question

[kaigou]

If taking someone else's work without paying for it and/or translating it and/or distributing it is piracy, does that mean that those who practice the same but in a transformative way might be considered to have letters of marque?

Comments

[tesserae]

I like this idea!

[dharma_slut]

Hee!

[(Anonymous)]

Letters of marque are issued by a government; in essence they are sanctioned piracy (or, as sometimes used, sanctioned terrorism).

So in this case, it'd be more like when a studio takes your book without your permission but with the law on its side, and turns it into a film starring Carrot Top.

- CP (for some reason DW isn't acknowledging my OpenID)

[kaigou]

Yep, I know the analogy doesn't work precisely, only in general terms that "letter of marque" is still piracy, just piracy that's tolerated because it operates within certain strictures. If you replace 'government' with 'judiciary', then letter of marque does work, given the recent judicial precedents about use of copyright material in video and artwork. Which, IMO, was already covered by fair use, but fair use has gotten incredibly narrow in the past two decades.

[dragonhand]

As a sometime fanfic artist, this makes me feel like saying, "ARrrrr."