Let me put this another way, to see if this may have more influence
on your thoughts.

BABYLON 5 is owned by PTEN. The names, the characters, *and the
situations* are all part of what is owned through copyright, trademark
and other legal means. It can then choose to whom to license the right,
for a fee, to produce material within that universe...novels, comics,
whatever. That sub-entity then has the legal right to publish works that
use the B5 universe. (And it's not just the names; if every character is
the same, and the context is the same, and a work appears within that
context with the names just changed, it is still copyright infringement.)

It is in the vested interests of PTEN to maintain ownership of its
copyright and trademarks. Otherwise why should any publisher pay for the
rights to, say, publish novels in that universe? If a work appears in the
public domain, using copyrighted characters/situations, and is NOT gone
after legally, then that portion of the original creation has itself
slipped into public domain. PTEN is currently going after several of the
companies that have provided services to B5, and then have gone around and
published ads in various magazines using photos from B5 *without* the
PTEN copyright notice. Those specific images run the risk now of becoming
part of the public domain. This has to be stopped and will be stopped, by
PTEN.

I understand the need, the utility, and the fun of fanzines. I've
read many and own many. I, however, am not PTEN. I understand the
desire to play with the characters, in electronic or printed form. But
that has nothing to do with PTEN's desire to protect its copyright. The
electronic medium -- BBSing -- has been found in several court hearings
to constitute a form of publication. There are, in fact, now several
electronic publishers who circulate books/stories via this medium. Any
work appearing in this medium is subject to commonlaw copyright, so that
the writer of that work owns it...which brings that writer into direct
conflict if that work infringes upon the copyright of someone else.

If a flood of B5 stories (or camoflaged clones) began to appear on
this or any other net, it would force PTEN to intervene legally with
injunctions, cease-and-desist letters, and so on. My own feelings about
this really don't enter into it.

It becomes a two-sided risk. On my behalf, I would simply have to
withdraw rather than run the risk of being sued for something somebody
might write that I might have seen. It doesn't have to be proven that I
even saw it as long as I had *access* to seeing it. On the other hand,
those doing so run the risk of entanglements of their own.

Is it fun? No. Not for either of us. Part of the reason I created
the B5 universe was to see what other people would do with it. But this
is the law. And the law doesn't have to be fair. It simply is.

jms