Mongoose Novels Info

[RMcD]

Just curious, have Warners ever been known to come down heavily on anything B5 related? My impression is that they are pretty easygoing / don't care very much.

[Jan]

I can't say that I've heard of anything recently but in the past they've contacted sites that didn't have the proper copyright notice posted. Thankfully, most B5 fans are polite enough to do so.

Their easygoing attitude dates back to the early days of B5 when JMS went to bat for the fans with WB after Paramount had shut down a lot of Trek sites.

Jan

[Fordy]

Was Ranger Dawning one of the stories that Mongoose was going to publish?

Yes. But since I was an employee we had a fairly loose agreement, a contract was signed in the early stages but since the whole thing's gone pants up Matt kindly allowed me to keep the rights. I honestly couldn't tell you what the crack is with the rest of the books, it's nothing to do with me.

All I know is I had a novel length piece of fan fic and nobody to read it. Hence the book now being on Lulu. It's no biggy, if I'm told to take the thing down then fair enough, but I doubt the juggernaut that is WB will feel threatened by a free book I've posted.

Soon find out I suppose

[SmileOfTheShadow]

I can't say that I've heard of anything recently but in the past they've contacted sites that didn't have the proper copyright notice posted. Thankfully, most B5 fans are polite enough to do so.

Their easygoing attitude dates back to the early days of B5 when JMS went to bat for the fans with WB after Paramount had shut down a lot of Trek sites.

Jan

I remember something to the effect of a B5 freeware game (which was supposedly pretty good) called I Found Her being squahsed by WB.

[Garibaldi's Hair]

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.

The issue for me is that I don't want to see WB put off licensing new official novels in the future because they get the impression that authors are just going to release books produced under the terms of the licence (but not released by the publisher) unofficially, that's all.

[Garibaldi's Hair]

I remember something to the effect of a B5 freeware game (which was supposedly pretty good) called I Found Her being squahsed by WB.

Well, your memory is playing tricks.



Although I seem to recall that JMS was not particularly enamoured with the idea.

[Jan]

I like the copyright notice on that site:

This is the Space Dream Factory production.
Babylon 5, characters, names, and all related media are trademarks of Time Warner Entertainment Co., LP.
JMS IS GOD
Copyright © 1998—2006 Space Dream Factory. All Rights Reserved.

Jan

[SmileOfTheShadow]

Well, your memory is playing tricks.



Although I seem to recall that JMS was not particularly enamoured with the idea.

Wow! It's still up. Neat. I'll have to check it out.

[SmileOfTheShadow]

I like the copyright notice on that site:


Quote:
This is the Space Dream Factory production.
Babylon 5, characters, names, and all related media are trademarks of Time Warner Entertainment Co., LP.
JMS IS GOD
Copyright ® 1998ù2006 Space Dream Factory. All Rights Reserved.

Jan

But...Ivanova is God...

[Jan]

But...Ivanova is God...

Well, that sure explains the squabbling, doesn't it?

Jan

[SmileOfTheShadow]

Well, that sure explains the squabbling, doesn't it?

Jan

I said nothing about Claudia being God!

Jon

[Andrew_Swallow]

Warner Brothers will have to be careful when dealing with Fordy. There could be a legal mess here. Fordy had permission and a contract to write the book. He wrote the book and as sent it to the nominated publisher for publication. He has kept his part of the contract. Warner Brothers changed their minds and cancelled their contract with the publisher Mongoose by giving a replacement contract to Mongoose. Warner Brothers have not paid Fordy any compensation, not even for say breach of contract. This situation may or may not be covered by the contract and British Contract Law.

I am not going to give any advice beyond advising Fordy not to push things by sending the book to another commercial publisher. Even if the law is on Fordy's side, Warner Brothers can afford to take this case to the House of Lords but he cannot. There are better things to do in life than worry about a court case.

[Jan]

Warner Brothers have not paid Fordy any compensation, not even for say breach of contract.

Of course they didn't, because WB didn't *have* a contract with Fordy so there could be no breach. Fordy's contract was with Mongoose to write a book and get paid for it. That was done. There's no law in the world that says that the book paid for has to be published. Magazine and book publishers buy stories and novels all the time that don't end up being printed for all sorts of reasons.

Jan

[Dr Maturin]

WB is "The Man."

[frulad]

Wait a second...

If The Brothers are The Man, how can the Man be keepin' a brother down?