Mongoose Novels Info

[SmileOfTheShadow]

I know a lot of you don't care, but for those who do, I have emailed and talked to 2 of the authors.

Matthew Sprange - Visions of Peace:

A few of these actually were published and sold at gaming places where signings were happening prior to the abandonment of the project. He's the owner of Mongoose so he claims he cannot release his novel in the form of a pdf for free or anything because as the owner of the license, he has to keep "whiter than white" as he said.

His first response prior to being asked about the licensing bit of pdfs:

Many thanks for your interest. Unfortunately, due to licence reasons, we are unable to do this.

However, we do have a surprise coming for B5 fans this summer - keep your eye on the Lost Tales DVD release.

I must say, that's got me curious.


Bryan Steele - Birth of Heroes

The author and editor are trying to find the post-edited version, and they can't seem to find it. All they have right now is the written manuscript, which he admits needs some polish. When he finds the manuscript, he says he'll post something about it.


There you go.

[Shabaz]

Well, that comment about TLT piqued my interest. Though with him mentioning licensing issues with PDFs, I'm curious how Ranger Dawning got published as an e-book.

[SmileOfTheShadow]

Well, that comment about TLT piqued my interest. Though with him mentioning licensing issues with PDFs, I'm curious how Ranger Dawning got published as an e-book.

That is the part that doesn't make sense to me either on two fronts. There is the fact that if it's a licensing issue..Ranger Dawning should then not exist. There is also the fact that since Ranger Dawning DOES exist, and assuming that doesn't violate the licensing issue, why would Mr. Sprange be held to a different standard? Weird...

[Jan]

Is there some indication that Mongoose is officially aware that the author posted his book online (posting to a forum isn't official, btw)? If he did it without permission then WB can come down on him, not Mongoose.

As I understand it, the books were all pretty much written a year or more ago, it was the publishing of same that kept getting pushed back (even before the upset with JMS iirc).

As the owner of the company, Matthew Sprange would have to make sure that nothing he might do as an individual would reflect badly on his company's professional relationship with WB.

Jan

[Fordy]

As far as I'm aware, posting B5 fan fiction, for free, on the internet does not breach WB copyright. If I was charging for it, it would obviously be a different matter. Ranger Dawning is 100% mine and, for all intents and purposes, has nothing to do with Mongoose.

[Jan]

As far as I'm aware, posting B5 fan fiction, for free, on the internet does not breach WB copyright. If I was charging for it, it would obviously be a different matter.

Not so, I'm afraid, though that's a common misperception. Money doesn't enter into whether it's an infringement or not. Now, WB has always been pretty good about allowing fan web sites and images as long as their copyright information is posted. I'd think that would be the best solution in this case, too.

Jan

[vacantlook]

Paging Amy. Paging Amy. Can you once again address the issue of the legality of fanfiction?

EDIT: It seems Jan already tackled this while I was typing.

Ranger Dawning is 100% mine and, for all intents and purposes, has nothing to do with Mongoose.

I haven't been following the Mongoose saga as closely as others, so forgive me for asking a bit of a catch-up question. Was Ranger Dawning one of the stories that Mongoose was going to publish?

If so, did they commission its writing? Or did they just find it floating around somewhere already written and decided to include it? (If it is the latter, it does lend a great deal to the argument that the whole Mongoose project was nothing but glorified fanfiction.)

[ZenoParadoxus]

As far as I'm aware, posting B5 fan fiction, for free, on the internet does not breach WB copyright.

Umm, wrong. It may be that WB will decide not to notice your use of their intellectual property (which certainly seems to be the case with Buffy fanfic). But strictly speaking, you would still be liable for a violation under US copyright law for writing a story that contains only characters of your own making, yet relied on the B5 universe for the setting. It's still your story, but WB is completely able to keep you from distributing it in any way.

Read this entire thread (from a blog authored by two professional SF editors):

Making Light

The only way you can get away with it 100% legally is to write a parody, which has an exception in the law.

HTH

Zeno

[Jan]

Paging Amy. Paging Amy. Can you once again address the issue of the legality of fanfiction?

EDIT: It seems Jan already tackled this while I was typing.

She's trained me well. Along the same lines, I've been noticing lately on new DVDs that they're actually stating that copying, even without monetary gain is still an infraction.

Jan

[SmileOfTheShadow]

Wow..crazy about copyright laws. I guess we're lucky we got Fordy's

[Fordy]

I guess I can look forward to a 'cease and desist' from WB then!!

[vacantlook]

Maybe this got lost among the posts. Fordy, can you address this, as I'm actually curious what happened:

Ranger Dawning is 100% mine and, for all intents and purposes, has nothing to do with Mongoose.

I haven't been following the Mongoose saga as closely as others, so forgive me for asking a bit of a catch-up question. Was Ranger Dawning one of the stories that Mongoose was going to publish?

If so, did they commission its writing? Or did they just find it floating around somewhere already written and decided to include it? (If it is the latter, it does lend a great deal to the argument that the whole Mongoose project was nothing but glorified fanfiction.)

[Garibaldi's Hair]

On the other hand, if Mongoose commissioned it ... doesn't that make it the property of Mongoose, since copyright in IP usually rests in the commissioner/employer in those circumstances?

[Jan]

As far as I can tell, Fordy is employed by Mongoose. As for who owns Ranger Dawning, it depends on the contract. It could just be that Mongoose only arranged for first publication rights and the rights reverted back to Fordy when the project was cancelled. The universe that it's set in remains the property of Warner Bros. even if none of the B5 characters are in the book.

Jan

[SmileOfTheShadow]

I guess I can look forward to a 'cease and desist' from WB then!!

Poor Fordy. You just do something nice and get bombarded with legal garbage surrounding it. I really hope WB turns a blind eye if they find out about it. I just finished reading it a couple days ago, btw Thank ya much. PDF means I could read it at work.