laws governing fansites

This is a very broad question so I'm going to have to skimp a bit on details to keep the answer shorter than a novel.

Typically when you are dealing with a fan site, the are several areas of law you need to worry about depending on what you are trying to do and at least two areas that almost always come up.

The most direct problems are copyright and trademark.

Copyright will come up when you either A) Create or all the publication of fan fiction or B) Use any material created by someone else. Whether or not you step over the line into copyright infringement will depend heavily upon how you use the content.

For this, I would really need more details about what your exact plans are and that would probably be something best discussed via email. However, the most important issues would be how much your use would damage the market for the original work, is your use designed to replace the original or build upon it and what your goals are.

One thing I would suggest is that a lot of celebrities and copyright holders create "fan site kits" for the building of such sites. They have images, icons and other items needed for creating your own site. If that's the case, you can use this content without much worry of running afoul of copyright law, just a take a moment to read the terms.

Trademark is also an issue especially if the trademark holder feels that your site is trying to pass itself off as official.

This is where those disclaimers you were talking about come in. They can help, but aren't magic bullets either. If other actions indicate that you are trying to impersonate the trademark holder, then you can find yourself in a sticky situation.

Also, remember that in the U.S., almost anything can be a trademark so long as it is used for business purposes.

Other areas to watch out for.

Trade Secret: Apple fan sites run into this issue. Divulging secret information about a company can land you in hot water depending on how you got the information and how significant it was to the company. This is a bit outside of my scope but is worth noting.

Privacy: An often big deal with celebrities. Remember that though celebrities have significantly less privacy protection it does exist and publishing private photos or images taken in a private place can bring trouble. The same goes for publishing private information.

Libel/Defamation: Though not likely with a fan site, if you post something that is false and embarrassing about someone or even a company, there can be a libel issue. Before you publish anything that might be seen as negative, triple check your facts.

These are just some of the areas to watch out for, the list really goes on.

However, the good news in all of this is that you will find that most celebrities, companies and copyright holders are very lenient with fan sites. They want to nurture such communities and usually ignore minor slights to help encourage such activities.

My advice is simple. See if what you are trying to build a site for has a "fan site guideline" or something similar available, read it and understand what it says.

The truth is that legal troubles with fan sites are somewhat common, but not nearly as common as one might expect given the nature of that kind of site.

One usually has to go pretty far out for a party to go after a fan site.

Some examples include J.K. Rowling suing a fan site that had an encyclopedia of Harry Potter not for the site itself, but for a planned book and Apple targeting fan sites that leaked important photos and news before they had a chance to get with the press.

Be safe and be smart, that is the best advice I can give.

Let me know if you want me to look at your specific situation and I'll definitely see if I can't hone my advice in better...

Jonathan Bailey - plagiarismtoday.com