Keyboards ready? Produce...SHERLOCK FIC!

[delphipsmith]

"A judge has ruled that the vast majority of Arthur Conan Doyle‘s Sherlock Holmes stories are now in the public domain in the US, which means (among other things) that you can make money off your Johnlock fic without Conan Doyle’s heirs swooping down on you with blazing swords, ready to exact financial vengeance. It’s go time..."

Read the rest here. So all of you go start selling your Sherlock fic :D

(I don't have any Sherlock icons so you get Giles. Librarian, detective, same thing, right?)

Comments

[droxy.livejournal.com]

Given Disney has exploited Conan Doyle since the 1970s I would have thought it public domain. =)

Hoping success to those attempting to write for profit.

[delphipsmith]

They probably had to pay big bucks to the estate for the rights. I guess we can look forward to lots more now that it's open season!

[inamac.livejournal.com]

I suspect that the BBC has various copyrights on Sherlock - that have nothing to do with Conan Doyle.

And ACD has been in the public domain in the UK for years. But it's good to see that we may be getting some sort of consensus on international copyright, if by default. The US has always been greedy about keeping stuff out of the public domain.

[delphipsmith]

Yeah, the US is very very protective of copyright, trademarks, etc. because hey, we're dollar-chasing Yanks ;) It's all about the bu$ine$$, right?

That's an interesting point about the BBC. I'm not sure how copyright works with something that moved into the public domain -- is it even possible to, er, "re-copyright" it? Now I'm curious...

[inamac.livejournal.com]

When the UK changed the time for copyright from 50 years after the author's death to 75 years a lot of works that had been out of copyright, including Kipling, went back in again, so yes, it is possible to 're-copyright' (and, of course, the copyright of Peter Pan was regularly 'updated' by separate Acts of Parliament and now belongs to GOSH in perpetuity - at least in the UK).

Gatiss and Moffat have the rights on their scripts for Sherlock, and the BBC has the rights to the actual series, but of course there is not (and never has been) 'copyright on ideas'. I am getting fed up of pointing out that you can only infringe 'copyright' by making an exact (or substantially close) copy of a work - that's what 'copyright' means!

[nursedarry.livejournal.com]

Good lord, anything I produced would:

a)not be fit for public consumption - and that includes my beta *cough*
b)even more OOC than anything recently written/filmed/imagined
c)Probably be even too scary for HSU, and that's saying a lot

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a shit-tonne of Sherstrade recs to get through...

[delphipsmith]

Yes, but there's the fun -- you could self-publish a load of Sherstrade stories that are nothing but sex and sell them and NO ONE CAN STOP YOU MWAHAHAAAAA!

Too bad Kirk and Khan won't be in the public domain until at least 2080...

[nursedarry.livejournal.com]

Don't think for one moment I won't be there to take advantage of that.

[anna-bird.livejournal.com]

Heh. I'm reading a Sherlock anthology (of fanfic, hahahahahahah) from 2009 that has a well-known ficcer (ficster? ficface? Oh fine, AUTHOR)'s fanfic in it. Woo to her for getting the jump on things!

[delphipsmith]

Is it slashy?? What's the book/story? Sounds interesting.

[anna-bird.livejournal.com]

Here's the anthology: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6390031-the-improbable-adventures-of-sherlock-holmes

And here's the story (at what I assume was its original home? Although I guess she could've posted it there after it was published in print): http://www.intimations.org/fanfic/holmes/Commonplaces.html

It IS slashy, but sadly only in suggestion. TBH it's really an Irene Adler story. But who knows--I'm only halfway through the anthology and more H/W might appear.