Statement: regarding the issue of bootlegging and cloning zines
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| Title: | Statement: regarding the issue of bootlegging and cloning zines |
| Creator: | Leigh Arnold |
| Date(s): | November 1988 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Blake's 7 |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Statement: regarding the issue of bootlegging and cloning zines is a late 1988 essay by Leigh Arnold.
It was printed in Arnold's zine, Magnificent Seven #7.
Some Topics Discussed
- zine piracy and the recent The 1988 Blake's 7 Bootlegged Zines Discussion
- Arnold disagrees with several BNFs and their recent statements, including An Open Letter to Fandom by Della Van Hise (1988) and An Open Letter to Fandom by Deb Walsh (1988)
- copying and sharing zines among friends
- zine publication as a hobby, not a way to make a profit
- cloning zines, an early reference to photocopying
From the Essay
This zine is expensive. I can't help it and I'm sorry, but there it is.... It is the price it is in order to cover the cost of printing and distributing. Those of you who pay for it help absorb the cost of contributors' zines, which zines are free to the contributors, but not free to make. It requires a certain number of copies to be sold in order for me to break even. Sometimes it takes awhile to break even (Magnificent Seven #4 took 1½ years) but they always do. Beyond that, everything is profit and goes back into the zine fund. If there’s money in the zine fund, I do a zine. But guess what! If there isn’t money in the zine fund, I do a zine! Hobbies aren't built around bankbooks but of themselves.
I publish zines. I collect zines. I write for zines. Zines are my hobby. And the publisher, collector and writer in me all agree on a few things. Not many people can afford to collect every zine that is available. I can't, although I do a Herculean attempt at trying. I cannot ask that everyone else try. There are too many. They are too expensive.
I've been told, however, by some editors that the purpose of zines is to pay bills, buy groceries and pay the rent. Since I thought that was what my real job was for, I can't agree with this, at least not for my zines. I certainly can’t agree with this if this attitude creates a need for the Zine Police, where people have to go about hiding the fact that they 'clone' zines, where a few extremely vocal zine editors cause hardships, paranoia, deceit and bad feelings within this fandom. Zines may, for some people, be the only source of income, which is fine, but for me it's a hobby, and it's wrong for a hobby to harbor this kind of nonsense. Hobbies should create fun and happiness, not a need for the Zine Police.
All this means, is that for the record. Pony Press Ltd WELCOMES the cloning of its zines (provided enough of you buy original copies to break even!) The writer in me says: my stories go further afield and more people read them. The collector in me says: I sympathize with everyone's attempt to read and collect all the zines one can. The publisher in me says: since I don't advertise as much as I should, cloning my zines is good advertising, increases circulation, and since I don't profit from these zines anyway, lifts from me some of the burden of producing and distributing the zines.
Pony Press zines are not made to pay the rent. They are made to share with other fans the stories, art and other fun within these cardstock covers.
Period. And by any means is acceptable.
A clarification of terms is required at this point. 'Cloning' is the process whereby you and three friends go in together for a zine, and make three copies at a cheap place, taking turns who gets the original, because $4.50 is easier than $18 for each zine. 'Bootlegging' is the wholesale distribution and sale of a zine, where the bootlegger drops the proceeds into his own pocket. So long as a bootlegger does not change the names and authors of my zines, so long as a bootlegger does not rip off my readers by charging more than I do for my zines, and so long as my address stays inside the zine so that people know to come to me for future zines and information about 'legitimate' other publishers, I personally have no problem with that.
It's flattering that he thinks my zine is worth the expense of copying - since I know how expensive and difficult that is! I only ask that a bootlegger get in touch with me and maybe we can work out a deal where he picks up the tab for contributors' copies! (Do be careful of bootleggers, however, because some do change the names and authors of the zines, charge more than the original publishers, and leave publishers who do large print runs with a closet full of unsold zines.)
We all have a right to this fandom, to read and draw and trade and dream and fantasize. But I know of no editor who turns over any percentage of the zine proceeds to Terry Nation, and he is the only who has the right to profit from Blake's Seven. He is the only one who has rights to copyright infringement (I work in a law office and checked) (Okay, he, the BBC and the actors and people involved with the making of Blake's Seven). There is enough possessiveness and territoriality in this world without it being reflected in a hobby. It's nice of those of you who ask permission to clone my zines, but the zine you hold in your hand is yours, bought and paid for. The contributors have gotten their contributor's copy - their 'fee'. If I break even, I have gotten mine, The zine you hold is yours to do with as you please. And frankly, I would rather it be cloned than put on a shelf and ignored.
On that note, I hope you enjoy this zine enough to want to help me break even, I also hope you enjoy this zine enough to want to share it with your friends, even if that means an hour spent at the copier. The price on this zine defrays the cost to make it. Period. The purpose of this zine is to share it. Please do.