Business of Writing Home Navigation Table Site Map

SFWA Grievance Committee Advisories

A note about this page:

When a member files a grievance, we try to resolve it quietly, even secretly, because often enough, the problem is sui generis, the offending party is happy to resolve the problem, and there's no reason for other writers to be alarmed.

However, every once in a while we run into a situation that we just can't resolve, because the other party does not cooperate.

We feel that writers have the right -- and the need -- to know about publishers, editors, agents, and others who cause problems but won't work with us to settle them.

Hence this page.

Steve Austin/Austin Leather Works

Pern-Related Material

Posted online, August 24, 2005

The Grievance Committee of the Science Fiction Writers of America calls the attention of our members, and of the general science fiction community, to the situation surrounding Pern-related material currently being sold by Steve Austin/Austin Leather Works.

Many science fiction fans enjoy dressing as characters, displaying and making pictures of scenes, and in other ways creating derivative artwork from their favorite fictional worlds, and Anne McCaffrey's Pern is certainly one of the most popular. In general authors are able to tolerate such fannish activity without endangering their rights to their properties.

A special situation arises when convention dealers'-room vendors sell such artwork and clothing, and it has long been customary for creators of popular fictional worlds to authorize convention dealers'-room vendors to sell small amounts of such merchandise, not as a major part of an ongoing business, but to support their own convention attendance and the activities of the author's fans.

Mr. Austin obtained permission via email from Anne McCaffrey on May 5, 1995, to sell some Pern-derived leatherwork in convention dealers' rooms.

Although advised by Bill Fawcett, publisher of The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern, in November 1995, that he would need further permissions to expand beyond his original operation, Mr. Austin did not apply for those permissions and did not obtain them.

Furthermore, during the years up through 2002 while that permission was in effect, he built up a substantial business in Pern materials, very unlike the small operation which he had permission for; he added a completely unauthorized internet business in Pern-derived art; when permission was explicitly revoked, he continued to sell them; he recently filed a suit (dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction) against Anne McCaffrey, all the time insisting that a limited permission for a fannish activity allowed him to commercially exploit Ms. McCaffrey's intellectual property against her strenuously expressed wishes.

We of the SFWA are concerned for several reasons. First of all, as an organization of writers, who live by our control of the intellectual property we create, we find this infringement intolerable, and we support Ms. McCaffrey's legal pursuit of her rights.

But also, as the makers and keepers of a genre that is unique in the passion with which fans celebrate and emulate our works, we are deeply concerned that if Mr. Austin is allowed to convert a permission in the way he claims he can, we will all be forced to reconsider the long tradition of supporting fandom with small, limited permissions for conventions and other fannish activity. It would be a loss to the entire science fiction community if fans could no longer draw, sculpt, or sew their homages to their favorite authors, without endangering those authors' ability to make a living, and if authors are forced in self-protection to say no to people who only want to celebrate and enjoy their works. Mr. Austin's obstinate pursuit of rights he clearly does not possess, besides attacking the intellectual property rights of our members, also harms the whole science fiction community of which we are a part.

| Top of page |

Warning about Keith Poulter
and
North & South

Posted online, June 25, 2005

In the longest-running open grievance in the tenure of the current chairman, we have been attempting since early 2000 to collect a small sum of money that the Grievance Committee believes has been owed to a member for more than five years. As is our practice, we have not spoken of the case, in the hope that we could eventually resolve it. We have now abandoned that hope, and feel obliged to issue a general warning.

For the reasons described below, the Grievance Committee advises all writers to take care in dealing with Keith Poulter and/or his magazines, including but not limited to Civil War Magazine, North & South, or any other publication with which Mr. Poulter is or becomes associated. Civil War Magazine was owned by the Civil War Society; North & South styles itself "the official magazine of the Civil War Society."

SFWA member Danith McPherson Clausen's article, "With the Aid of the Enemy," appeared in Issue 72 (February 1999) of Civil War Magazine. Ms. Clausen's agreement with the then-editorial director, Lisa Cain Curran, required payment of $200 for first North American serial rights; payment was to be upon publication.

Payment was not made, even though Ms. Clausen billed the magazine four times during the next year. She contacted the SFWA Grievance Committee in March of 2000, by which time Mr. Poulter had taken over publishing and editing duties.

Under constant prodding -- and after countless hard-luck stories about why he couldn't pay Ms. Clausen -- Grievance managed to extract an agreement from Mr. Poulter to pay the $200 in monthly installments of $25. Poulter made two such payments over the next several years; the second and last $25 payment was received in March 2003. Since then, there has been no payment or substantive contact from Mr. Poulter or anyone else at North & South (the new name of what had been Civil War Magazine).

Consequently, the Grievance Committee believes that North & South continues to owe Ms. Clausen $150 principal plus at least an additional $90 in interest.

Based on our investigation into this matter, the Grievance Committee recommends great care in dealing with Keith Poulter, Lisa Cain Curran, Christopher Curran (Poulter's predecessor as publisher), Civil War Magazine, North & South, the Civil War Society, and any permutations of the above.

Grievance Committee
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc.
July 28, 2004

| Top of page |