h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Saw this yesterday and thought of you, Mr. Prophet.

*blushes*

of course, if I would learn to post the link before hitting the post button I'd be a lot more use

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/magazine/3188813.stm

Got to dissagree with this bit of the BBC article, though. Can't its news hacks do proper research?

"Others, like fantasy-meister Terry Pratchett and Anne Rice, author of Interview with a Vampire, have taken a hard line, publicly asking writers not to use their characters or stories".

Anne Rice's objections are well-known, if a bit precious.

But Sir Terry Pratchett has never once said he forbids fanfic based on his works. His opinion is (I paraphrase"

"Everything works if we're sensible. Just don't put it anywhere where I might trip over it." (Pratchett points out that if by accident or coincidence he uses an idea somebody has already come up with in fanfic, he doesn't want to be sued for plagiarism - the only way he can be sure of that is to publicly state he goes nowhere near fanfic sites and remains in determined ignorance.)

TP has also said that *his* Discworld is not a franchise - he will accept people write fanfic out of enthusiasm, reverence, creativity, et c, (and he feels flattered they bother) but if they ever dare try making money out of it they will feel the weight of his lawyers.

"Pratchett points out that if by accident or coincidence he uses an idea somebody has already come up with in fanfic, he doesn't want to be sued for plagiarism - the only way he can be sure of that is to publicly state he goes nowhere near fanfic sites and remains in determined ignorance."

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as a writer of Discworld fanfic myself (under the unasuming title of A.A. Pessimal) I,'m pleased to say that this has, in fact, happened on three occasions... I have put an idea into my fanfic only to see it reappear in the latest official TP Discworld novel. Now Sir Terry is safe and I do not intend to sue. I feel somewhat flattered that my head works along suffciently similar lines to his for the same idea to have occured to both if us simultaneously! (It's co-incidence, Sir Terry. Or steam-engine time hath arived...)