Actually, fic is legal. The fandom's been around for a long time, and TPTB have made it clear that they're aware of us. I have been assured by a corperate lawyer from a prominent NYC firm that since they haven't told us to stop in all that time, they have legally given up their right to do so.

I'm not quite as sure about vids, but I can tell you that they're fairly common in a number of fandoms and I've never heard of anyone getting into trouble over them.

Frankly, even if they could, they'd be crazy to shut this down. They'd lose our good will and hurt the fandom (particularly the members of the fandom willing to spend money)... just as they're in the process of releasing the series on DVD. If they gave us trouble over the fundraiser and/or vids, they'd only end up hurting their own sales.

In any case, as mentioned in the beginning of this thread, we've held fundraisers like this before.

As to the recording industry... They're focusing on file sharing networks and such, worrying about losing CD sales. I hardly think they're about to start bothering small communities of vidders.

(Also, for the record, there's no profit being made, since the money is going to cover the costs of site hosting, etc... That does make a difference.)

So, basically... Speaking for myself, I think we're fine. No bubbles in need of bursting here.

Paul

When in doubt, think about penguins. It probably won't help, but at least it'll be fun.