The OTW is proud to be co-sponsoring the 6th annual IP/Gender: Mapping the Connections Symposium at American University Washington College of Law on April 24, 2009. The theme of this year's symposium is Female Fan Cultures and Intellectual Property. Below please find the call for papers; abstracts are due December 19th. If you're interested in attending, the conference is free and open to the public, though registration is required.

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.

These are the terms of service for the OTW’s website. Different OTW projects, including the Archive of Our Own and the Fanlore wiki, have their own terms of service. If you use one of those projects, please consult its Terms of Service.

I. General Principles

1. The legalese: including where a lawsuit would be filed, when, and under what law

The ToS constitute the entire agreement between you and the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) and govern your use of the Service (the OTW site).

The ToS and the relationship between you and the OTW shall be governed by the laws of the United States state of New York, without regard to its conflict of law provisions.

• 501(c)(3) Filing Documents
  • Application (PDF)
  • Supporting Narrative (DOC) (or view as HTML)
• Annual Reports
  • Annual Report 2007 (PDF) (or view as HTML)
  • Form 990 2007 (JPG)

The OTW believes that fanworks are creative and transformative, core fair uses, and will therefore be proactive in protecting and defending fanworks from commercial exploitation and legal challenge. This help will not be limited to those fans or projects directly connected with OTW.

We don't see ourselves as being in competition with anyone. Much as the ACLU, the EFF, and other organizations have all been involved in the battle for online civil liberties, we think there is a lot of room for a wide range of organizations representing fandom and fannish fair use. We're happy to make common cause with other organizations that share our commitment to serving the fannish community in a not-for-profit, community-based spirit, and we look forward to doing so.

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.

We believe fanfiction is already legal and legitimate in the U.S. under Fair Use provisions (and many other countries have a similar legal framework that allows for commentary on and critique of copyrighted texts). There is, however, a lot of confusion and unnecessary fear in this area among both pro and fan creators, and we would like to help clarify the murky waters for everybody.

Currently, most fannish infrastructure projects - like archives, mailing lists, forums, communities, newsletters, and others - are run by private individuals using for-profit hosting services. These for-profit companies do want to make money, and to them, fan creators are a source of free content. They do not have an incentive to support the fannish community unless they can make money off that community, either through fees or advertising.

The OTW is incorporated in the state of Delaware, in the United States.

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.

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.