Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related MPAA ratings crackdown

(if this is in the wrong folder, feel free to move it)

I noticed this elsewhere, and thought I'd give everyone a heads up.

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comments/mpaa_ratings_crackdown/

It looks like the MPAA is sending out cease-and-desist letters to fanfic writers who use the MPAA ratings system on their stories. The website I linked says that they're going after the individual writers for now instead of the archives. (browses around a bit more) Looks like some archives are getting them, too.

I was reading about this on the Stargate forum I frequent. Apparently, the MPAA's allegation is that if a fanfic has this rating on it it implies that the MPAA has read, rated and endorsed said fanfic. :rolleyes:

I can't get too worked up about it. If the MPAA do want to be petty, then fans are intelligent and resourceful enough to think up their own ratings systems.

Course...don't fancy being the one having to redo all the ratings on over 2,000 LNC fanfic on the Archive...

LabRat

ROFL. That's too funny. I've seen some other suggestions, too.. usually tongue-in-cheek.

Good system there, LabRat! LOL!

Artemis

That's just bizarre. So what are we supposed to do? Not write?

It's a system everyone is familiar with. It's like Coca Cola, or Kleenix, and how they have become synonymous with pop/soda and handkerchiefs. One could argue that it's been watered down over the years on TV, anyway. Otherwise, why all the hype about Janet Jackson's breasts?

The MPAA is just doing what is required by American law to protect its registered trademark. How difficult would it be to put Fic- in front of each rating (Fic-G, Fic-PG, Fic-R, Fic-NC17, etc.)? The networks do that with the MPAA ratings (TV-G, TV-PG14, etc.), and it doesn't violate the trademark.

Of course, the others are funnier.

Well, techinically it wouldn't be difficult at all. But, as I say, I'd hate to be in charge of actually physically making the changes in thousands of fanfic. <shudder>

Our Archive would be bad enough, but think of the poor souls who run something for the X Files. Or Stargate. Holy mother of pearl.

LabRat

I agree with Sheila that the MPAA is merely trying to protect its trademarks. In the cut-throat business world, trademarks are everything.

Just as an example, look at the NC-17 rating, inspired as a reaction to the porn industry. The porn industry kept using the X-rating, making everyone think that the movies were rated by the MPAA, when in fact they were co-opting the rating. To defend itself, the MPAA created the NC-17 rating, which is essentially equivalent to the original meaning of the X rating.

I wonder if they'd be happy enough if there was a note on the front page of the archive. Something like this:

"The ratings on this page are in place as a guide for readers, using the most familiar format. They are determined by the authors and the archive staff. Existence of these ratings does not and is not intended to imply that the stories have been reviewed by the MPAA or any similar agency. No copyright infringement is intended."

I can see how they can trademark the exact form of the ratings (if you go to their site, you can see the full thing... the box with the logo, the rating, and the definition of the rating), but I'm not so sure about trademarking the phrase "Rated G." I suppose it's possible. It just seems to be a bit of a stretch.

Paul

I'd think that a notice that mentions the MPAA by name might make things worse. Both by making the apparent connection implicit . . . and by attracting their attention. However, a similar disclaimer that says that stories "have not been reviewed by any official ratings agency" sounds like a plan.

A disclaimer sounds like a good idea to me, with Rivka's edit included. I'd also suggest explaining that the ratings were determined by individual GEs and are inherently subjective, so some inconsistencies may exist.

PJ

I wonder what the statue of limitations is for pursuing something like this. I worked at a hotel that was being sued by another famous hotel because part of their name was in ours. We spelled it differently but we had been using the name for like over 20 years. Anyway it was thrown out of court because of the time factor. So I wonder if the MPAA can pursue this considering how long it looks like fan fiction sites have been using the rating system. If something is used long enough without challenge it can become public domain. I have heard of that as a case with land - letting people cut through. So it might be that if this can be documented as going on long enough and the MPAA has never challenged that they no longer can.

kmar, I'm trying to recall my copyright law, but IIRC, as long as the trademark owners have been making good faith efforts to protect their trademark, the courts will hold that they still retain rights to it. And that, of course, is the reason for the C&D letters--documentation of a good faith attempt to protect their trademark.

What has made this so difficult is the explosion of possible sites of violations on the internet. Before the net, violations were limited by the number of broadcast channels available, movies produced or books published each year, etc. Because the problem has grown so exponentially, I suspect that the courts will give trademark owners a great deal of latitude, regardless of how long other groups have used the registered trademarks--as long as the owners can show proof that they have been attempting to protect their trademark.

Because of the need to actively protect the trademark, I don't know that a disclaimer will do any good. In effect, it would be stating that we are using their protected trademark because the rating system has passed into public domain (which is what we mean by everyone knowing what the rating system means). It's an argument that uses as its premise part of what we would have to prove--that MPAA no longer has exclusive rights to use of the rating system because everyone uses it without referencing MPAA's creation or ownership of it.

How about L&C-based icons? A different picture or character for each rating?

Just as an example, Jimmy or Perry for G-rated fics, Clark for PG, Lois for PG-13, and Cat Grant for N-fics?

Coming up with new ratings, whether they be new made up letter combinations, or picture icons is not the problem. That is easy. The main difficulty is in the vast number of stories that have already been archived using the MPAA ratings. It would be an impossible job for someone to go in and change the 2500+ stories that reside there now.

The only thing I could propose is a statement that apologises for using the ratings in a generic sense over the last several years, and in respect to the MPAA and their lawful copyright to those ratings that from a 'day forward', all use of those ratings will cease in any story archived after (pick a date, first of 2005?).

Hopefully that will satisfy them and show that we have no intention to usurp the rightful usage of their copyrighted ratings.

Tank (who thinks some of these organizations have too much time on their hands)

Actually, it might not be so hard as it seems.... The headers follow a specified format, no? There are command-line editing tools that could change the ratings over. It'd be quite a bit of text, obviously -- if the Archives aren't hosted on a Linux machine, we might have to transfer the files, make the change, then transfer them back. If they are, though.... I know grep can process 10-20 megs in a minute or so on a strong system -- I wouldn't expect much different from sed. So we're probably talking runtime of a few hours at the outside to convert those files with a consistent header, right? Actual setup is probably limited to creating the proper sed instruction and running a test on a set of stories to make sure it's doing exactly what we want it to before we let it run loose on a full copy of the archive.

Now, if there are stories that predate the header format, then we may have issues.

Surely the most practical thing to do would be to wait and actually *get* a cease-and-desist order before doing anything?

You read my mind, Hazel.

I don't think there's any harm though in thinking up solutions to a problem. Forewarned is forearmed, as they say and the posts I've read here don't seem to be suggesting immediate action so much as possible answers.

Just to clarify though, I'm not inclined to make any changes to the Archive until the other shoe drops. If it ever does.

LabRat

If memory serves, there are about 400 stories on the Archive without the header, but on the plus side, they don't have a rating listed either.

I took over the Archive in the summer of 1997, so any story uploaded in September 1997 and beyond has the standard header format with the rating and submission date. Any story that doesn't was uploaded before then.

As for this ratings thing, I agree we should wait until we actually get a cease-and-desist letter before we panic, but I think considering options ahead of time isn't a bad idea. Would something like "FIC-G", "FIC-PG", etc., be sufficient? It certainly would be the most straight-forward option.

Kathy