The legal stuff
All the texts in WeirdSpace Encyclopedia are written and copyrighted by me (Michael Pilgaard). This copyrighted work may not be archived, re-published, or otherwise reprinted, without the written permission of its sole legal owner, Michael Pilgaard.
Copyright and fair use
The characters and art are copyrighted and/or trademarked by their respective owners, and the use on the site is covered by 'fair use' as described by the U.S. Copyright Act Section 107 [1]. 'Fair use' is determined by four factors:
1. "The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes."
2. "The nature of the copyrighted work."3. "Amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole."
4. "The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work."
For the benefit of those who for some reason don't like seeing the characters on the site, or don't understand how this site complies with 'fair use', here is how the site complies:
1. The site is a non-profit project with the specific purpose of providing information on fictional characters and their backgrounds. The nature of the information makes the site a research/scholary/educational site, though it must be expected that some visitors also will find the site entertaining. The site and content is NOT made for promotion of any specific company, character, artist, point-of-view or my self for that matter. The information is a structured compilation of what I have been able to find about the characters as described in details on the page "My Way".
2. The information on the pages is only from published work. The continuity related information (e.g. origin, date of birth, family etc.) is mostly from fiction and the background/bibliographic information (e.g. creators, background notes, publication history etc.) is from non-fiction sources.
3. The amount of information is limited to the parts that are important for understanding continuity for the fictional parts of the character's history, including graphics for visual identification. Compared to the copyrighted as a whole, the amount of material used on the site is only a small fraction (much less than 1% of the total body of work in most cases).
4. The effect on the potential market is nil for the site in itself. The site is only one of many of this type and the information is educational/scholary (contrary to e.g. fan sites or hate sites) and can only offer more visibility of the characters/companies on the Internet. The information is limited to what is needed to understand how the characters work, i.e. the parts of the stories that are important continuity (e.g. why Goofy became Supergoof, and the retcons involved), and while they are important in order to understand the actions of the character, they are not in any way a substitute for reading/watching/hearing the original stories. More visibility on the Internet usually translates into increased sales; this however requires actions by the owner like making the product available and/or listing where the product can be found. The site only increases visibility and cannot affect the potential market in itself.
In case you don't believe that I'm right, feel free to look at the links below (references 2-7). Especially pay attention to the case Stephanie Lenz v. Universal [7]. Having said that, if what I have on the pages really bothers you as the copyright holder, send me an e-mail (click on the letter icon at the bottom of the page), explain exactly what the problem is, and let's see if we can work something out. In other words, let's keep things constructive!Disclaimer of warranties
Just so there are no misunderstandings about this:
1. Your use of WeirdSpace is at your sole risk. WeirdSpace is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. WeirdSpace expressly disclaims all warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including, but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.
2. WeirdSpace makes no warranty that (I) WeirdSpace will meet your requirements, (II) the use of WeirdSpace will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free, (III) the results that may be obtained from the use of WeirdSpace will be accurate or reliable, and (IV) any errors in the software/code will be corrected.
3. Any material downloaded or otherwise obtained through the use of WeirdSpace is done at your own discretion and risk and you will be solely responsible for any damage to your computer system or loss of data that results from the download of any such material.
Michael Pilgaard
Copenhagen, September 2008
References:
1: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html
2: http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/
3: http://fairusenetwork.org/
4: http://www.eff.org/
5: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/
6: http://www.chillingeffects.org/
7: http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/lenz_v_universal/lenzorder082008.pdf