Old Zines

[slyprentice]

I've been wondering about the appropriateness of scanning and/or transcribing my old out-of-print zines lately -- is it appropriate to do? Should I only do it if I have permission? If I can't get permission from the author for whatever reason, should I leave out their story? 

I just don't know the answers to any of those. I love the idea of being able to share some of my favorite works, ones that have either disappeared from the 'net or never quite made it there in the first place. I know that if The Foresmutters Project hadn't taken the time to transcribe some of the older ST zine stories, I never would have had the pleasure of reading 'This Deadly Innocence' or 'The Prize'. I'd love to be able to do that for a couple of other stories and fandoms. 

I don't want to step on any toes, though. I don't want to start transcribing or scanning and then have the author or old fans come at me with pitchforks, especially since I only plan on doing it because I want to share the stories with others. You know, so I can chatter about them with someone else and not just have to think to myself how good they are. 

=/

Comments

[cleverthylacine]

The OTW knows all the legalities and cultural issues; I suggest you contact them.

Here are my personal opinions.

1) If people have allowed their work to go into zines that they knew were going to be sold and traded on the open zine market, and at conventions, they knew that these zines could be sold to anyone on earth, that these zines could be resold, and that in fact these zines might be archived. It would be nice to get the writers' and artists' permission. However, one runs into a problem with zines from the 1960s and 1970s and 1980s that some of those people are either lost to fandom or have died. A lot of the ST writers from the 1970s were in their 40s...40 years ago. And many of them are no longer with us. Do your best to find the zine editors and writers and ask permission, but I think that it's better (for society as a whole) if bits of our culture don't just disappear from the face of the earth entirely. I am iffy about the whole thing of heirs. I understand the legal reasons but I'd hate to have something fall out of the universe because someone's born-again children don't want people to know their mom wrote K/S.

2) Whatever you do, don't alter anything. Scans > transcription; the temptation to fix spelling, grammar, &c is immense.

3) Whatever you do, don't charge people anything to view the material.

4) Some zines were never sold or traded on the open market, via other zines, Factsheet 5, or whatever. Some zines were never meant to be seen by anyone except the contributors. Good examples of this are members-only APAs and original shared-universe zines like Vanguard Dossier. (I would be horrified by the prospect of Vanguard Dossier going online, because it is full of my first attempts at writing POC, and they fail so hard we need a new name for it; on the other hand, for a long damn time, I was the only person in the zine who even tried.) I don't want it online because I don't want to have to spend three weeks writing the apology. How selfish is that? But, I failed so so so hard with Colette. At any rate, I'd probably still agree to let it go up, but I'd want the opportunity to edit my stuff a little or at least tack on some Author's Notes about how omfg do I know better now. And, I'd suck it up if it hadn't been a private zine.

[slyprentice]

The issue with not being able to contact and/or find the original author or publisher is what concerns me the most in all this. I'd love to get permission, but as you've mentioned, sometimes that's just not possible. I suppose my best option is to try to get permission and, if I don't, proceed cautiously.

The majority of the zines I have were sold at conventions and/or through a website later on down the line so I don't believe I have an private ones in my collection. Even so, I certainly don't blame you for being reluctant. I wouldn't want any of my earlier work coming into the hands of newcomers, especially without a note saying 'I've grown as a writer, please forgive this'.

Thank you for the suggestion, by the way! I'll definitely contact them beforehand.

[morgandawn]

BTW, we are working with fanzine publishers to scan their print zines and store them in a repository. They won't be publicly online but they will be kept available for future generations. if you're still interested in scanning zines, drop me a note.

fanzine scanning

[morgandawn]

Hi there. I stumbled across your post just now. elfwreck and I are currently discussing fanzine scanning (she's mainly focused on the hows). I personally draw a distinction between scanning for personal use (disability access or a backup in case of fire) and scanning to upload or share. For the latter, permissions should be obtained.

Anyhow, we'd love to chat with you further. You can go here
http://elf.dreamwidth.org/387827.html

or contact me offline at mdawn6@ yahoo.com

Re: fanzine scanning

[slyprentice]

Thank you for letting me know. I'll go over there now. :)

[digitalwave]

I guess it just depends on the zine, sweetie. If you can contact the original publisher I would. Maybe make a posting to a related list to see what other fans say.

I know so many of these stories and zines would be lost if not for fans doing what you want to do. I mean, heck, look at the huge undertaking in Pros, Starsky & Hutch and classic Trek to preserve the history of our zines. Look at all that would have been lost otherwise.

I'd just post a few other places asking for advice first. Heck, some of them might already exist in digital format somewhere we haven't seen yet.

Hope this helps


*hugs*

[slyprentice.livejournal.com]

I'll likely do just that: post around and ask for advice. I don't want to upset anyone, especially the people who put so much work into making the zines as fabulous as they are. I guess I'll just have to proceed with caution. :)

By the way, I saw your fanlore page, it looks fabulous!

[digitalwave]

Thanks so much, sweetie! I tried to pick nice pieces to put up for the gallery. I'm glad you like it. I know I'm sure honored that it exists. :)

Pat has given me a ton of more zines to post, some of them are really old, too. Things like the Sensuous Vulcan in Trek fandom, Decorated for Death in Starsky & Hutch fandom and much more. I'm slogging my way through them right now to get the new list published.

[slyprentice.livejournal.com]

The pieces you chose are lovely. I especially enjoy the 'Crucify' SPN manip. It's very beautiful.

That's wonderful news! I'll keep my eyes open for your post. I was considering scooping up a few more zines from you last night so I'm glad I waited. :)