright and who has a stake on both sides.

The mission of the OTW is first and foremost to protect the fan creators who work purely for love and share their works for free within the fannish gift economy, who are looking to be part of a community and connect to other fans and to celebrate and to respond to the media works that they enjoy.

The OTW's Legal committee is consulting with the Stanford Fair Use Project and the EFF.

No. While case law in this area is limited, we believe that current copyright law already supports our understanding of fanfiction as fair use.

There is a distinction between plagiarism (the unacknowledged use of someone else's words claimed as one's own), fanfiction (the acknowledged or obvious borrowing of story elements to tell a new story in the fanfiction writer's words), and quotation (the acknowledged or obvious use of small excerpts of another's work).

Fair use is the right to make some use of copyrighted material without getting permission or paying. It is a basic limit on copyright law that protects free expression. “Fair use” is an American phrase, although all copyright laws have some limits that keep copyright from being private censorship.

Copyright is intended to protect the creator's right to profit from her work for a period of time to encourage creative endeavor and the widespread sharing of knowledge. But this does not preclude the right of others to respond to the original work, either with critical commentary, parody, or, we believe, transformative works.