Dear Carolyn,
Thank you for your letter. It is good to hear about your newsletter and the activity of my fans.
I think I need to address your question about the stories. You are right about stories set in my world or my landscape or my world’s history plagiarizing my creation, and plagiarism is theft; a benign theft in the case of a fan publication, but just the same, an author’s sole property rights to his creating lie in his copyright, and to infringe my copyright is to steal from me…Even if I were to set restrictions, any permission or approval from me would set a precedent that I cannot and will not set. You might agree not to use any of my characters, say, but another fan club might not be as correct as you have been regarding asking permission, yet take publication by your newsletter of stories in my world as an okay to do the same. Like Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, I might well find stories being published that do include my characters, and published to make a buck. Such would lead to all sorts of legal wrangles.
For that reason, I cannot give you such permission.
As to role playing, that is an entirely different matter. As long as there is no commercial consideration involved, feel free. With regard to sanctioning your club, I’m afraid I can’t. I do not intend to sanction any fan club; there are a number of clubs, and I really can’t favor one over another. I hope you understand.
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