Who Owns the Klingon Death Wail?

Know More: Fan Fiction, Link Digests, Online Publishing, Writing Resources 2.0, Writing Resources

It's hard to talk about fan fiction without talking about digital rights. Countless authors have struggled with the legality of creating alternate adventures with somebody else's intellectual property. Not being a lawyer, I defer to the higher power of the Chilling Effects Clearinghouse, a legal watchdog group that combines the legal smarts of seven law school clinics and the Internet Law experts at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

They published this priceless "FAQ about Fan Fiction," a law handbook compiled by the Center for Internet and Society (CIS) at Stanford Law School. The CIS webpage features some amazing bloggers, including Colin Rule (one of the most famous Internet conflict- resolvers) and Lauren Gelman (an Electronic Frontier Foundation alum and associate director of the CIS program).

Check it out:

"For instance, if I perform a Klingon death wail in a local park, my wail of death is not copyrighted, and someone else may come along and do the same thing the next day. However, if I film the performance, then the Klingon death wail does become copyrighted (since it is now "fixed" according to copyright law). Contrary to popular belief, I do not have to register my copyrighted work for it to receive copyright protection. In the United States, I only need to register if I'm going to sue."

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