Trust no fox - It's a conspiracy! by Kike Benlloch Castinheira / August'97

Based on the fact that the audio and screen captions and photographies taken from the XF that exist and are daily exchanged in the Internet are by no means part of a profitable current by which anyone is making money out of Fox's trademarks and products, I believe we must encourage Fox to desist of their current policy against many XF web sites and the people who built and maintain them.

I believe that these web sites contribute to the popularity of the show and that they pose no threat to Fox's property and I reckon it is time the XF fans speak out our mind.

In my opinion Fox is not protecting their owning of the XF, but hurting the fans that made the series the social phenomenom it is today. Basicly, this is an unfair situation to us XF fans and we must by no means bear it any longer.

Lastly, I believe that in the end, the X-Files also belongs in some way to us the fans. In what way? you'd ask. In this way: the Internet must be a free space for exchanging XF materials if nobody is making money off them. But obviously Fox wants to control every single thing related to the XF.

There is no doubt that if Fox could, they would charge you for every time you pronounce "The X-Files".

Open letter from any fan...

(copy, paste & e-mail!)

Dear Mr. Oakes, Mr. Carter and Fox Broadcasting:

	This letter is regarding the recent actions being taken by Fox to
	remove the 'unofficial' Millennium and X-Files web sites from the
	Internet. 

	These sites have been displayed on the Internet as arenas for fans 
	to show their support and appreciation for the show, NOT to 
	infringe upon Fox's domain. If you remove these sites from the 
	Internet, you would be removing a valuable tool in promoting your 
	network's programming. 

	The voice of the online fans is loud and carries an enormous amount 
	of weight. A perfect case in point would be the success of 'The 
	X-Files', one of the Fox network's shows. 

	The popularity of this show is monumental, largely due in part to 
	the tremendous support from fans on the Internet.

	If it were not for the "X-Files" viewers, your network would not 
	have the most popular show on television for 18- to 49-year-olds,
	which is, by television standards, the most sought-after age group 
	in the market.

	Please know that the people involved with these websites are not 
	out to make money off of Fox and they are not out to 'pull one 
	over' on your network. These are viewers who have volunteered their 
	time to show their enthusiasm for your programs; it's that simple.

	And alienating your current viewers is no way to earn new ones.

	Sincerely,
	anyfan@your.machine.anywhere

<reapr@newscorp.com>
<davido@foxinc.com>
<askfox@foxinc.com>

...and the cynical response from Fox

In response to erroneous rumors circulating on some internet websites, Fox 
wishes to assure fans of "THE X-FILES", "MILLENNIUM" and "THE SIMPSONS" that 
it is not Fox's intention to shut down bona fide websites created by fans 
devoted to these programs.

However, Fox must require all websites using copyrighted and trademarked
materials to comply with guidelines that protect the creative integrity of 
the programs they represent.

Fox has not asked any websites to be closed except a few which were using
program materials in an inappropriate manner.  Some examples of 
inappropriate uses we have found include:

-using copyrighted photographs, images and sounds which have not been
approved for distribution;

-removing Fox's copyright and trademark notices and asserting ownership
by a third party, or asserting that copyrighted and trademarked materials
are in the public domain;

-copying or altering text, photographs, images, designs and logos from
official websites without permission or attribution;

-copying or altering photographs, images, designs and logos from
programs in a manner that denigrates the programs, the actors or the 
characters they portray;

-using photographs, images, designs and logos to promote a product or
commercial business or service;

-carrying advertising for parties not associated with the programs; and
offering unlicensed merchandise for sale;

We know true fans do not encourage inappropriate activities and respect the 
hard work of the many talented and imaginative people who make Fox's 
programs unique.

Fox appreciates the support of all fans in protecting its creative rights
and proprietary interests.

So what's it about copyright?

The Strange Truth Abut Copyright

It turns out that the problem with copyrighted material is that in order to keep the copyright in force you have to defend it. Failure to do so makes the nominal holder of the copyright vulnerable to the charge that they no longer have a right to claim the material as their intellectual property. In fact, Fox's failure to go after websites with copyrighted XF material for the better part of 3 1/2 years might make it hard for them to win a copyright violation case regarding this material at this point in time. But whether or not you would want or be in a position to try this theory out in court is highly doubtful, so I guess they win anyhow if they send you a cease and desist order. Anyone with the means and patience to try this out, however, might stand at least some chance of winning. It would be interesting to see what kind of a response one got from Fox if anyone responded to such an order by pointing out that they had given up their right to material by waiting so long to object to its "unauthorized" use.

Realizing their mistake with the XF sites is undoubtedly behind Fox's very swift and somewhat violent reaction against the Millenium sites -- they struck immediately this time and therefore have clearly asserted their rights as the holders of that material. Apparently, once you slack off in one area of asserting your copyright in a timely fashion you are vulverable in all areas -- i.e. if you ignore the violation of your copyright on the Internet, you also may not be able to assert it in the publishing or manufacturing world. But again, there is no guarantee that a "violator" would win in court, only that they have some grounds on which to defend themselves. Somehow, I think it would be hard to beat these guys, but with the right set of circumstances, probably not impossible either.

Those Unofficial Books

That having been said, Phil said that no major, legitimate publisher would risk publishing a book with material that it didn't have permission to use. I looked in several of the Unofficial XF books in the bookstore and, sure enough, they all say that certain materials in the book are copyrighted by Fox and state that they have been granted permission to use them. There is some material in one book I saw that I wasn't clear about, but *all* the books I inspected attributed outside ownership of at least some of the pictures contained in them. So I am fairly satisfied that, one way or another, they have not violated anyone's copyright, no matter how unofficial they claim to be.

Show Me the Money!

According to Phil, the whole internet/website copyright issue has to do --surprise, surprise -- with money. If Fox or any other similar corporate entity could figure out a mechanism by which to charge every webmaster for the use of their materials, it would be in their obvious best interests to do so. And if they could figure out and easily implement some way to recieve payment and control distribution, they almost certainly would. But the whole Internet thing has grown up so very suddenly that no one knows how to handle this situation yet. Phil told me it took ten solid years of heavy lobbying to get the book publishing world to accept the mechanism now in place for university bookstore's to copy and distribute the course antholgies and pay royalties. It was up to the university bookstores' own federation to devise the precise plan on how to do this and then convince the publishers that it would work. I don't know how the web people could do this, but my guess is that is going to be up to the people who want to broker in this material to begin think about how this issue might be handled and then pitch it the studio/network legal people. And it will probably take quite a while to convince them -- maybe even years.

Well, there was lots more detail to this and it was a most fascinating conversation that took more than an hour, but for our purposes, I think this covers the major concerns.

Hope this has helped shed some light!

OMNIA SECUNDUM LITEM FIUNT

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