Cyber Rights Now: 'Scotty, Beam Down the Lawyers!' Jennifer Granick Oct. 9, 1997 If you've ever wondered what Chewbacca and Han Solo really did together, all those lonely nights aboard the Millennium Falcon, then fan fiction might be for you. From the ever-popular "slash lit" chronicling Captain Kirk's love affair with Mr. Spock to the secret diaries of Special Agent Dana Scully, fan fiction riffs on the characters and story lines that permeate our pop culture consciousness. Trouble is, fan fiction may be illegal. Legally, fiction based on settings or characters from someone else's stories is considered "derivative work," which can't be published without permission from the original copyright holder. The distinctive "brand names" of Darth Vader and Captain Janeway, for example, are trademarks that can't be used in a way that diminishes the value of the mark, confuses people as to the true owner of the mark, or allows another to profit from the mark. Real-life celebrities - who may also be the subject of fan fiction - are similarly protected from unauthorized appropriation of their names or likenesses by a "right of publicity." Intellectual property owners - and their lawyers - take infringement very seriously. Last year, Viacom Inc. sent a barrage of cease-and-desist letters to webmasters of Star Trek fan sites carrying copyrighted film clips, sounds, and insignias. Under threat of legal action, many Trekkers shut down, leaving behind scanned copies of letters sent by Viacom lawyers as memorials to sites that had once been ebullient celebrations of a favorite show. Then Paramount, a division of Viacom and owner of all things Star Trek, launched a company- sponsored Web site to promote the film Star Trek: First Contact. The crackdown disillusioned fans and made ISPs nervous. Now, the uncertainty has infiltrated the frontiers of Usenet. When moderators reorganizing rec.arts.sf.starwars submitted their request for a subgroup dedicated to fan fiction, the gurus who have control of the Big Eight Usenet groups (comp., humanities, rec., misc., news., sci., soc., and talk.) vetoed the creation of a new group "where the traffic itself would be illegal." As one Usenet overlord explained, "Discussion of sex, guns, or illegal drugs is not illegal. Posting fan fiction is." The Big Eight's self-censorship was prompted by worries that the Star Wars fan fiction group could become a legal liability for news hosts and ISPs. But without committing to any long-term policy, Marc Hedlund, director of Internet development for Lucasfilm, says the company tolerates the publication of fan fiction, so long as the stories are not for commercial gain and don't sully the "family" image of the Star Wars characters. Thus, authors of homoerotic Luke and Han stories may have something to worry about, but creating a Star Wars fan fiction newsgroup could be OK. Meanwhile, Viacom did not respond to Wired's requests for clarification of the company's Star Trek fan fiction policy. Ultimately, however, the problem is not Viacom or Lucasfilm, but a legal system that says companies, and not the public, own cultural icons. In an age when Bill Graham Presents lays claim to "The Summer of Love," the public domain is being sucked dry by the intellectual property machinations of media giants. In the end, we shouldn't have to depend on the good graces of entertainment corporations for our freedom of expression. It doesn't have to be this way. Expressive uses of familiar icons should be protected from intellectual property claims where commercial, for-profit uses are not. Trademark law should be narrowly interpreted to ensure that consumers aren't confused about which products they are buying, while still allowing cultural referents such as Spam, Luke Skywalker, and Mr. Potato Head to be cited freely. By allowing free-speech principles to dominate the Neutral Zone that links pop culture and commerce, media titans will still make plenty of money, and our universe will be a more hospitable place for creative exploration.