Friday, Sep 5, 2008
Independent Web sites devoted to pop culture icons like "The X-Files" and "Star Trek" used to flourish on the Net. Now they're an endangered species.
Dec 13, 2000 | For Carol Burrell, running a Web site was just another step in a long life of sci-fi, fantasy and horror devotion. Her fannish enthusiasms began in early childhood, when family dinner was scheduled around "Star Trek" reruns and horror stories were read before bedtime.
The magic of these fantasy worlds proved alluring, but even more appealing for Burrell was the communal, participatory nature of fandom itself. "I wanted to be part of that world, the world that creates that kind of entertainment," says Burrell.
The Internet gave her the opportunity. By the early '90s, Burrell had already racked up a veritable checklist of geeky fandom qualifications: She chaired conventions, shot Super-8 films, edited zines and ran a dial-up BBS out of her home in Riverdale, N.Y. But the Internet, she found, proved an even more perfect outlet for her wide range of interests, as well as a natural way to unite the geographically disparate members of the fan community she so valued.
In 1993, Burrell created a series of Web sites with names like "Rat Patrol Fandom," "Elfquest Fandom" and, in 1995, the ever-popular "Xena Fandom," which, she says, "started taking over all of my server space." Inspired by the success of those sites, Burrell resolved to compile her fan devotions into a more comprehensive television site exploring cult series ranging from "Columbo" to "The Twilight Zone" to "Farscape." In July 2000, she chose what seemed a logical domain name for her new project: Fandom.tv.
Three months later, on Oct. 30, Burrell received a letter from the law firm Troop, Steuber, Pasich, Reddick and Tobey demanding the "unconditional surrender and transfer of the Infringing Domain Name" Fandom.tv; accusing her of violating the Anti-Cybersquatting Act (the punishment for which are fines up to $100,000 per domain name); and threatening immediate legal action. For good measure, they threw in a monetary offer: $250 if Burrell agreed to abandon the domain name immediately.
Cease-and-desist letters are not unusual in the world of fandom. Skirmishes between the holders of copyright and trademarks and overzealous fans constitute one of the longest ongoing stories in cyberspace. But the letter Burrell received offered a new twist. She had been hit, not by Fox or Universal or Disney, but by the legal representatives of Fandom.com, a Santa Monica, Calif., company whose slogan is "by the fans, for the fans."
Fandom.com serves as an umbrella site for numerous "fandomains" -- formerly independent Web sites dedicated to popular, merchandise-friendly topics such as "Star Wars," "The X-Files" and "Lord of the Rings" that now run under the Fandom.com banner. Each site contains the same structure and design, and there's a large copyright disclaimer placed at the bottom of every page. Fandom.com sites regularly use logos and photographs from various films or series and reprint copyrighted magazine articles.
The initial premise of Fandom.com was straightforward: to protect individual fan site owners from studio censorship (and sell a lot of nifty merchandise and advertising in the process). In the ecology of fandom, the idea seemed to have merit. One of the fundamental appealing aspects of the Internet for many fans lies in the fact that a community can form around even the most obscure of interests, like short-lived, long-since-canceled series such as "Space: Above and Beyond" or "American Gothic." An active community can produce Web sites, conventions, fan fiction and even fan films on its chosen topic in incredible profusion. What drives fans is passion, not solely for the product itself but for the ideas -- fantasy, utopianism, magic -- that those shows express.
But that passion often leads to confrontation between huge corporations and puny individuals. Which is why Fandom.com seemed to make sense -- by joining together the little guys, it would create an institution that could defend itself from the heavy hitters. But Fandom.com's letter to Burrell appeared to indicate something entirely different. Fandom.com was accusing Burrell of trademark violation -- a fact that was ironic on at least two levels. First: Fandom.com may not even own a trademark for the word "fandom." Second: A company whose individual sites flourished by pushing copyright laws to the legal limit was now turning around and itself playing the role of intellectual property bully.
Which leads to the question currently raging in the fan community: Who will protect the fans from Fandom?
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