Date: Fri, 06 Feb 2004 22:45:26 -0500
From: Kathleen David <kathodavid-AT-mac.com>
Subject: Re: PUPT: Re: rights, royalties, and permissions


> At what point does a work become derivative? When a work is "based on the 
> work of X" how do you title and sell that work? For example, all of the 
> derivative "Star Wars" books - would they have written the book first and 
> submitted it to George Lucas and/or the publisher for permission to 
publish 
> it or would they have to get permission to write it first? 

These books are almost always assigned by the publisher, but I would imagine 
that an esthablished writer of Star Wars fiction could submit original ideas 
to the publisher. Also, authors usually submit only an outline and a chapter 
or two for this type of project. >>>

Actually I can speak to the Star Wars books and most media derived properties having been an editor on both Star Wars and Star Trek books. 

All Star Wars books started on the publisher's end. The editor goes to the author or the author's agent and asks if they want to write a Star Wars book. Then the editor and the author and a member of Lucasfilm discuss the project. George is kept informed by his people as to what is going on in his universe. So the flow went fron Lucasfilm to the editor to the writer. No unsoliciated submissions were allowed unless you WERE George Lucas. It didn't matter who you were or how many books you had published.

My husband writes, among other things, Star Trek novels. He has a series called Star Trek: The New Frontier which he has created. Any character he creates for the series belongs to Paramont . He has had people coming up and asking him about getting their Star Trek worlds published. He ask them how tied in is their work to the known Star Trek universe. If they say that it's an original ship/world he tells them to take it out of the licensed universe and make it their own because that way they own it rather than Paramont. 

Public Domain does have a lot of work avaible to use. 

Occationally, if you know the author of the work, you can get written permission. I was lucky that I knew Neil Gaiman and he gave me permission to create puppet shows based on two of his works. His only request was that he had script approval. He approved the script with a few minor changes that didnt' effect the puppets we had created for the pieces. 

Hope hope this helps clarify some of your questions. 

Kathleen



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